Happy Place Interiors

We were very pleased with Melanie’s visit to our home and for her suggestions on our basement remodel project. We were especially pleased with her professional and personal responses to our individual wants and needs.

Wonderfully! We HIGHLY recommend Melanie! We had just moved into our first home, and didn't have a lot to work with and weren't sure what to expect. Gratefully Melanie did an amazing job helping us identify easy & affordable quick fixes to make our home more beautiful. She also shared helpful insight into DIY projects we could take on, her experiences, and projects we could wait and think on. We loved her insights into setting a color scheme based on what we already had, and how to best mesh different styles with our home. We will likely use her services again, and can't say enough good things about her support!

Melanie is incredible. She came by our house to give us a consultation for our living room and dining room. She came prepared with wonderful ideas, and was able to answer all of our questions. Melanie takes into account your lifestyle, and is able to give you great options for design that won't change your day to day activities. On top of that, she's so fun and we had a great time working with her.

Awesome!!! We followed Melanie’s suggestions in updating our higher end home to prepare for a sale. Our home is lovely but was dated and we needed guidance.... Melanie knew exactly what a younger buyer would look for in purchasing! We sold in a week! Thanks to Melanie’s expertise!!!!

Melanie is excellent at what she does! We hired her for a 2-hour design consult for the main level of our home. She sent us a survey to fill out beforehand asking about our color preferences, style, etc. so she knew a bit about our interests before she came. Then she used the time to not only introduce us to design tips in general, but to give us specifics on colors, patterns, items to consider, and more. Melanie also answered all of our questions and is available for many follow-up options, from 10 minutes of consulting to a full shopping trip and install. We're really happy with what she did for us!

Melanie is great to work with! She took the time to understand my style and help me to see how I could make changes in my home that would make me feel proud and comfortable to live there. She not only came up with some out-of-the-box ideas but also didn't make me feel overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done. Would highly recommend!

I’m a left brained person. A handy woman at heart without a sense of color. My desire was to update my tired, worn out traditional home to be more contemporary. But I needed a plan. A strategy that I could execute. If someone would just come with fresh eyes and tell me what works and what doesn’t. Most of all, what colors should I go with, for the most impact, least expensive thing possible…. Paint. Melanie from Happy Places did just that. Not only did she leave me with a map that I could follow, laying out specifically what color to paint where. She also gave me a list of online stores that compete with my beloved (and expensive) favorite ‘Room and Board’. I can’t wait to get started and thanks to Melanie have the confidence to make it happen. I truly recommend Happy Places if needing advice or having trouble taking the first step.

I hosted a "Wine and Design" event with Melanie and had so much fun. I invited 4 friends, my 2 daughters, and my husband. Melanie quickly showed us how I could make my dining room appear bigger, simply by turning the table. She also helped me with some pointers on easy tricks to open up the space in my bedroom. Lastly, the design project was focused on my basement. Melanie taught us all by rearranging my existing furniture and adding a few decorative pieces, it changed the entire mood of the room and made it way more functional, inviting, and cozy. My friends all benefited from Melanie's help as well. Everyone brought a picture of a troubled area/room of their homes. Melanie gave them each helpful advice on how to change the space. Melanie also gave a talk on current style trends and a quick tutorial on choosing paint. We were about to start a major home remodel and her paint advice was so helpful throughout the entire process of the remodel. My home now feels more congruent and it flows. I cannot say enough about Melanie's expertise. My two daughters constantly quote what they learned from Melanie when it comes to the design of our home. Melanie brings a warmth, fun, and an expert eye for making your home the best version of itself. I loved that I did not feel pressure of needing to purchase new furniture for my home and that she used the pieces we had to make it better. I loved my time with Melanie and highly recommend her.

We are a couple beyond being empty nesters. We were in dire need of professional direction to assist us in updating our home. We were a bit reluctant to hire an interior designer as the interior designers we had experienced years earlier, were not necessarily warm and friendly and suggested unrealistic, expensive ideas. In searching online, we had the good fortune to find Melanie of Happyplaceinteriors.com! We reached out to her through her website and she quickly responded. After explaining what we thought to be our immediate needs, she clearly stated her fees. We were happy to be able to set a date for her to come to our home in a timely fashion. She arrived promptly, even texting her ETA! We were delighted to discover Melanie was warm, friendly, and accommodating. More importantly, she educated us as to what she was doing and why, so that in the future we could apply some of her expertise on our own. This was extremely helpful! She also suggested small changes such as moving items around our home that we already owned, rather than discarding and purchasing all new items which had been our previous experience with other designers. Very cost effective! She stayed at our home for the allotted time. She was also willing to return as we found we wanted her assistance with other areas we did not initially discuss with her. We had many guests over this past holiday season. It was the first time we felt like our home was truly warm, inviting, and holiday-ready! We had many positive comments, such as “Wow, this is magazine worthy! What have you done with your home?!” “Wow, it looks so different! This is blowing me away!” (This last comment was from our son-in-law with an art background, so this was especially meaningful.) While it’s nice to have awesome comments from others, more important is that my husband and I find our home now to be much warmer and cozier for us! We’ve always liked our home, but now we LOVE our home! We will only use Melanie for our future projects. We don’t hesitate to give her the highest possible rating in all aspects! Mary & Roy

Melanie was a pleasure to work with. Very responsive to emails prior to our appt, on time and prepared, and delivered exactly what we were looking for.

I am thrilled with the service received from Melanie at Happy Place Interiors. She came to talk to us about staging for a sale but after hearing our story about the reason for our wanting to buy a different home, she thought that with a few of her decorating tricks and a bit of light remodeling we'd actually come like our home and want to live there. Her confidence gave us confidence and we decided to reconsider selling. We followed every piece of advice she gave us, and let her work her magic. WE LOVE OUR HOME NOW! Everyone says, "WOW!! This looks like a home out of a magazine." And I say it too; every time I come home. Melanie and Happy Place Interiors are simply amazing!

Melanie was pleasant, professional, and extremely helpful. I really appreciate how responsive she was to my wants, needs, and lifestyle. She didn't judge our past interior decorating choices (some of which were admittedly questionable) and tailored her suggestions to the level of renovation we were able to do and our budget. She dealt with the periodic interruptions from a 4 year old with kindness and patience. She made some excellent suggestions for how we could better use our space, including a few simple changes that made our kitchen MUCH more useable. I would definitely hire Melanie/Happy Place Interiors again!

We initially reached out to Melanie to help with furniture selection, furniture arrangement, and decorating ideas for our living room and family room. Although we are empty-nesters, our house still looked like we had middle-schoolers. At our first visit, Melanie made some recommendations that got us soooo excited. Then she completed the Style Guides. Totally stoked! She talked about paint color, suggested some new furniture pieces, showed how different light fixtures would more accurately reflect our style... VERY FUN! Then she came back and decluttered, arranged the furniture, styled the rooms, and wow! People say it looks like a completely different house. She is Amazing. Incredibly Talented. This SuperGal asks questions, is a terrific listener, and helped us love our home. We are REALLY looking forward to working with her on the next project: the master bedroom. We highly recommend Happy Place Interiors. Money well spent!

We engaged with Happy Place Interiors to redecorate the entire main level of our house starting with Design Concept Boards moving into paint recommendations, furniture, light fixtures, rugs, accessories, etc.. We're over the moon with how our space has been transformed. Melanie provided patient guidance along the way and encouraged us to think differently and out of the box with several of our rooms. Her thoughtfulness and attention to detail pulled it all together and she left us with a few tips we can use to bring the same style to other areas of our home. She created a space that feels really "us" — comfy with a touch of class.

Melanie listened to my priorities, she offered unique options for color, carpet, lighting, furniture placement and general design elements that I hadn't considered, and kept my budget in mind while offering stylish solutions. She made the process fun and always stayed in contact with me. Melanie promptly replies to my questions and messages and her billing rate is a good value for the superior service she provides. I fully plan on continuing to work with her on various design projects.

Melanie was great! She really listened to my husband and me (who have very different tastes), and came up with solutions that satisfied us both. She has great ideas and a real sense of style. We will definitely hire her again.

Melanie came to our place to provide a 2-hour consultation on our dining room. It is a room with numerous limitations and is very awkward. For the 3+ years we've been in this house, we have been trying to figure out how to make it work, and we just knew we were out of our depth. Having Melanie come over was the smartest thing we've done, and well worth the investment. Melanie was able to see us within about a week and a half, right during her busy season. That wasn't because it was easy, but because she knew how urgently we wanted to see her, and she worked hard to fit us in, keeping in communication with us about the scheduling piece all along. She showed up exactly on time and totally prepared. She had read the info I sent her ahead of time and was really appreciative of the time I had put into preparing us for the visit. I felt really comfortable with Melanie right from our first phone conversation. I am sensitive to really strong personalities and can get withdrawn if I feel nervous about being judged. Melanie was so positive, friendly, warm and easy to talk to, I never felt afraid to say what I thought. At the same time, she is honest. She just has that gift for being very tactful and sensitive in how she expresses her opinions. And she was also so professional that she was able to keep us really on-task and focused with grace instead of coming off like she didn't care about anything but the job at hand. She was genuinely a fantastic listener and communicator. She picked up immediately on the things that were really important to us - like our kids being able to reach and explore our wall map - and made sure to incorporate all those ideas into the plan. Basically, we talked and played around with different ideas, and we literally moved and changed the furniture around, even borrowing pieces and plants from the next room, to get the feel for what we wanted. Little by little, we get greater and greater clarity about what was and wasn't working, and how to fix it. Melanie went so far as to get up on a chair and move our very heavy, dusty chandelier, over to the proper location on the ceiling, to let us stand back and visualize the difference it would make. She was super immersed in our challenge - in getting the details right and working together. She also was fantastic at communicating the overarching design concepts in a really accessible way - how we needed to create more balance in the room, how difference pieces add visual weight, etc. She was very clear-headed about what needed to change. At the same time, the understanding was developing organically through all of us - it's not that she came in and told us what to do. She followed our lead on what we knew we wanted, but brought all the knowledge, experience, and perspective we lacked. She had actually woken up early that morning thinking about the photos I sent her, and it lead her to bring a "prop" - a stylish fruit-holding centerpiece for the table with faux apples inside. I know this sounds a little crazy, but when she put that on the table it actually changed the whole feel of the room. It was the finishing touch that allowed us to see the potential of the space, and have a concrete idea for how to create that look. Another thing I really liked about Melanie was that she was very grounded in reality and real-life living. For example, at one point, the idea was raised of whether foot traffic into the house could shift to another nearby door instead of going through the dining room. I was entertaining it in my mind, feeling tempted to consider it, and even mentioning to her how a previous owner had probably used that door, because of all the coat hooks near there. But it was an idea that didn't make sense for real life because it was totally unrealistic that we would go the longer way into the house. And she knew that and immediately, gracefully pinpointed why that idea wouldn't fly. She gets that things will follow the path of least resistance, and that your plan for your house has to be grounded in what really works, day-to-day, not what *should* work. Melanie also really appreciated the kid-related side of our challenges and needs, and that was one thing that made me feel most comfortable with her. She has a child not much older than ours, and she was really able to (a) relate to, and validate, some of the crazy things that need to be done to make a house with small children work and be safe, and (b) also help us to imagine how things will change over the next few years. It is really hard for us to visualize our kids' needs being different 2 years from now, and she was amazing at helping us keep that in mind and understand what decisions that would affect. We came up with a plan that works for now, with high chairs and very little kids, but also will work once our kids are sitting in their own chairs at the table. This was my first time meeting an interior design person, and I had a couple misgivings. I thought they might be stuck-up and unable to relate to those of us who don't have an eye for interior design - my husband and I have made some pretty awful decor choices! Melanie never made us feel judged for our design indiscretions, or even for things that WE like, but know that most other people may not. Secondly, I expected there to be issues with conflict of interest. But there absolutely was not! She never once brought up companies or referrals as if she was trying to send business to friends. And she worked with what we had and the fact that we didn't have tons of money to throw at our dining room, instead of working up an extravagant plan that involved ripping stuff out and changing everything. In the end, I think we'll be spending less money than I imagined on this, and that's because she had lots of great ideas that will make a huge impact without blowing tons of money. Melanie brought a folder with notepaper for us to use, and as soon as she left, I wrote down what we discussed. Now we have a clear, specific plan (with, for example, names of paint colors, websites to check out, and of course, all the big decisions made), and we are STOKED to get to work! I will definitely be recommending Melanie to friends and family. She went above and beyond and was extremely well-suited to her line of work. If you are feeling overwhelmed or confused about a design issue, you will finish your meeting with her feeling relieved and re-energized to make your house awesome.

Melanie is amazing! She is great at suggesting small changes that make a big difference. She is personable, professional, and gives very practical advice. Recently she helped us transform a vacant home with dated finishes into a home with a modern look and feel that got rave reviews, multiple showings, and sold quickly for the right price. I would highly recommend Melanie to anyone that is thinking of selling their home. She provides a superior service for an excellent value. Thank you Melanie!

I could not be happier with the results! There's a reason Melanie chose Happy Place Interiors as her business name, because that's exactly what she helps create… A happy place! I consulted Melanie for help decorating our living room and sunroom… two adjacent yet conflicting spaces in terms of style and structure. I was at a loss. I've worked with other decorators before and what set Melanie apart is her passion and preparation. She got an idea of my style and needs upfront, then came with so many great ideas… I could tell she had spent a lot of time preparing for our meeting. She provided insightful ideas not just for these two spaces, but spent time going through any space in the house and answering my questions and giving ideas. She's a fantastic listener. I walked away from that very first meeting with everything I needed to know and do to give my spaces the feel I was looking for, all while maximizing what we already had to work with, and considering our budget, kids and pets. The transformation is amazing! We all love it! Probably the most succinct thing I could say about Melanie is that she gives the care and attention as if she was decorating her own house. I will use her again for every decorating project I have!

It went great! Melanie did an amazing job! I was extremely pleased with everything I almost didn't want to sell my house because her staging looked amazing! She was such a sweet person to work with as well! I love that 10% of cost goes back into the community! I have recommended Melanie to a few people and they have been more than happy with the great quality work that she has done. She is definitely my go to person for any type of interior design!

Aside from the amazing makeover, what probably surprised us the most was the complete transformation accomplished with a very modest budget. Our bedroom went from a place to go to sleep or fold some laundry to a special sanctuary in a matter of 2 days. Our only regret was not doing this sooner...Life is too short!

It could not have gone any better - I am over the moon with my new bedroom and I even sleep better!!