Rachel is thorough and creative. A quick survey of our apartment and a few photos, Rachel had a…read moreconcrete idea on how to stage and ready our empty apartment for sale. She does the whole job - cleaning (if needed), painting, and setting the furniture. She worked swiftly with her team, and with our sometimes difficult condo management team with ease and grace. She fit us into her busy schedule to let us get going quickly to list and was very quick to remove the furniture after getting a contract the first week. She and her team are careful and respectful of the common areas and also of our unit. Thank you!

Background: I…read morecurrently live in Los Angeles and decided to sell my condo in the Bucktown/Wicker Park community. I decided to stage my condo to make it sell quicker and my realtor stumbled on Rachel, who is the owner of Staging Sells. I obviously never had a chance to meet her since I live in Los Angeles, but had a quick conversation over the phone with her. Immediately she began to talk about her background. Apparently 17 years as an interior designer. Her resume on the surface seems legit, but don't be fooled. Payment: I found it odd that she requested ALL the payment upfront. Not even half now, half later. This is how she works. She initially wanted to charge me $2,500 to stage a 2br 2ba condo. We agreed to $1700 as the final price. This $1700 included fake plants, cheap furniture, air mattresses, and zero decoration/staging in the bedrooms & bathrooms. What is Staging? Staging allows potential home owners to get a feel for the layout and helps them envision how they can potentially layout their new home, right? Well, this is probably exactly the opposite of what Rachel and her 17 years of experience did. 1) The living room is the most important. Rachel staged it as if it was a lounge of a dentist office. She included cheap, stiff, uncomfortable white couches that were meant to be in an office. 2) The direction the couches were facing was the kitchen, what the fuck? 3) The couches didn't even face the TV. She claims that you can "lay down" on the couch and watch TV. If you ever have guests over, you might as well throw that TV out the window. 4) When was the last time you saw a Canopy style bed in a master bedroom that's small? Apparently Rachel thought it was a bright idea to include one. Not only does it make the existing space look small, but canopy style beds are meant for single family homes. 5) Bathrooms: nothing in there, it's completely empty. No towels, no rugs...we couldn't even use pictures because it looked so barren. Communication: Hard to get a hold of her. She's pretty stubborn when it comes to the layout and design. I kindly asked Rachel to re-arrange add/remove some furniture so we can relist the property. She wanted $500 bucks for this b/c she claims she needs to hire movers. I don't think it costs $500 to remove this cheap furniture...this is highway robbery. As an interior designer, I'd imagine she would have some sense of professional obligation to fulfill the needs and goals of the client. I trusted her by paying upfront that she would make appropriate modifications and work in my best interest. She failed miserably. She is a crook that gives zero fucks about her clients. She hoards cheap furniture and actually has zero sense on interior design.

We wanted to sell our condo in Edgewater but one room, the sunroom, had absolutely no furnishings…read morein it and needed to be staged. Our realtor recommended O Designs along with two other staging firms. I wasn't impressed with the response I got from the other businesses, but O Designs was responsive and excited to work with me from the start. The designer came to our place and took a look around at our mid-century style furniture. Based on the photos we saw on O Design's website we felt confident that they could design a sunroom that complimented what we already owned.....and they did. The furnishings were delivered on time as promised and expertly arranged. The sunroom looked terrific. We received an offer on our place within two days and signed a contract within a week! I highly recommend O Designs. Their flair for design and professionalism really added value to our sale.

Smooth, good listeners, and a fine finished product. Their photography was top notch, and their…read morescheduling department understood the demands of working with difficult condo rules.

Natalia came out to meet with me for a consultation at my home which was very informative and I was…read moreable to see a lot of the work that her and her team have done. She was able to look at my space and give a lot of helpful advice about Reno/design/layout ideas. She explained that they do high-end, modern clean, looking designs, but they also do all other designs as well ( like my traditional looking home). They do big and small projects and continue to work with the homeowner even after the project is done. I would highly recommend!

I've been working with Natalia on designing our new rental. Yes, you heard that right, a rental!…read moreWe'll be here for about three years, but I still wanted our place to feel like home. Natalia has been incredibly helpful in guiding us through big, impactful design decisions that are practical and thoughtful, while also keeping costs reasonable since we don't want to invest too much in a rental property. I also didn't want an interior designer to fully design every detail of the place. I wanted to be involved in choosing pieces myself, but have someone I could trust to advise me on whether things would actually work in our space, and Natalia has been perfect for that. I'll text her with questions about furniture purchases, design ideas, or even quick installation decisions when our maintenance guy is here, and she always responds right away. My husband is also very picky, but he has been genuinely impressed with her advice and with how our place has come together. I know Natalia takes on much larger and more expensive projects than ours, but I have never once felt like we were wasting her time. She has always been responsive, kind, and very professional. I highly recommend Natalia to anyone looking for practical, thoughtful design guidance that respects your time and budget. We'll definitely be working with her again on our next home project whenever we move.

We worked with Design Inside over the course of a year on projects that continued to expand because…read morewe were so thrilled with the process, working relationship and outcomes. We used Kathryn's design expertise to remodel our kitchen, first-floor full bathroom, and front porch. Working with Design Inside was money well-spent because Kathryn is talented in both technical and creative design. She measured and prepared for every contingency when creating a plan to transform our galley-style kitchen into an expanded and multi-purpose open-concept design that included kitchen, mudroom, and workspace. She was efficient in helping us make design choices to update our bathroom, and concise with material recommendations and measurements needed to replace our front porch. Kathryn and her team were respectful of our time, budget, and input. Every selection for purchase was presented as a choice, and we knew we were always guided to the best price point. Kathryn recommended when to pay for quality materials, and helped us find savings in other parts of the design to off-set the cost. We are most happy with the selections we would not have made without her involvement. We could not have completed our home remodel without Design Inside, and would happily recommend them to anyone looking for guidance on small or large projects!

We used Design Inside for our recent condo renovation, and we were pleased with our designer,…read moreAbigail. We had looked into three or four design firms and went with Design Inside because we got along well with Abigail from the initial consultation. She's friendly and had suggestions from our first meetings. Our remodeling scope was pretty basic (resurface hardwood floors, install new tiling, new lighting, new kitchen countertops/backsplash/hardware, painting, etc.) We weren't planning on taking down any walls or putting up new walls - hence "pretty basic" in our eyes! The initial few weeks involved back and forth with designs and occasional meetings with Abigail so she could get a handle on what we wanted done. Abigail was accommodating with meeting/phone times, and would often meet with us late afternoons or early evening. She created designs we had never thought of doing (enclosing in structural poles, wainscoting, etc). Abigail also was able to easily "read" my husband and I in terms of color schemes and we ended up choosing one of the first few samples of tiling and backsplash that she dropped off with us. Kudos for that! Abigail also provided us bimonthly hours summary / detail so we knew how much we were being charged for her services. She would break down the time she spent working for us by the minute and it was helpful to see where our dollars were being spent. From a "grand overall design", Abigail did a good job, but when we started getting into the details in the later phases, we did run into a few minor issues. I recommend ordering all materials / furniture / art yourself and not going thru Design Inside. With a little work on the intranet, you can find it cheaper, not to mention a lower delivery charge. We had a few material mix-ups with Design Inside - i.e. we received the wrong hardware; not enough tile or grout was ordered. Abigail's measurements for the den were incorrect so she didn't order enough tile / grout - her measurements for the wallpaper were also off, but this time we almost ordered too much. The invoice system used by Design Inside is a little confusing and you should pay very close attention and track your own expenses. It's hard to describe but trying to track all the bills and refunds with the invoices provided was difficult. Overall - I would recommend Design Inside and Abigail for your remodeling needs. I would just offer a bit of advice to double check measurements and order your own materials, but would still recommend the company. Abigail provided different designs and options that demonstrated her design skills as well as her ability to connect with us in terms of what our goal of the remodel was. In our eyes, that was key.

In 2013, I had the pleasure to work with Hilary Bailes of Hilary Bailes Design Ltd. Aside from…read morebeing classy, Hilary is certainly a design professional. This means that she is experienced and credentialed; she has gone though years of training and large design firm experience. (She's not an amateur, of which there are many.) I'm what you call a difficult client in the sense that I'm reluctant to completely surrender the design process and that I'm fickle. Nonetheless, Hilary was patient and a cooperative sounding board for my ideas. She did a superb job working with my space, selecting colors and fixtures. At the end of the engagement, she cheerfully refunded my unused retainer. Thus, I recommend her.

I cannot say enough great things about Hilary Bailes! She is such a pleasure to work with- very…read moreknowledgeable and also personable. My husband and I just moved to a new home and we were clueless about how to use our space. We also wanted to get things done in a tight time frame, and she was able to pull together paint colors for our entire house, lighting, furnture, and layout all under a month- that includes delivery time! Hilary completely understood our budget restrictions, lifestyle, and needs. She was able to work within our parameters and was always professional but so easy to get along with! I have to say I learned a lot just from being around her very skilled eye for design. As you can imagine, I would HIGHLY recommend using Hilary to make your home a more beautiful space!

Adina has helped me renovate and remodel several properties. The last one was a quick renovation…read morein August 2020 for one of my investment rental properties. When you look at the "before-and-after" pictures, it is clear that the results of her work are impressive, even with the extremely tight budget and schedule that we had to work with. Adina's designs show her passion and creativity for developing living universes, that people want to immerse and surround themselves with, as soon as they see them. When you see one of her designs, you immediately feel the desire to be in that space. She has an impressive gift to transform spaces in ways you cannot imagine beforehand, with color combinations you would have not imagined, but when you see the finished product, you love them because it is absolutely superb and pleasing. It simply feels good... I enjoy working with Adina as she is very talented, creative, honest and daring. She is direct and confident in her radical ideas, clear on expectations, and punctual. I was surprised a few times by some suggestions she made, that I thought would not look good (...what do I know?), but I trusted her, went with it, and found out they were the best solutions for the spaces we were renovating. I LOVED the outcome. I learned not to second-guess her ever again, and to fully trust her. Whatever she creates, is going to look and feel great in the end! She is a perfectionist with a budget in mind. Adina's designs are "out-of-the-box", on the leading edge of creativity in art, they are modern, daring, and well balanced. The color schemes she chooses are always exquisite, delightful to the eye, attractive to the mind, and relaxing to the heart and soul. Adina's portfolio is surprisingly vast with projects such as Village Market in Chicago, Google and Leo Burnett offices, ISI Headquarters as well as various residential and hospitality renovations. She led the design and implementation for the Village Market - a large commercial complex in the heart of Chicago. I saw it first in a pencil sketch, then in 2D. She continued to work and I saw the first 3 Dimensional rendering, and ... 3 years later, when I visited Chicago, she took me to a location that gave me the same exact view of the Village Market as I saw last time in her portfolio picture, only this time... it was the real thing (brick & mortar), beautifully executed by her to match the original vision. Adina is highly conscious and efficient when it comes to cost. She has hands-on knowledge of materials & costs, and she has developed a network of strategic partners in the industry, who can provide you promotional discounted prices and/or expedited deliveries to her clients. She is a pleasure to work with, she is well organized and always listens well to her clients, understanding their needs and wants. She told me that her main objective in business is to make sure -in any project- the end results will meet her client's goals: architectural, financial, and timeline. With a well-controlled and tight budget, she is making wonders. I highly recommend her and her work to anyone needing assistance with an architectural project. Whether is a simple garage addition, a Media Room, or more complex project that requires an artful & attractive (art-tractive) design, an interior face-lift, or something done in a cost-efficient way, and done quickly, Adina always has the best (and usually most unexpected!) solution. It is worth mentioning that you will still have money in the bank at the end of the project she designs for you! You will be happy to see how much life Adina will bring into your project. Adina's work is an enchanting mixture of harmony, balance, and creativity that meet in absolute beauty. I hope you get an opportunity to work with Adina on your next project so you can enjoy one of her truly uplifting transformations. Call her / write now!

Adina helped with design and furniture selections for our new home build. She has amazing taste and…read moretook our vision and applied it throughout the entire house. Guests always remark how beautiful our place is. I love that the entire house feels cohesive with the design and has an elevated light/airy feel. She also selected great materials when it comes to the stones and woods throughout. I appreciate the small details she helped with like the stones on our shower floor and the elongated cabinet pulls that are the perfect scale. Thank you for making our dream home come to life!

Kari is amazing. I found her on Yelp when searching for a decorator to keep me from making…read moreexpensive mistakes in executing a long desired condo remodel. I needed help with placement and purchase of furniture/wall art/fabrics/custom drapes. Kari has followed through with my purpose for hiring her and more. She will instantly and easily take a purchase/design idea in my luxury dreamy mind and suggest less expensive ways to achieve it. This is totally opposite of what we fear in hiring expensive interior decorators who end up leading you to spending more than you expected. Her very reasonable rates combined with her budget-conscious approach will result in a fabulous handsome home that is magazine worthy without breaking your hard-earned bank!! Also, she is impressively quick to respond and she follows through with everything. This being her second career after being an executive she is in touch with "the real world" and the budgets most of us have to live by.

I had the pleasure to work with Kari to design my studio apartment. She worked hard to discover my…read morestyle and was patient and willing to answer all of my questions. She presented great options for me to choose from at the price point I needed. We worked well together; and I highly recommend her for design projects.

Proprietress Kim Chapman is a marvel. We have collaborated…read moreon a dozen projects over the past five years, and she gets. It. Done. The service that she and her workroom provide is exemplary. If you are looking for window treatments, look no further. As an interior designer in the industry for 30+ years, I have yet to meet a more professional, dedicated, honest, and talented individual.

Fourteen years later, my curtains continue to be beautiful and durable! Recently, a minor fix was…read morerequired. Kim's installer came and fixed it right away. Thank you, Kim! (Photo from summer)