Design Matters

My fiancé and I remodeled our bathrooms recently with the help of Design Matters, and while the execution wasn't absolutely perfect, the most important thing to me at the end of the day is that the materials and layout look good, and they absolutely do. We ended up with a uniquely beautiful master bathroom that neither we nor our GC could have helped us design.
Jan 30th, 2023

excellent and efficient designer service. Very responsive, Considers and produces results and we were very Happy to work with Service: Interior decorating
Nov 23rd, 2022

We hired Julie to design two bathrooms for us. We had such a mixed experience, with some aspects of her service deserving 5 stars and other aspects deserving 1 star, that it is difficult to pick a single rating for her. Our main takeaway is if you want to hire Julie, you can end up with a beautiful final product, but you will have to manage the execution yourself and fill in many gaps, and you will pay a premium price. Total costs for hiring Julie to design a master bathroom (140 sqft) and guest bathroom (70 sqft): Julie's fees: $10,700 Tile, countertop, and vanities: $33,000 Plumbing and other fixtures: $16,000 What was good: Julie's main strength is coming up with the grand vision for both layout and materials. Julie gave us a proposal that was far better than any of our ideas and still matched to our tastes. Julie also offered to pick all of the finished materials, which we really liked since this was our first time remodeling and neither of us is good at design. What was not good: - Execution was poor. For example, she did not verify that the colors of fixtures in person. She picked a gold medicine cabinet to match our gold fixtures, but we later discovered it was almost yellow and clashed with our fixtures. She also ordered 30% less tile than we needed for the master bathroom. By the time we discovered this, no more tile was available from the same lot and we had to finish 30% of the bathroom with tile from a different lot. - Major avoidable mistakes were made: Julie chose custom countertops, then sent us a drawing of the counter with a sink in it, but no dimensions or placement for the sink. We noticed this and asked for dimensions for where to place the sink, and she actually refused to provide them. Later, after our fabricator cut the countertop, we discovered the actual sink was too small and wasn't even the same shape as her drawings. Julie eventually paid for us to get a new sink cut, but this was still a hassle that could have been avoided if she had just provided complete plans like we requested. - You almost need to write a blank check: After we picked a layout with Julie, she refused to estimate how much things like vanities would cost, making it impossible for us to budget. She later sent a bill for $33,000 that covered tile, vanities, and countertops, but refused to provide any itemized breakdown for how much individual items cost or how much markup she added. The large bill and lack of transparency left us feeling like we had been ripped off. It may be that Julie's business is just intended for someone with an unlimited budget, and we were not her target market. - If you're noticing the word "refused" a lot in this review, it's because it was not unusual to send Julie a question and have her ignore it or refuse to answer it directly. - Lack of trust: A goofy-looking light was mistakenly sent for one bathroom. We messaged Julie, and she responded that she had actually intended to order that light, and it would look "cool and unique." A few days later, possibly after confirming she could still exchange the light without paying to fix the mistake, she told us it was the wrong light after all and she would help exchange it. I asked her if she had not been straight with us in her first response, but she ignored my question, making us suspect she had lied to us. - She made changes with major structural implications without telling us to run them by our architect, potentially because she herself did not understand the implications. This is also partly the architect's fault, as he never asked to look at Julie's designs either. Julie designed a niche in our shower that runs the length of the shower, 80". The niche looked great, but unfortunately this was a load-bearing wall. We had to pause construction partway through when the builder discovered the niche and pay an engineer to draw up a plan for how to reinforce the shower wall. This added thousands of dollars in unexpected costs to the project. I still believe this could be a five star business if Julie ever improves her customer service and execution.
Jan 10th, 2023

I have been working with Julie and the Design Matters team for about a year now on my remodeling project. I can't say enough about the talent Julie and her team have. They brought my dream home to life! Julie has extremely great taste and a great work ethic. Julie not only created our dream kitchen but she designed the living room, bathroom, perfect lighting to go with the space, furniture, and my dream prayer room! She put a lot of thought into the custom cabinet design, making sure all of my requirements were met. From the moment you meet her, you can tell she is passionate about what she does and you know you are in great hands! I highly recommend them! Services: Living room design, Interior painting, Bathroom design, Window design, Room planning, Lighting design, Cabinetry & hardware design, Home decor selection, Kitchen design, Space planning, Interior decorating, Flooring selection, Interior architectural design
Nov 1st, 2022

We hired Julie to design two bathrooms for us. We had such a mixed experience, with some aspects of her service deserving 5 stars and other aspects deserving 1 star, that it is difficult to pick a single rating for her. Our main takeaway is if you want to hire Julie, you can end up with a beautiful final product, but you will have to manage the execution yourself and fill in many gaps, and you will pay a premium price.Total costs for hiring Julie to design a master bathroom (140 sqft) and guest bathroom (70 sqft):Julie's fees: $10,700Tile, countertop, and vanities: $33,000Plumbing and other fixtures: $16,000What was good:Julie's main strength is coming up with the grand vision for both layout and materials. Julie came up with a proposal that was far better than any of our ideas and still matched to our tastes. Julie also offered to pick all of the finished materials, which we really liked since this was our first time remodeling and neither of us is good at design.What was not good:- Execution was poor. For example, she did not verify that the colors of fixtures looked good in person. She picked a gold medicine cabinet to match our gold fixtures, but we later discovered it was almost yellow and clashed with our other fixtures. She also ordered 30% less tile than we needed for the master bathroom. By the time we discovered this, no more tile was available from the same lot and we had to finish 30% of the bathroom with tile from a different lot.- Major avoidable mistakes were made: Julie chose custom countertops, then sent us a drawing of the counter with a sink in it, but with no dimensions or placement for the sink. We noticed this and asked her to provide dimensions for where to place the sink, and she actually refused to provide any guidance to us. Later, after our fabricator cut the countertop, we discovered the actual sink she had picked was too small and wasn't even the same shape as her drawings. After some unpleasant back-and-forth, Julie eventually agreed to pay for us to get a new sink cut, but this was still a huge hassle that could have been avoided if she had just provided a complete set of plans like we requested.- You almost need to write a blank check: After we picked a layout with Julie, she refused to provide estimates for how much things like vanities would cost, making it impossible for us to set a budget. She later sent us a bill for $33,000 that covered tile, vanities, and countertop materials, but refused to provide any kind of itemized breakdown for how much individual items cost or how much markup she added. The large bill and lack of transparency left us feeling like we had been ripped off. It may be that Julie's business is just intended for someone with an unlimited budget, and we were not her target market.- If you're noticing the word "refused" appears a lot in this review, it's because it was not an unusual occurrence to send Julie a question and have her ignore it or refuse to directly answer it.- Lack of trust: We had a mixup where a goofy-looking light had mistakenly been sent for one bathroom. We messaged Julie, and she responded telling us she had actually intended to order that light, and that it would look "cool and unique" in our bathroom. A few days later, possibly after confirming she could still exchange the light for the correct one and wouldn't be stuck paying to fix the mistake, she messaged us saying it was the wrong light after all and she would help us exchange it. I asked her if she had not been straight with us in her first response, but she ignored my question, making us suspect she had lied to us.- She made design changes with major structural implications without telling us to run them by our architect, potentially because she herself did not understand the structural implications. This is also partly the architect's fault, as he never asked to look at her design plans either. Julie designed a niche in our shower that runs the full length of the shower, 80". The niche looked great, but unfortunately this was a load-bearing wall. We had to pause construction partway through when the builder discovered the niche and pay an engineer to draw up a plan for how to build the shower wall. This added thousands of dollars in unexpected costs to the project.You can probably see why I have mixed feelings about how many stars to give. I decided on three because we did eventually get two beautiful bathrooms in the end, even if the journey itself was excessively stressful and expensive. I also believe this could become a five star business if Julie ever decides to improve her customer service and execution. Hopefully she takes this feedback and improves.
Jan 7th, 2023