DIANE NELSON INTERIORS LLC

2000 sq ft condo in 100 year old building had structural issues requiring complete demo and rebuild of 2 bathrooms/kitchen and new flooring throughout. Initial meeting with Diane - she was clearly comfortable with the very old building and asked all the right questions. Significant plumbing/electrical work would be required in addition and she was immediately aware of the potential issues lurking behind the walls in such an old building. As work progressed through demo into rebuild, Diane was always immediately available to quickly and efficiently deal with issues that came up. Her contractor, plumber, electrician and cabinet maker are all top notch. Diane has a good eye for design and she and her contractor were able to maintain the feel of the original building while creating a beautiful set of new rooms/flooring for us.

We have really enjoyed working with Diane throughout our project. We asked her to do the legwork to narrow the choices as we had neither the time or interest in doing a lot of 'shopping'. She met with us and listened to our ideas and opinions and then went to work. Her recommendations were excellent. She brought us ideas that fit our lifestyle and interests. She understood what we were looking for and brought us great options. She was a calm, voice of reason throughout our project. We will engage Diane again in the future.

She was not very friendly, not very helpful and her quote is quite expensive.

I contacted Ms. Nelson based upon reviews that I had read on Angie's List. We are trying to update the interior of our house prior to putting it up for sale. When I called, I received a recorded message stating that Ms. Nelson would be out of town, but would return calls after her return on a specified date. I left a message, and on the morning of the stated return date, Ms. Nelson returned my call. Her phone demeanor was very friendly and polite, and we set up an appointment for her to come to our home. Unfortunately, upon telling my husband about the appointment, he said that we needed to address some mechanical issues before we spent any money on design and cosmetic items. I called and cancelled our appointment, and Ms. Nelson was very gracious and understanding.

This is the first time that I had ever used a designer to assist me in remodeling a condo unit to my tastes. Since I was working with a blank slate I wanted to get new ideas that would work. Also, I used her to help me decide if I should really buy the place since so much work was needed. I wanted to make the right decisions and I needed someone to lean on. What a choice I made. She really was a godsend to me. She is very easy to work with and she has lots of ideas. What I really liked was that she really honed in what I liked and gave me options on everything. I could not be more pleased. She has contacts with so many different companies and web sites and schedules the various personnel to install their items. Based on my colors I like for the walls, she refined them and worked with the painters to get the right look. Thanks to her, I ended up with condo with my style but it is really unique. It has a wow factor that I could never have created on my own. I would love to work with Diane in the future on another project.

After weeks of trying to determine the colors that would best fit our home and us, Diane made wonderful suggestions. She explained her choices and it all seemed so simple. Having Diane assist with updating our home was a wonderful experience.

She came out to the house and spent an hour going over some ideas for decorating our new kitchen and living room. The worst part was that she trapped me for 20 minutes going over HER portfolio and charged me for an hour and half. Was not impressed with ideas or presentation.

She came and provided a quote, which I was not comfortable with. I asked if she was willing to work with my budget, but she explained it wasn't something she was able to do at this time. She was polite, but the price was too high. I'm still looking into other companies.

We found Diane using Angie's list. She arrived for our first and all meetings on time and was always very professional. She took the time to get to know us and our general thoughts about the project. On our second meeting she brought her ideas for furniture types , coverings and placement. Over the next few months she patiently worked with us to pick furniture , lamps, window treatments and counter tops and supervise their installation. Diane is not afraid to tell you what she thinks "works". She brought us ideas we never would have considered that we acted on and enjoy. She also acted as a "general contractor" of sorts between us and furniture vendors and workers. If we had in issue with any provider we spoke with her and she handled it. She is well connected to suppliers and workers and we were comfortable with the people she brought into the project. With respect to her fees, we never felt that we were over billed . She was always fair as she figured the hours she had into our project. We would not hesitate to recommend her as someone you should interview as you consider a professional interior designer.

The work went well. She found the painters for me, and I selected one of the two that she brought in for estimates. The painting was finished about 2 weeks ago. I found her to be easy to very flexible and easy to work with. She was very concerned about my ideas and my taste. I strongly recommend her.

We called Diane based on recommendation from Angie's List. DIane was professional, easy to work with and had good ideas on color. The job involved painting the ceilings and walls in five rooms. For the painting she had two choices for painters she recommended for the work. Both came recommended by her. It was in the choice of interior painters that we were ultimately disappointed. The painter was on-time, courteous, and easy to work with but in the end the attention to detail was the problem we had. They rolled the ceiling paint, which looked fine, but after they left, we found (and continue to find) flecks of paint on our household items that they obviously did not cover well. There was paint on furniture (cloth and leather), mantel clock, lamps, piano, large mission style bookcase with deep grain, etc. They also did not do well on edging on the baseboards. They used tape, and did not finish retouching the edges after they pulled the tape off. With a white wall this may not be noticeable, but this was a darker color on a light wall and was very obvious. They tried to remove some of the paint speckles when we first noticed it, but the fact that we continue to find paint on items tells me that they did not do their prep work well. One obvious paint smear was sideways on a cloth chair, and seems to have been made not from a drip, but from a wet drop cloth that was placed over the chair. After a discussion with Diane and the painter we decided to paint over our kitchen wallpaper rather than remove it (it was very well fastened), but they did not prep the old wallpaper by gluing down the loose edges that abutted the plain painted wall. This has resulted in areas of wallpaper sticking out on the edges, rather than flat against the wall after the paint had dried. We also assumed all walls would be prepped, holes repaired, and dings filled in before painting, but this did not seem to be done. When we spoke to Diane about the poor quality, she came out to inspect it. She agreed that there were some problems and offered to have them touch up the baseboards, but offered no solution or recompense for the paint spatters on furniture throughout the house. We elected to do the touch up ourselves.

Diane hired workman that were timely and very considerate. They did the job according to our plan. Diane also herself would do some of the work for us. She has a great eye for colors and how to match rooms. She was excellent on keeping the entire job within our budget and her estimate.

Diane is very easy to work with. I have used her before on a smaller project in my house, window treatments, but after working closely for 8 weeks, I can tell you, she never loses her cool. Diane worked hard to create a design that my husband and I would both like, yet would still be something she could be proud of. While we tried not to put too many constraints on her designs, my husband is more conservative than I, so she had to bring in a few different elements. The idea boards she created were great for us. We are in the medical field and not good with envisioning design. She had "country elegance" and "vintage Hollywood" color schemes for the master bedroom and bathroom for us to choose from. We liked the country bedroom and the vintage bathroom. She brought them both together. While my bedroom is still not finished, needs new furniture, hardwood floors, etc, the wallpaper and paint is amazing. And my bathroom is my favorite place in the house now, maybe it's the heated floor?. Diane held our hand through the whole project. Anything I wasn't happy with was taken care of, no problem. One other nice thing she did for us... we were having a cocktail party at our home. I really wanted the powder room to at least have a working toilet at that time. Not only was the toilet working, but the whole powder room was done. She even went out and picked up some accessories the day before to add the finishing touches for me. The bathroom looked great for the party.

I emailed Diane to see if she'd take on a small project - creating a office space in my living room. Within a day or two she replied that she could, and we set up an appointment. She arrived on time and, along with her intern, they measured the area for a desk, chair and file cabinet, we discussed putting glass shelves on some tables I had in the living room and we discussed the way my room was set up. I did make some changes to my furniture placement in response to our discussion. In about a week, she called and we made another appointment to go over her plan. After reviewing some furniture selections, we decided she'd speak to a cabinet maker/carpenter about building a desk from scratch. A week went by and she emailed a description of the desk. I decided against the desk, and then found one on my own. So, the work Diane did for me consisted mainly of her time spent in creating a plan, two meetings and talking to the cabinet maker. She recently came over to install the glass shelves. All in all, it was a good experience, as I've never used a decorator before and she did give me some good tips on furniture arrangement.

The overall experience was excellent. I liked her low key approach to decorating and found that she listened to my likes and dislikes. Her suggestions have helped me to visualize rooms that have been sitting stripped of old wallpaper since January. Now that I have had help from an expert, I feel comfortable moving forward and finishing those ugly rooms. Diane asked me if I wanted to do the shopping or if I would want her to. I love to shop, so will do it myself knowing that I can always call her for more help.

Diane was excellent at making suggestions that fit our style and existing furniture. Her color ideas included some that we would never have chosen on our own, and we absolutely love them. She was efficient, calm, and respectful of our budget. Everything was done on time. We will definitely use her again.

Diane was very professional and setting appointments was easy. She was able to make recommendations while giving consideration to factors such as family needs, (my) lack of designing knowledge, and an extended time table. On the first visit we walked through the house, talked about the projects, and she took measurements and pictures. Because she bills hourly, she gave us the option of only doing one project at a time or making recommendations for the whole first floor. I chose the latter. On her second visit, approximately 2 weeks later, Diane came with paint color samples, recommendations and pictures of light fixtures, rugs, window treatments, fabric samples, tile samples and pictures of furniture. All were exactly what we had in mind. She cautioned us that the exact items might not be available in the future depending on how long we wait to order, but she would also be available to help us with that at that point. We plan on ordering several of the items through her in the next year as the house restoration progresses.

I have a brand new condo and I needed some help to make it nice. I like color in my home. I needed some consulting services on my new condo. I would recommend them and use them again.

Excellent. Very nice person and she listened to us. When we started putting the paint on we thought maybe we made a mistake (didn't like the color at first), but by the time it dried we were very pleased.

Diane is very professional and has great ideas. She gets to know her clients and their needs/style before she makes recommendations. Diane did a great job customizing her vision for my personal taste. I will continue to use Diane to decorate the rest of my home.

Diane is very professional and is able to quickly figure out what you are looking for and what styles fit best. She is easy to work with, friendly, and responsible. I highly recommend her.

It was so nice not to feel rushed in making a decision, and I felt that I definitely got my money's worth.

Diane is friendly and professional and was quickly able to key into my decorating and color preferences. On the first visit Diane took measurements, looked over the areas of interest and we talked about what I like and don't like. She also showed me a portfolio of homes and businesses she has decorated. For the second visit Diane presented several options for the window treatment, art, and wall colors, and since I very much liked what she showed me, I was able to select what I wanted quickly. Diane ordered the window treatment and had it installed and ordered the art and hung it herself. From start to finish took a little over 3 months and the result is a house with great color flow and a cozy and finished-looking living room. I consider the cost well worth it as opposed to decorating myself, hating what I've done, and redoing it. I plan on consulting Diane again for my next decorating project.

Diane is fabulous. Every time she presented to me, she had several options for me to choose from. It was like being on one of those design shows where several designers show ideas! After her initial consultation, it was obvious that she understood my taste and what I wanted in my rooms. She did a marvelous job of integrating some of my family pieces in ways I would have never considered. I am very pleased with the quality of the seamstress and upholstery people she uses.

Diane did a wonderful job. She listened to us and designed a terrific room that met our needs. She gave us 2 or 3 choices when picking paint colors and fabrics. It made the job easy and manageable. She was always prompt, personable and professional. She charges a flat hourly rate ($55) for all design work. Diane has good taste and chooses excellent quality furniture that can be expensive. We are very happy with our new living room!