I would not recommend Gardner & Associates (Julie Gardner) services for the following 9 reasons:
1) She allegedly inherited the business.
Please be aware whatever the previous owner did or had done, does not mean the person running it now automatically deserves or has earned the businesses' assumed reputation. That's a matter of personal opinion.
2) While charging a high mark-up on items plus a high dollar per hour for her time on top of that, Julie did not have either a custom furniture maker to make new upholstered furniture (only showrooms where pieces could be modified) , a custom lampshade maker, or a custom curtain or valance maker. Something that was not divulged up front. Therefore my personal opinions are that her high end fees are not justified given the lack of services she has to offer. Services some other luxury designers DO have to offer.
3) Her paperwork was not organized the way I would expect from someone running this business. Her bookkeeper rarely managed to send me digital records in a usable fashion, she used winmail dat file formats that my computer could not read, despite my repeated requests for PDF copies. She provided accounting analysis that was not on her letterhead.
I had made a complaint about the bookkeeping not being sufficient and the response I received indicated that it wouldn't be corrected because it was acceptable to the business owner due to the personal relationship between the bookkeeper and the business owner.
4) I ordered 2 custom Queen headboards and requested them to be taller. Never once did she suggest the footboards for those beds she ordered would also then need to be proportionately made taller. I feel that these oversights of size and scale for the designs being proposed are unacceptable when employing a high dollar interior designer.
5) I ordered a multitude of items from her for my guest house and main house over a 2 year period. The agreed color palette for selected items had been shades of blue, white, cream, beige or brown.
I do not like gray. None of the fabrics or trims I chose would or will ever be of a gray color palette.
Regardless, she ordered and then had upholstered 2 living room ottomans trim with gray and gold trim, had them put in storage and then delivered to my home at the end of the project. She then refused to correct her mistake - stating (paraphrased) "sorry you didn't like it. I will replace it at your expense. Not my error. You signed a proposal".
Correct, Yes I signed many proposals from her which included trims - with zero color descriptions because I trusted that the color palette of everything being upholstered would match since she is the designer putting everything together. And I knew everything I personally saw and chose had the color palette I like in it.
6) She refused to take responsibility and replace the $571 worth of trims before her mark up was added on.
Keep in mind that the overall project was a very large home and guest house. But she chose to be petty, and make a big deal over making a small change to trim on 2 ottomans.
7) At this point I have found that I cannot trust her paperwork. Evidently I should have double checked the minutia of every line in dozens and dozens of purchases, insisting she change her paperwork to indicate colors on our palette.
Isn't that what a designer is supposed to do? Make sure that everything matches and makes sense room to room?
8) I don't believe that anyone should be treated unprofessionally and be forced to pay for corrections to furniture that you already paid to have reupholstered - when there is clearly a design issue.
9) There were numerous times where she was unavailable during the work week due to family issues. Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, parental care. Personally, when I worked, I worked a 40 hour work week; business was my priority because I had a boss and would have been fired otherwise.
10) I typically would let a few bad things go if the totality of work was acceptable.
But the level of service was not acceptable; and due to the overall attitude of working with the self claimed full service designer, my honest and truthful opinion is that it is important to bring up these lacking points from my own experience. read more