Design Transitions

Susan emailed me through Angie's List shortly after I purchased the $199 deal. She had an appointment slot in one of my available times. I realized later that I couldn't quite make the appointment, so I called her. She answered the phone and was amenable to pushing the appointment forward an hour. When she arrived on the day of the appointment, she was very professional, but warm and easy to talk to. I loved her sense of where our family is in life and what we could/should expect out of our home and furniture. She helped me figure out how to overcome the darkness of our large family room by adding track lighting all across the ceiling between two exposed beams, and one more track lighting down the ceiling over the stairs along the opposite wall. We already have a large entertainment center that fits well in an alcove on one wall, so we talked about paint colors that would work to bring the wood colors of the trim (lots of it!) in the room and the entertainment center together. We have great wood floors, but most of it we would like to soften with a rug for this room. Susan knew just what to do to get a rug the large size that we need. Furniture selection and placement came easy to her. She looked at other rooms in our house to get a sense of what we like and our style, and that helped her advise about the sort of things we should look for as we plan the room. On one side of the great room is a bar that I have long wanted to convert to a mud room because it's already sort of a half-closeted area. She gave me wonderful ideas about how to pull that off which I can't wait to implement. Susan was extremely helpful, understanding, and knowledgeable. She of course has further services that she could do for us, all of which she laid out but was not pushy towards at all. I really enjoyed meeting her and working with her. I would recommend her to anyone!

I loved my living room and entry way. She helped me choose paint colors, decor, etc... When it was done, I loved it. And I received many compliments. She created a place that I loved -- and didn't have any preconceptions of what SHE wanted. She achieved a great area that I've loved over the years.

Susan gave me lots of very worthwhile design advice, especially for the bathrooms. I was thankful I had her suggestions before I talked with contractors. Our bathroom has a very strange layout and by taking out the tub as she suggested we will be able to have a large shower and a roomy and attractive bathroom. She also gave me suggestions on what materials and colors to use to get the look I wanted to achieve and i plan to use those suggestions. As we began the process of working with a contractor I have realized just how helpful her advice has been and wanted to share that good experience that I had not previously acknowledged. I would definitely use her again for design advice!

She gave us a lot of ideas; it was worth it.

Wish we had the budget to have her do the entire design, implementation and purchase.

Very personable. We followed through with some of the ideas

Great. We are working together now to get some of the projects done. They are a great organization. They have great design ideas. They have really helped me.

Susan came out to my house on time and ready to work. We went through the entire house and I let her know what I liked and didn't like and what basic changes I was looking for. Susan provided many ideas and tips for my entire house. I will be spending months incorporating all of the ideas she came up with and will undoubtedly dramatically improve the look and function of my home. I will likely use Susan in the future to assist in implementing some of these design improvements and for fine tuning decorating.

After our first appointment, Susan came a week or so later with her cabinet maker and Dan measured, listened and drew a great design for my "built in" bookcases. We came to a date for delivery and just like our first meeting, I was very pleased. Iv'e found the perfect dining room chair to go with the drop leaf table and my current pine table - a hand-me-down from college roommates (years ago!!), is ready to go to charity. Susan also has found a furniture restoration shop for a heirloom coffee table that needed serious refurbishing. Next up - drapes for the master bedroom, installation of the bookcase, hunting for new chandeliers and the bringing of my home from "just moved in looking" to "homey, comfortable and restorative." I cannot wait to get there!!!!

It turned out pretty good. She was professional and she was on time.

Susan was excellent, very professional. She provided detailed suggestions based on her professional experience but gave great insight to how she would design and/or decorate.

I am thrilled with the outcome of my consultation with Susan Jones. Her insight and experience are invaluable, and she explained clearly what my options were for my budget and how I could stretch my dollars to achieve the results I wanted. I plan to hire her for projects going forward, and I consider the two-hour consultation one of the best investments I will ever make in this home. Susan is warm and personable but also focused and conscientious. She gave me her full attention the entire visit and even stayed a little longer than we planned. I loved her ideas and can't wait to get started! Highly recommend!

I could not be more pleased. She used items that I've had for years and made them look fresh and appealing.

Overall, it went very well. She was incredibly responsive and asked lots of questions to try to understand both how we use our space and what our tastes are. We left the meeting with a good understanding of how to get to our ideal state.

She is a lovely woman who offered lots of great ideas! She also shared a list of contractors she uses which can be very helpful! Anyone who uses her will like her!

Susan is a doll! She had fabulous ideas! We have an older home that needs to be updated, but we did not want to go overboard. We are going back and forth between updating the home and staying or leaving as is. She was very down to earth, our 2 hours was up way to soon. She even offered to work on one project at a time and see it through from start to finish with her contractors or references.

They only consulted with us for about an hour, but everything went well. Scheduling was easy, they showed on time, and acted professionally when dealing with us. We chose, however, to do the work ourselves instead of actually having them stage the house.

Great didnt continue to use due to price - but they were very good

This is the second time I consulted with her, so that says a lot. It was very helpful. I already had materials, and we went through them. She also made great suggestions about furniture placement and even helped me move it! I went with all the things we thought were best.

The service was good. It was a good price. It was two different types of phase.

Susan was wonderful! I had her come out to give advice on staging our home to get ready to sell. She had good ideas and suggestions. Her professionalism and ability to quickly assess what you have and what you can do with it was wonderful. She is very positive and really works to make the most of the two hours. I would suggest having a list prepared of everything you want to cover when Susan arrives because the time goes by fast. I felt the cost was OK for the 2-hour consult and would love to use her again. However, her regular fee of $175/hr is too high since I would not be doing any general contracting or buying furniture through her. It sure would be nice, for folks who just need a 2-hour consult every once in a while, to have someone like Susan to call at the $175 special. But I would HIGHLY recommend Susan!

I needed some design advice for a house that I am remodeling. I selected Susan from Design Transitions because she had some experience as a general contractor in addition to being an interior designer. Her unique background was a perfect match for my needs. From the start Susan was extremely attentive to communications. She arrived promptly for our appointment and went straight to work. She gave me a lot of great ideas for reconfiguring the kitchen and 2 bathrooms in my house. I'm still in my planning stage for the project, but I intend to implement her ideas and involve her further in the project once it gets rolling.

That was good. We didn’t use them for any major changes, but it was a good process to have them walk us through.

Susan gave me good advice regarding furniture placement and painting to make it more appealing to potential buyers. I will be calling her if and when I buy another house, to decorate it for me.... instead of a buyer.

In our initial meeting with Susan we tried to give her a general idea of our lifestyle, which tends to be very informal and casual. We also indicated that we wanted to control costs, where practical, but did not have a hard budget amount because we have been living overseas for most of the last decade and do not have good ideas of today?s costs. We even shared with Susan that we had recently purchased a couple of items from local consignment stores and thought that the items were of good to high quality and were available at a very reasonable price. Over several sessions, Susan gave us some good suggestions that included both the purchase of new furniture and some that required the involvement of third party contractors (e.g. building a bookcase; installation of an up-to-date entertainment control center; building a banquette and reupholster existing furniture). Regarding the purchase of furniture; as a general rule we were not satisfied with the furniture vendors (either new furniture or consignment stores) that Susan referred us to because of such things as style, quality and price. With one major exception, the furniture we purchased was from stores we identified. Even where we identified the store, Susan was very helpful in selecting the style and fabric for the furniture we purchased. Regarding the contractors; we had significant issues with two of the three contractors Susan recommended. For example, the contractor that Susan recommended to upgrade on our entertainment control center did not schedule our project so that it would not be disrupted by repairs required by prior customers. Thus instead of the project taking about three weeks to complete, the elapsed time was 2.5 months. Upon completion, we were fairly satisfied with the project though we have continued to encounter minor issues which the contractor has been erratic in addressing. Susan arranged for a contractor to construct and install a full wall built-in bookcase unit. She worked closely with the contractor on the design and specifications. Unfortunately, she and the contractor failed to document in detail the specifications and did not do a ?strike? of the proposed final paint treatment, resulting in miscommunication and disagreement as to responsibility. As a result, Susan and the contractor gradually developed such a poor working relationship that they were no longer on speaking terms. Susan personally rectified at her cost some of the issues, but we were left to work directly with the contractor until the project was completed. The good news is that the bookcase has been installed and looks great! Susan worked very well with the third contractor who upholstered a banquette as well as reupholstered multiple chairs and made sofa pillows. Susan is very talented at identifying the appropriate mix of fabrics and designs to complement the room environment. Since we live in Cumming and not Atlanta proper, Susan had to research to find a local upholsterer, who turned out to be very talented and exceeded our expectations. Susan, who besides being an interior designer is also an architect, provided significant guidance and support associated with the identification of potential contractors to rebuild a tiled outside deck. Her contacts in the construction business are extensive. Her architectural background was very helpful in identifying and ensuring design and specifications with the building contractor were thorough, complete and accurate. This included her researching construction options to provide knowledgeable input to our decision making process. Susan was our sounding board as we proceeded with the construction of the deck and are very pleased with the final outcome. Overall Susan has very good interior design acumen, but it took some time for her to get used to our technical/analytical approach (good to superior quality at a reasonable price result in an above average value!) to decorating! Living outside of Atlanta proper may have challenged Susan to find appropriate contractors who would drive to Cumming, and thus may have been a factor in securing reliable, known contractors.