FAQ

Our initial complimentary discovery call is a good place to start to learn if we are comfortable with each other. The website links to design briefs- about real client work- illustrate what you may expect from me. The blogs on the website are also illustrative of my design process and provide insight into how design thinking helps my clients achieve their goals.

Our counsel helps you understand why, how and what to great design. We are your personal advisors encouraging you to scale risks and gently suggesting when to scale back to inform your decision making process. Our sole goal is to serve your interests while achieving a well designed environment. We provide you with granular details and specifications in order to help you confidently implement your plan at your own pace.

We do not ascribe to a signature aesthetic; rather, we ascribe to an ethos: manifesting spaces that celebrate our client’s individuality with grace. 

We create comfortable, easy-flow, functional spaces that are emotionally uplifting through the connection to nature and diverse cultures. Suzanne’s nine domestic moves across the U.S. and an international career living in 11 countries led to her appreciation for the context of a place and diverse aesthetics to inform style. Other studio members may also bring their unique perspectives and global views to inform design.  

And, tastes evolve, just as we do. A modern space may need the depth of a human touch and history to balance sleek, streamlined, sparse materials and building envelopes. A home or part of a historic building may benefit from the light touch of modernity, an element of surprise, a dose of contemporary zeitgeist.

Many on-line platforms are often driven by algorithms based on your answers to a survey. Want farmhouse? Here are three sofas that provide this look for a price range. This may be good enough for your project and personal goals.

We’re different in that we specialize in the design of bespoke spaces tailored to you and your needs.
Unlike them, we’re client-centered and aspirational, but we offer practical solutions (with livable materials) tailored to your proportions, lifestyle, budget and who you really are and what you want in life. We are careful listeners who help translate preferences, both articulated and unspoken, into modern environments that mix past, present, and forward-thinking influences with sensuality and grace. Our services may not be in person, but they are deeply personal, and definitely not cookie-cutter.

The packages of flat-rate services are based on the actual time it takes to provide a professional concept tailored to your needs, which includes concept visioning boards, space planning, renderings, source lists, and how-to guidance. Some client’s may just need a bit more. I’m happy to prepare a proposal and coordinate the details of time/budget to help you reach your goals efficiently and effectively.

We are known for delivering on time and on budget. We believe it is important to be honest about money to align expectations. For example, if we receive a budget that is half the real budget then we will present you with options that will be below your actual expectations.

With a realistic understanding of the client’s budget, we will present recommendations that fall within that budget, offering, alternatives that enable our clients to “value engineer” alternatives, by focusing on investments in their priorities and presenting trade-offs such as sourcing similar yet less costly alternatives so you can remain within budget while keeping in line with the overall design direction.

Yes, of course, as much as you want to be. We excel at listening, and our process-including check-in meetings to hear your feedback, is driven by our mutual understanding throughout our engagement. We’re flexible and will work with you however you prefer:  Some of our clients prefer to be more hands-on, others just want a professional concept created for them.

Highly skilled at virtual design, evidenced by more than 1,000 clients in two years, our turnaround for the concept presentation meeting for one room is within one week. Add more rooms, and the timeline becomes longer.

The flat-fee rate approach is an estimation of the time it takes to engage in meaningful conversations to learn about our clients’ needs, assess photos and inspirations to inform the development of an overall design direction. Throughout the design development process, we refine the design look and selections with your feedback, including (2) revisions per room. We calculate our hours on every project and we built in time for these revisions, but, if our effort exceeds the maximum anticipated hours of the flat rate, we will certainly discuss a budget to meet your additional modification requests.

No. Our designs are great tools for communicating with your architects and contractors but if you need shop or permit drawings we can help develop those for you for an additional fee.

1) If you procure from a retail source yourself, we’re not involved in any services related to the transaction.
2) Clients gain access to vendor relationships through our flat-rate and percentage of order fees. In turn, they benefit from the trade discount (net pricing), and direct transactions and communications with our vendors from placement of orders through to delivery and final resolution.

The decoupling of the design service and the procurement service anticipates this possibility. If you place your orders, you will need to resolve any issues directly the provider’s customer service team.

We provide the best information available during our consultation. If the items come off the market for an unforeseen reason, within seven days of completing our consultations, then we will provide updated information for a maximum of two items at no additional cost to you.