Our slogan?

Beautiful spaces that can also handle dog vomit and ketchup.

(Busy parents know what we mean.)

Here’s what we do in the design world in four easy bullets:

• single room or whole home makeovers – you got it, we fix it

• furnishing new, empty spaces – you buy/rent it, we make it pretty

• creative solutions for confounding spaces – you’re flummoxed, we solve

• renovation inspiration and guidance – you see walls, we see possibilities

Our clients generally have one thing in common: they don’t want to spend tons of money. They’re fine with Ikea, Pottery Barn, Crate&Barrel and friends. Which is not to say we can’t get craaazy and design the perfect custom table. They either have kids or pets (probably both) and value practical but beautiful spaces that don’t cost more than your kids’ college savings since your dogs are going to barf/kids smear ketchup on everything anyway. (Erm…or maybe that’s just our houses.) These people are generally one of two types:

1.    They have great taste and style already, but lordy, no one working 12-hour days has time to take on a home remodel or update their interiors.

2.    They know their place looks tired/shabby but don’t even know where to begin. Interior design is a foreign art to them. 

Our overall philosophy is: design can’t be too precious. There is no point in insisting something is perfect for your home and lifestyle just because it will look fab in the “after” photos. You live in your house; everything needs to work for YOU. And spark a little joy, of course.

Our fees work like this:

$200 first hour, consultation — We charge $200 for the first hour of an in-home consultation. If the consultation lasts longer than an hour, each hour thereafter is $135/hour. After that, our fees are $135/hour for everything else. We also extend our 20%-25% trade discount at major retailers & vendors to you, so in some cases, we end up paying for ourselves. NOTE: if we are not actively working with you or if you wish us to purchase an item you found on your own, we charge one hour per item unless previously negotiated. Many clients want us to handle everything: measuring, layouts, and sourcing items. Others like to take our layouts/suggestions and do much of it themselves, just having us gut check big ticket items via email. Click here to see an example of how one client spent $1000 on us and saved $1500 on her new furnishings by purchasing through us. Just sayin’.

$135/hour — this is our hourly rate after the initial consultation.

Sometimes every room in your house needs a redo; sometimes it’s just a single room. If you just need inspiration cuz you love doing interiors yourself, great. If you want us to pick everything out, great. If you want us to incorporate grandma’s antique sideboard and chintz settee that you can’t bear to part with, great. It’s all great.

You’ve just bought a new house, rented a new apartment, moved into your mom’s place for free while she heads off to her new digs in Florida – now what? Will your old furniture work, does everything need to be purchased new? We’re cheap gits by nature so if your old stuff can be repurposed, refinished, repainted or reimagined to work, we’ll do it. If not, we’ll save a few of your old pieces and have an excellent time finding new stuff. Budget permitting, of course.

You are happy with your furniture but you feel like your layout just isn’t making the best use of the space. This is probably the number one design mistake we see – misplaced furniture. Often a multitude of problems can be solved by rolling up your sleeves, moving furniture around and adding one or two new pieces to tie it all together. Deeply satisfying work as results are often immediate!

Valerie is a frustrated architect and thus quite clever with seeing renovation possibilities in a challenging house. See us before you buy it! We’ll tell you if we think it can be fixed…or not. Or if you’ve been contemplating remodeling your current home, have us swing by before those spendy architects start billing you by the hour for their genius. (With due hugs to all our architect friends.) If you know exactly what you want to do, your architect can make that vision a reality rather than submitting five different remodel plans to choose from, which tends to add up!