Inspired Designs by Marilyn

Working with Marilyn was super easy, relaxing and fun! She was responsive, had great ideas, a pleasing personality, and reasonable pricing. Marilyn helped us get over the 'feeling inundated' stage to moving on to the 'implementation' stage. Marilyn will be as involved as you want her to be. In our situation we wanted to be very involved in the process so she provided the much needed guidance. She met us at several stores to provide guidance on scale, color, etc. She also met us at home when the mason came which was very helpful as she had great suggestions. She gave us lots of good ideals on potential projects in the home. We enjoyed working with Marilyn and highly recommend her!

Marilyn is extremely easy to work with. She listens carefully and comes up with great ideas. She quickly understood our priorities and used them as her guiding principles throughout the process. I tell her she saved my marriage many times during the home building journey. I would recommend Marilyn to anyone who has a design project of any scope. Marilyn is an absolute joy!

Perfectly. She was helpful in every possible way, from spotting issues with the house plans and helping with the layout, to making suggestions about where to spend on quality items and where to save money. She had a hand in planning and decorating the house from top to bottom. She even hung our pictures. She was sensitive to our tastes and budget, and diplomatic at all times. In short, her ideas and assistance were more than worth her reasonable fees.

Marilyn dialed into my taste expertly and brought over some excellent fabric books and, sure enough, the perfect one jumped out. She has a superb upholsterer, Trini, who is a master at the job. He also got rid of the pesky squeaks that one of the chairs had developed. The fabric was expensive, which I was aware of when I chose it. The cost of upholstering was also an investment, but, for me, well worth it. These chairs will be around a long time and will be looking distinctive and beautiful all the while. I am very satisfied and would happily contact Marilyn again.

Marilyn was wonderful. She worked on my time schedule and within my budget. She found new, beautiful ways to use items from my old house. She helped me pick out new fixtures and showed me how to use items I found in second hand shops. All in all, it was a great experience and I would use her again!

Getting ready to put my home up for sale on the MLS, I asked Marilyn to look over my home and make suggestions that would help it sell quickly. Marilyn charged $80 for an hour of initial consultation. It was definitely worth the time and money. She made suggestions that were right on to help me update the house and make it much more presentable, without spending a lot of money. That's what I wanted, was cost effective suggestions. Both my wife and I were very impressed with what she suggested. We ended up implementing about 80% of all her suggestions. Guess it paid off because the house sold VERY quickly. We placed it on the MLS on Thursday, held an open house Saturday and received an offer that evening. Finalized negotiations the next morning. So, a total of 3 days on the market. Can't get a whole lot better than that. I'm sure the things we did based on her suggestions played a major part in being able to sell so quickly.

I called her because I have a sofa and loveseat I want to have reupholstered. She referred me to her reupholsterer and said he was absolutely "the best". Trinidad Garcia came out to my house and gave me an estimate. I had had several other estimates but because he was referred by a decorator and gave me an estimate in writing, I decided to go with him. I asked for references and he gave me two other decorators, one of whom did call me back and also gave him a glowing report. His estimate of the amount of fabric needed was below that of the others and I questioned this. He told me they would probably tell me they needed the higher amount 30-40 yards and they would only buy 25 yards and charge me for the 30-40 yards. As I had already suffered great disappointments such as that since moving to Prescott Valley, I believed him. The fabric cost me $3,000 and it turned out the manufacrurer was not making that fabric any longer and had 24.75 yards available. I questioned if that would be enough and was assured it was. My sofa and loveseat are made by Ethan Allen and were very expensive in 2003, when I purchased them new. They were overstuffed. When he returned the sofa, I paid him the $700 plus that he wanted and he left. It "looked" pretty good to me. And then I sat on it. He had turned my overstuffed sofa into a park bench. Then I noticed the quality of his work - the sofa is a "T" and one of the "T's" hung over the frame of the sofa. The welting on the front of the seat which should have been on the edge of the foam, was below the foam, and I could feel the wood frame on the back of the sofa. He told he he had not expected to have to restuff the cushions. I was utterly shocked. What did he expect? To throw new fabric on a 12 year old sofa without restuffing it. Then it dawned on me. He had never planned to make it an overstuffed sofa and love seat. He had not paid any attention to my desires and had decided to make it a hard surface. He then said he would bring out a piece of foam and have me look at it to see if it was what I wanted. sure, and then if there was a problem, it would be my fault. Then I realized there wasn't enough fabric to make it overstuffed and unless he put a smaller piece of foam into the seat cushions, there was no way the amount of fabric could accommodate the stuffing that was necessary to make it overstuffed. I called his reference decorator and she was horrified. I called Marilyn, the decorator who referred him to me, but have not heard back from her. When I didn't hear from her after the first call, I left a detailed message on her machine and didn't expect to get a response. This man has cost me a fortune, which I can ill afford.

We moved to Prescott less than 3 months ago and were interested in painting the interior of our home. We also needed ideas on how to decorate and place furniture. Contacted Marilyn through Angie's List. Made an appointment for several days later. She arrived on time, was very personable and professional. Absolutely loved her and all of her ideas and suggestions! She is excellent at picking paint colors and arranging furniture and accessories. We will be using all of her ideas, and will be contacting her in the future for other ideas as we progress with the interior painting. She wrote everything down for us, so we have a plan and direction on where we want to go with the house. Marilyn's fee is very reasonable. She listens to what we want and adds her ideas to make it perfect. We highly recommend her!

I was very pleased with every step of the transformation of my house. Marilyn used almost every decorative item I had and purchased some for me as well. She is very personable and works with you in finding just the perfect look for your home.

The price was very fair plus she devised some clever solutions for our drapes which allowed us to save thousands. She is extremely professional and extremely likeable. And she is a perfectionist about the quality of her work. We would not hesitate to use her again.