1. Introduction
Arch & Handle (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is a Washington DC-based interior design and architecture firm providing residential, commercial, hospitality, and architectural design services throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. We are committed to protecting the privacy of every person who interacts with our studio — whether you are an existing client, a prospective client exploring our services, or a visitor to our website.
This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard personal information we receive through our website at www.archandhandle.com, through direct client engagements, and through other means of professional communication. It applies to all personal data processed in connection with our services and online presence.
By using our website or engaging our services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the practices described herein, please do not use our website or provide us with your personal information.
Effective Date: This Privacy Policy is effective as of April 23, 2026. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you directly.
2. Information We Collect
Information You Provide Directly
When you reach out to us for a consultation, submit a project inquiry, or engage us for design services, we collect information you voluntarily provide, including:
- Contact details such as your full name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address;
- Project information including the nature of the project, property address, square footage, budget range, project timeline, and any design preferences or requirements you communicate;
- Consultation requests submitted through our contact forms, including any specific questions, descriptions of your space, or attachments you choose to share;
- Email correspondence and other direct communications between you and our studio team;
- Contractual information collected as part of onboarding active clients, including billing information, signed agreements, and project briefs;
- Newsletter subscriptions, where you provide your email address to receive our quarterly design updates and studio news.
Information Collected Automatically
When you visit our website, our servers and third-party analytics tools automatically collect certain technical information about your visit, including:
- IP address and approximate geographic location derived from it;
- Browser type and version, operating system, and device type;
- Pages visited, the order in which they were visited, and time spent on each page;
- Referring URLs — the website or search engine that directed you to our site;
- Session duration and aggregate behavioral data about how visitors interact with our website;
- Date and time of each visit.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to operate our website and understand how it is used. Cookies are small text files placed on your device by your web browser. We use both session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which remain on your device for a defined period. For full details on the cookies we use, please refer to Section 6 (Cookies Policy) below.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes, all of which are directed toward delivering excellent design services and operating our business responsibly:
- Responding to consultation requests and project inquiries. When you contact us about a potential project, we use your information to understand your needs, schedule discovery calls, and respond to your questions in a timely and informed manner.
- Delivering interior design and architecture services. For active clients, we use your information throughout the design and construction process — including project management, procurement, contractor coordination, and the creation of design documentation tailored to your property and preferences.
- Sending project updates and communications. We communicate with active clients regarding project milestones, proposals, revisions, site visits, budgets, and other matters directly related to your engagement with our studio.
- Improving our website and services. We analyze anonymized usage data to understand how visitors navigate our site, which pages attract the most interest, and how we can improve the user experience and clarity of our content.
- Complying with legal and professional obligations. We maintain client records and project documentation as required by professional licensing standards, tax law, and applicable regulations in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
- Marketing communications (with consent). If you have opted in to receive our newsletter or marketing communications, we may send you periodic updates about our projects, design insights, studio news, and relevant industry information. You may withdraw consent at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us directly at info@archandhandle.com.
- Preventing fraud and ensuring security. We may use technical data to identify and address security threats, unauthorized access, or abuse of our website and communications systems.
4. Legal Basis for Processing
We process personal information under the following legal bases, in compliance with applicable US privacy law and consistent with internationally recognized data protection principles:
Contractual Necessity
When you engage Arch & Handle for design services, the processing of your personal data is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you. This includes project management, billing, communication, and the delivery of design and architectural services.
Legitimate Interests
Consent
Legal Compliance
We process personal data where necessary to comply with legal obligations applicable to our business, including tax record-keeping requirements, professional licensing regulations, and responses to lawful requests from governmental authorities.
5. Information Sharing and Disclosure
We treat your personal information with the utmost discretion. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third party under any circumstances. We may share your information in the following limited situations:
Service Providers
We engage trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our business. These providers may have access to personal data only to the extent necessary to perform their functions on our behalf and are contractually obligated to maintain confidentiality and process data only as directed. Our service providers include:
- Project management and collaboration software platforms;
- Email marketing platforms (such as those used to distribute our newsletter);
- Accounting and invoicing software;
- Cloud storage and file-sharing services used for project documentation;
- Website hosting and maintenance providers.
Professional Collaborators
With your knowledge and as necessary for your project, we may share relevant project information with architects of record, structural engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, or specialty trade professionals engaged to support the delivery of your project. We share only the information necessary for the specific project purpose.
Legal Requirements
Business Transfers
In the event that Arch & Handle is involved in a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets, personal information held by us may be among the assets transferred. We will notify affected individuals as required by applicable law and ensure that privacy protections are maintained throughout any such transition.
We do not sell personal data. Arch & Handle has not sold, and does not sell, personal information to any third parties for monetary or other valuable consideration. This commitment applies to clients, prospective clients, website visitors, and newsletter subscribers alike.
6. Cookies Policy
Our website uses cookies to provide a functional, personalized, and analytically informative experience. This section explains the types of cookies we use and how you can manage your preferences.
Essential Cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary for the website to function correctly. They enable core features such as secure browsing, page navigation, and access to protected areas of the website. Because they are essential, these cookies cannot be disabled without affecting site functionality. They do not store any personally identifiable information and are automatically deleted when your browser session ends.
Analytics Cookies — Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, to understand how visitors interact with our website. Google Analytics collects data including the pages you visit, time spent on each page, the source of your visit, your approximate geographic location (city-level only, derived from your IP address, which Google anonymizes), browser type, and device category.
This information is aggregated and used by our team to identify which pages and content are most valuable to visitors, to improve our website structure and content, and to inform our marketing strategy. Google Analytics data is retained for 26 months, consistent with the Google Analytics default retention setting.
You may opt out of Google Analytics tracking at any time by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. You may also configure your browser to block third-party cookies.
How to Control Cookies
Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically configure your browser to refuse all cookies, accept cookies only from specific websites, or alert you when a cookie is being set. Please consult your browser’s help documentation for specific instructions. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality or appearance of our website. Common browser cookie controls:
- Google Chrome: Settings › Privacy and Security › Cookies and other site data
- Mozilla Firefox: Settings › Privacy & Security › Cookies and Site Data
- Apple Safari: Preferences › Privacy › Manage Website Data
- Microsoft Edge: Settings › Cookies and Site Permissions › Manage and Delete Cookies
7. Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, to comply with our legal and professional obligations, and to resolve any disputes. Our specific retention practices are as follows:
- Active client files: We retain all records, correspondence, contracts, design documentation, and project files for the duration of the project plus a minimum of seven (7) years following project completion. This retention period reflects professional liability standards applicable to design and architecture practices in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
- Inquiry records (no engagement): If you contact us with a project inquiry but do not proceed to a formal engagement, we retain your contact information and the content of your inquiry for up to two (2) years. After this period, records are securely deleted unless there is an ongoing or anticipated business relationship.
- Newsletter subscribers: We retain your email address and subscription preferences for as long as you remain subscribed. Upon unsubscription, we remove your address from our active mailing list within 30 days. Records of prior consent may be retained for a limited period to document compliance.
- Website analytics data: Aggregated website usage data collected through Google Analytics is retained for 26 months, consistent with the Google Analytics default retention period.
- Financial and billing records: Billing records, invoices, and financial data are retained for a minimum of seven (7) years as required by federal and DC tax law.
8. Your Rights and Choices
General Rights
- Right of Access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Right to Correction: You may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information we hold about you.
- Right to Deletion: You may request deletion of your personal information, subject to our legal and professional obligations to retain certain records (such as active project files or financial records).
- Right to Data Portability: You may request a copy of the personal data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
- Right to Object: You may object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes at any time.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
California Residents — CCPA Rights
If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):
- Right to Know: The right to request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which it was collected, the purposes for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom it has been shared.
- Right to Delete: The right to request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to legal exceptions.
- Right to Correct: The right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you.
- Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing: The right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. As noted in Section 5, we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- Right to Non-Discrimination: The right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising any of your CCPA rights.
To exercise any California privacy right, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us at info@archandhandle.com. We will respond within 45 days of receiving a verifiable request, as required by law.
Virginia Residents — VCDPA Rights
If you are a Virginia resident, you have the following rights under the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA):
- Right to Access: The right to confirm whether we are processing your personal data and to access that data.
- Right to Correct: The right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data.
- Right to Delete: The right to request deletion of personal data that you have provided to us or that we have collected about you.
- Right to Data Portability: The right to obtain a copy of your personal data in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format.
- Right to Opt Out: The right to opt out of the processing of personal data for purposes of targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, or profiling that produces significant legal effects.
Virginia residents may submit privacy requests to info@archandhandle.com. If we decline to take action on your request, you have the right to appeal our decision, and we will explain the process for appeal in our response.
How to exercise your rights: To submit any privacy request, please email us at info@archandhandle.com with the subject line “Privacy Request.” Include your full name, contact information, and a description of your request. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request to prevent unauthorized disclosure or deletion of data.
9. Data Security
We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement reasonable and appropriate technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect the data we hold against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.
Our security measures include:
- Encryption in transit: All data transmitted between your browser and our website is encrypted using industry-standard TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols.
- Access controls: Access to client data is restricted on a need-to-know basis. Only team members directly involved in a client’s project may access that client’s files and correspondence.
- Secure storage: Client files and project documentation are stored on password-protected, access-controlled platforms with regular security updates.
- Employee training: Our team members are trained on data privacy best practices and the obligations arising from this policy.
- Vendor due diligence: We evaluate the security practices of third-party service providers before engaging them and include data protection obligations in our agreements with them.
Despite our best efforts, no method of data transmission or storage is 100% secure. In the event we become aware of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify affected individuals as required by applicable law. If such a breach poses a significant risk to you, we will contact you directly at the email address on file and provide guidance on steps you may wish to take to protect yourself.
10. Third-Party Links
Our website may contain links to the websites of contractors, material suppliers, professional associations, publications, and other external resources that we believe may be of interest to our clients and website visitors. These links are provided for informational convenience only.
We do not control the content, privacy practices, or data collection activities of any third-party websites. Clicking on a link to an external website will take you away from our site, and you will be subject to that website’s own privacy policy and terms of service. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites before providing them with personal information. Arch & Handle is not responsible for the privacy practices of any linked external website.
11. Children's Privacy
Our website and services are intended exclusively for adults engaged in, or considering, professional design and architecture services. We do not direct any of our website content or services toward children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
If you believe we have inadvertently received personal information from or about a child under 13, please contact us immediately at info@archandhandle.com so that we can promptly delete such information from our records.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business practices, applicable law, or technology. When we make changes, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. If we make material changes that significantly affect how we use or share your personal information, we will take additional steps to notify you, which may include:
- Posting a prominent notice on our website;
- Sending an email notification to clients and newsletter subscribers on file;
- Including a summary of key changes in our next regularly scheduled communication.
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information. Your continued use of our website or services following any changes to this policy constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or the way we handle your personal information, we welcome you to reach out to us directly. We are committed to addressing your concerns promptly and transparently.
Arch & Handle
Email: info@archandhandle.com
Phone: 1-888-884-4011
Studio: Washington, DC (serving DC, Maryland & Virginia)
We will acknowledge your inquiry within two (2) business days and aim to fully resolve any privacy-related request within the timeframes required by applicable law. For formal privacy requests — including requests to access, correct, or delete your data — please use the subject line “Privacy Request” in your email and include sufficient information to verify your identity.