The short answer is we ask a lot of questions and we genuinely listen to your answers.
We begin by getting to know you really well; not just your favorite colors and textures, though that’s important too, but where you like to travel, what books you like to read, and how you like to spend your time. Paired with our visualization exercises, which draw on Madelaine’s training as a meditation instructor, we begin to form a picture of who you are as a person. Then we start sourcing for pieces that “feel like they might be you”. Literally.
We visit our design center showrooms looking at hundreds of fabrics, wallpapers, and furnishings, and for each one we ask “Does this feel like you”? We narrow the hundreds to tens and then meet with you to talk about them. What do you like about a certain light fixture? What don’t you like about a specific rug? Then we use all of that feedback to craft your bespoke Design Vision.
Absolutely! We work with fabulous craftspeople who can create anything we imagine, from built-ins to sofas, rugs to pillows, and drapery to art installations. With New York City’s complex and quirky spaces, custom elements are often the best way to maximize space and fully embody our clients’ unique personalities.
We always recommend prioritizing wherever you spend the most time, because that is where you will most tangibly enjoy the results of your efforts. That could be a living room, kitchen, or even home office; it’s all about what will specifically make you happiest.
If possible, construction should all be done at once. Moving out of your home is disruptive, and it is always more cost effective to have a contractor come in once rather than two or three times. For furniture and decorative elements, these can absolutely be phased. We recommend phasing by room rather than by element though, meaning let’s do everything in the living room so it feels complete (and completely wonderful) rather than just doing the drapery in every room and waiting on the furniture.
Yes! The design, or lack thereof, of your home has a direct impact on your quality of life, and the sooner you elevate one, the sooner you improve the other. Many people, particularly in NYC (Madelaine included), rent for years if not decades, and that is way too long to spend in a home that doesn’t meet your functional or emotional needs, not to mention sit on an uncomfortable sofa!
Furniture, artwork, light fixtures, and even drapery are portable investments that can always be brought to another home, and just because construction is not permitted doesn’t mean that profound change isn’t possible.
We work on projects ranging from single rooms to entire homes.
Not very! There are 3 meetings that need to be in-person; your Home Introduction to walk through your home and determine the scope of the project, your Design Concept to touch a range of fabrics to provide direction on your preferences, and your Design Vision meeting to approve your final fabric selections. We establish a preliminary schedule for these meetings at the start of the project, but that schedule can be modified if needed, and everything else can be done virtually.
While you are traveling is actually a great time to install your project, as it’s less disruptive for you to be out of your home anyway. We manage every facet of the installation so you can leave your old apartment and return to your dream home.
Yes! In full service design in addition to crafting your completely bespoke design solution we take care of all the logistics to bring that vision to life. In addition to sourcing every element in the design, we place all the orders, manage the shipping and storage, troubleshoot any issues, and get everything installed to give you an HGTV worthy big reveal moment, champagne and all!
The Design Direction service starts the same way as Full Service Design, with Design Kickoff and Concept meetings, but the Design Vision presentation includes all the detailed information for you to implement the design on your own.
There is not. We have found that the clearest and best results for our clients is either implementing the design on their own with Design Direction, or leaving everything to us with Full Service Design.
Yes! Design Direction is ideally suited for clients outside of New York City. We have worked with clients across the US and internationally on Design Direction projects.
As soon as possible! We often schedule our Design Kickoff meetings several months in advance, so the sooner you reach out the better we can align with your ideal schedule.
The honest answer is that it varies based on the project scope. Using a two bedroom one bathroom apartment as an example, the design phase from the Design Kickoff meeting to the Design Vision presentation takes approximately 3 months.
On average, it takes another 3-4 months to receive all the furnishings, and anywhere from 2-6 weeks for installation. If there is a construction component, the timeline can extend anywhere from 2 to 12 months, depending on the scope, the specific building board and/or management company, and most importantly, your schedule and availability.
We establish a preliminary timeline at the beginning of the project, which is included in your Letter of Agreement, and based on your specific design we present an estimated installation schedule at your Design Vision presentation.
Project investment is something we begin discussing in the very first meeting and continuously refine throughout the project. There are 2 ends of the investment spectrum, one is “what can I accomplish for X dollars” and the other is “I want to accomplish X, what is required to do that”. Most people fall somewhere between, and the project goals and investment often change as people see what is possible through the design process.
We developed a planning guide that offers benchmarks for most of the elements in a given room to guide the conversation with our clients for where they want to be with respect to quality, customization, and investment. We use that information to inform our design and selections, present it to our clients in a comprehensive Design Vision, and adjust as needed.
With a lot of patience and a bit of swearing behind the scenes!
In all seriousness, clear and early communication is key. As soon as we have a Design Concept, we reach out to all decision makers; the board, the building manager, and the super, to let them know what we’re planning and to make sure there aren’t any obstacles to approval or execution. Sometimes something could be physically possible, like enlarging a kitchen, but not permitted in that specific building, like a “no wet over dry” provision.
Once we have a Design Vision presentation with labeled plans and photorealistic illustrations, we share those as well, again making sure everyone is on the same page. This is also when we bring in our trusted installation partners, who have decades of NYC experience, to visit the project site, provide detailed estimates, and share any concerns they may have regarding project execution.
For renovations requiring permitting and construction, all buildings in NYC require a submission review by their architects. There will always be comments and minor modifications, but Madelaine’s two decades of NYC experience means our drawings and specifications are incredibly detailed, and these comments are resolved quickly to keep projects on schedule.
Throughout the project, all communication between meetings, which all have written notes, is done via email, so everyone has a record of every decision.
During the design phase, we cover a lot of ground in our meetings, so communication in between is relatively minimal and usually focused on logistics, like scheduling the next meeting or a showroom visit. The same is true for procurement; unless you want a weekly summary of which pieces have been delivered to our warehouse, which we’re happy to provide, we don’t want to bother you!
The installation phase is when email communication becomes more important, as there are always small decisions that need to be confirmed, like would you prefer the bathroom tile joints to be stacked or offset? Everyone’s communication style is different, so we ask at the beginning; would you like weekly progress reports (here’s what we did this week), milestone reports (we just finished installing the flooring), or just questions to authorize changes (we found some pipes in the wall we were planning to remove; here’s our alternate design solution to accommodate them) and then proceed accordingly.
Should anything come up at any point that needs further discussion, we’re happy to hop on a zoom call to review. We always want you to feel fully informed and comfortable at every step of the process.
Yes, and unsurprisingly, we don’t just dispose of them. To help our clients, community, and environment, our team will remove any furnishings you no longer need and store them for quarterly Habitat for Humanity donations. Your pieces will get a second life, someone else who can really use them will get them at an accessible price, and we keep them out of landfills; everybody wins.