CUSTOM SPACES KITCHENS & BATHS

Catherine wanted all the money up front. We signed a contract for 15 hours for $1275. for a project consultation with "professional" design schematics for the kitchen design. She was charming when she visited to take the measurements and draw up our kitchen space. We had drawings and written ideas about how we wanted our kitchen to look and gave Catherine copies. The problems started when she e-mailed us her design. It looked nothing like we wanted. She had the sink, the dishwasher and the stove all on one side of the kitchen and the other side was a stackable washer/dryer, floor to ceiling cabinets, then the refrigerator and another series of floor to ceiling cabinets. It was industrial looking. When we had our first meeting at her shop, I tried to be gentle and say it wasn't our style to which she replied, "most people want an efficient kitchen". So, then, I told her I didn't like the industrial look. We wanted something warm and inviting. It got more and more painful to try to communicate with Catherine's condescending style. We specifically wanted the dishwasher on the right of the sink. She designed another plan with it on the left. When I told her we wanted it on the right, she said, "can't you just get used to it"? When she didn't have a plan for the pantry door, I asked her about it and she replied, "do you really need a door"? Another time, she had miscalculated a space and both my husband and I tried to tell her and she would not hear us. It was very frustrating, she is one of those people that is always right (even when she's not). The other thing that was so annoying was that every 5 minutes her computer program would go into this mode to SAVE her plans and it took at least 60 seconds. It wasted so much time. We met with Catherine a total of 4 times (& initially when we met and gave her the check). The first time she came to the house and took measurements & pictures. The 2nd and 3rd time we spent 2 hours and the final time one hour. Also, she only had time in the afternoons which made it difficult with commute traffic (adding to the stress of trying to work with her). We found out our contract hours were up when she e-mailed us her final design and notified us. There was never a discussion about how far we were into our contract. I didn't write a review sooner because I wanted the kitchen to be complete. I didn't want to relive the agony that Catherine subjected me to. I am afraid of designers now. I did learn that we shouldn't have given her all the money up front. I ended up working with Bay Area Cabinets. They were totally supportive, were always respectful to me, it was easy to schedule, and they always had a sense of humor.

See above.

We felt that the price for their services was too high and that the ideas that they were suggesting were not that creative. Not much value added to our architect.

We have an amazing kitchen thanks to Custom Spaces. Catherine was able to take several years of ideas and wishes and design for us a kitchen that works perfectly for our family. We have worked with designers in the past who were not able to make the most of our space. Catherine was able to think outside the box while maximizing counter space and work flow. Our kitchen was taken down to the studs and rebuilt by Dan and his amazing team. Daniel is professional, efficient and very skilled at what he does. He is also a fantastic problem solver who was able to efficiently handle any design or structural problems that popped up during construction. Thank you Custom Spaces for designing and building our amazing space.