Diane has been an absolute pleasure to work with throughout our home remodel project. Given our busy schedules, we knew we needed help once we decided to remodel our new house in Menlo Park. Typical of construction projects, what started as a small remodel turned out to be a yearlong project! We brought Diane onboard early on to help with the interior design for the whole residence, including all common and private areas in a four-thousand-foot residence.

We started the process by sharing with Diane magazine pictures of rooms we admired, color schemes we liked, and styles that we wanted to emulate. We also discussed how we expected to use each room in the house and concluded by agreeing on the overall look and feel that we were aiming for. In our case, we wanted a feeling of casual elegance, a decor that would be warm and inviting and, most importantly, furniture that would be kid-friendly. With two young daughters, it was important for us to furnish the house in a way that would allow them to enjoy all the rooms. Diane fully embraced our preferences and made it all look easy!

We first discussed the layout of each room, in a process that was fun and collaborative. Diane presented different options for several of the rooms and in some cases refined the layouts a few times before arriving at solutions that everyone felt very happy with. With those layouts in place, she began searching not only her prolific trade-only sources but also retailers and catalogs to find the best pieces for each space. She was very much open and willing to work within our budget in all those searches.

A few weeks later, Diane gave us a very well thought-out presentation of her proposals for all parts of the house. She came prepared with multiple “packages” for every room. Each package was built on a distinct color scheme and included samples for possible rugs, window treatments, upholstery fabrics, and wall colors along with pictures of furniture pieces and accessories to match our layouts. We enjoyed selecting what items we wanted and brainstorming alternatives when we decided to tweak the design or optimize the budget a bit further. Diane took all of our feedback very seriously, always respected our wishes, and attempted to deliver precisely what we wanted.

Once the design definition was complete, Diane worked her magic to order each and every item that we agreed on, receive it, and store it as we were awaiting the completion of the remodel. Her tracking, accounting and communication were always impeccable, giving us the choice to be as involved or uninvolved as we wanted to be. In many instances, we just gave her a carte blanche to make purchases on our behalf. Her organizational skills were outstanding, which made our collaboration much easier and productive throughout the project.

Along those lines, Diane was able to work closely with both the architect and the general contractor to help us make important design and construction decisions as the project moved along. When it was finally time for us to move in, Diane played a crucial role in bringing all of our design ideas to life. She spent several days at our home setting up everything that we had purchased, supervising furniture delivery, directing handymen, and making it all look beautiful. She even helped us scotch guard the couches so that the kids could have free access to all of them!

The result is a home that we have enjoyed living in immensely. It is beautiful and sophisticated while comfortable and accessible at the same time. The girls love their new space and our friends are constantly praising us for our great taste. We must admit that we sometimes take credit for it ourselves. But the reality is that we owe it all to Diane.

We highly recommend Diane as an interior designer and look forward to working with her again.

—Menlo Park homeowner