Why Choose a Design/Package? Hear Directly From a 3-Time Client

The best way to describe the design/package is that you get 3 hours of one-on-one attention from a professional designer. Karen spends time preparing for the session by reviewing photos that you send in ahead of time. You’ll also have a 30 minute call where she listens carefully as you explain your day to day activities, how you move through your space and talk about any pain points.

On the day of your in-home meeting, Karen arrives ready to address the design dilemmas you discussed during your phone call. She brings samples of fabrics, wallpapers, paint colours and tile, which have been carefully curated based on your submitted photos. It’s not all just aesthetic though. Karen carefully considers the function of your space, and sometimes it’s just a few little tweaks that she suggests to make your space lighter, brighter and feel a whole lot better.

My husband and I have just moved to a new condo, which we plan to make our home for this next phase of life. While the family is always welcome, it’s really just a home for the two of us. After years of creating homes that work for our family, we now have the opportunity to create a space that truly reflects who we are as people, not just parents.

This may sound easy, but with so many possibilities I felt overwhelmed, which is why I emailed Karen to set up an appointment. I know she has the ability to integrate existing finishes and highlight the best features of a space. But it’s more than just narrowing down selections, it’s having a sounding board and access to professional services and ideas.

Working with Karen is a highly collaborative process that allowed me to uncover my unique design style. She introduced design solutions and creative resources that I never would have thought of on my own, or even had access to. Her enthusiasm and expertise gave me the permission to dream wild and discover the potential that our new home holds.

This is the best part. You are in the driver’s seat and by using Karen as part of your guidebook for design ideas and solutions, you have the flexibility to customize your project based on your needs, lifestyle and budget… so that might mean you DIY with a plan, you use a favourite contractor or you ask Karen for more help along the way… no pressure, no hidden agenda, just a great friend of design that will advise and help you make the right decisions.

Not at all, in fact this is the best time to talk to a professional because a designer can save you from making costly mistakes. When Karen imagines your space, she sees it with fresh eyes and no emotional bias.

Her first solution is to try to work with what you have and not replace or rip out existing features. She reimagines, repurposes and restyles through the lens of an experienced designer. Sometimes it’s just adding the right accessories to bring it all together. By creating flow, harmony and balance, Karen will have your place feeling amazing and you don’t have to spend a whole lot.

What I appreciate about working with Karen is that she wants to use the pieces you have and incorporate the items you love. Over the years, because of my husband’s career, our family has moved from home to home. We’ve collected some lovely furniture and art pieces that suited those more traditional homes. I was finding it difficult to make it all work in our new contemporary space.

Karen explained that it didn’t feel right because the balance of contemporary and traditional was off. She suggested we add sleeker light fixtures and a few more contemporary decor items to even it out. Now it looks more layered and curated, and feels put together.

The cabinetry, quartz counters and the vinyl plank floors were in great shape, though they weren't what I would choose. Karen felt those elements should stay, as it would be quite costly to change them out. I was a bit doubtful at first, as my preference would have been for a different colour of flooring and a simpler quartz for the counter. This is when Karen brought out her samples and showed me how the right wallpaper and pillow fabrics could blend everything together and make it look fantastic. That was a real wow moment for me.

Our design journey with Karen began many years ago when I contacted her for our first design/package. Our four children were in elementary and middle school. We needed our home to function better, but we had a very tight budget. The Design Package framework that Karen developed allowed us to tackle some projects ourselves, as well as provide a long term plan to use when we were ready to work with a contractor for our renovation. This made the renovation so much easier as we didn’t waste time or money making the wrong decisions when selecting flooring, paint colour and tile.

Our second design/package came about several years later for the same house when we were being transferred. We needed to get the house ready so a potential buyer would have the ability to imagine themselves in our home. We wanted to embrace existing design elements while making the home feel fresh with a new colour palette and furniture layout. Our sale was happening at a time in the neighbourhood when new builds were competing with older (tired) family homes. Although we had done a few renovations and upgrades, we needed to make the place feel lighter, brighter and ready for a new family. Of course, once we completed Karen’s plan for painting and reorganizing, we wondered why we waited until selling to make these final improvements.

Once the dust settled from our most recent move, Karen was my first call. This is our third design/package and it’s for our new home and our new lifestyle. We want to invest in the right furnishings and decor for the way we live now, while blending the history of our family into this modern space. We’re not in a rush, and, with Karen’s design plan, we can start infusing our unique personalities into this home.