From Paula L.
After completing a major kitchen remodel, I was “done”, but my home wasn’t. The thought of having to refurnish much of our home seemed daunting, and I found I needed help getting started again. That 80’s furniture just had to go. Lois was the perfect choice for me. We got along extremely well from our first meeting on. She listened to what I wanted to accomplish, as well as to my concerns. I found her to be knowledgeable, upbeat and friendly with a “Yes I can help you with that” attitude…Just exactly what I needed at the time. Lois is willing to help her clients as much (or as little) as they like. We started with refurnishing the master bedroom and the family room. I knew the bedroom set I wanted but was stuck on a paint color for the room…And then there was the bedding to pick out. She found a color we loved right off, and the bedding and accessories followed easily…Next we moved on to choosing family room furniture which proved to be challenging to say the least, but with her positive attitude we persevered. When the furniture finally arrived, my husband and I were very pleased to have a comfortable, cozy, updated family room at last. Lois was a great help when it came to choosing and placing art in my home…But more importantly to me, Lois and her aide, Dedra, excelled at hanging and arranging numerous family photos in very attractive “mini” galleries. For example, it was Lois’ idea to add baby shoes to the wall where my children’s baby pictures hung. It is a wonderful touch and I love it! Last but not least, Lois performed a fabulous make-over of my living room by replacing only one outdated chair, while using the rest of my existing furnishings. I left while they performed their magic. When I came home, I hardly recognized the room…It was amazing! Not only did she rearrange the furniture, but she selected special items for display on the tables…items I had tucked away in a china cabinet. In my opinion, one of the best changes she made was rearranging a large built-in bookcase over the fireplace. She artfully displayed books, photos and other nic-nacs. What a difference! It is now my favorite focal point in the room. A plus for me is that I learned some valuable lessons from watching Lois work…Whether intended or not, she is a wonderful mentor. When it came time to furnish and decorate the last room on my list, my office, I was ready. I’m happy to say, even the book shelves that I arranged have that Lois touch. Lois and I had a wonderful working relationship for about a year…Would I highly recommend her? Yes! In a heart beat.
From Allen S.
Lois came it to interior decorate my 2nd floor town home (consisting of kitchen, dining room, and living room). She helped pick out a color scheme and also purchased paintings and accessories based on my feedback. Since I was on a tight schedule, she finished this all within 3 days. She was able to prioritize what mattered most to finish within the 3 days, and also gave great feedback and followup on things we could not complete.
The end result turned out fantastic. Everyone who comes by/visits always comments on how nice everything looks (most of the time they say it looks like they entered a model home). In addition to the great looks, the design is warm and inviting and the space is well utilized. I am very impressed that Lois was able to do all this in such a short time-frame. I will definitely use her again for interior decorating my 3rd floor (bedrooms and stairway).
From Patty M.
Where do I begin-my house is beautiful! Friends who see it now are absolutely stunned (in a good way) at the change and can’t believe it’s the same house-it is that different. I originally just wanted Lois to help with ideas for redesigning the kitchen, and picking out a new couch for the living room. I had my mind set on using the same colors, just freshening them up. I also needed to replace carpeting throughout the house and get furniture for a few other rooms. Well…she made some suggestions for colors and materials that I would not have thought about, and as I began looking at her ideas and implementing them, I found that her suggestions were perfect, and the results were still in tune with my taste. We replaced the carpet with beautiful hardwood floors, and the wall color throughout the house is different (and much better) than what I first wanted. We also added crown molding, larger baseboards, and all new interior doors and hardware, which I had not originally thought of doing. The kitchen is beyond my wildest dreams-very much the style and look that I wanted, but far more beautiful and “finished” than I could have achieved without her. You can see it on her website! It had been gutted down to the studs, so everything in it is the result of Lois’s enhancement of my original vision. As far as the rest of the house, we ended up doing far more than originally planned, because everything kept turning out so darn beautiful, I wanted to keep going! I quickly learned to trust her judgment, and never regretted it. Then when I thought everything was pretty much done, she did a whole-house “makeover” while I was at work, with final tweaking of furniture placement, accessories, and adding those little touches that make a home. I’ll never forget the experience of walking into the house and seeing the final result, complete with beautifully framed artwork that she hadn’t allowed me to peek at until it was hung! Everything was moved around and rearranged, and it looked absolutely perfect. I couldn’t be happier with the results-thank you, Lois!
From Diane D.
When I met Lois, I was in the middle of a huge remodeling job. I originally asked for help picking colors for two bedrooms. Lois ended up selecting the colors and choosing the window treatments. Later she came back with an assistant, and in my son’s bedroom she arranged the furniture, hung pictures, and made sure his room looked finished. She proved to be an invaluable resource dealing with the general contractor. She helped me select tile and granite for three bathrooms. Working with the tile contractor, she developed designs for three bathrooms. Lois lent her design skills to every room of my house. Whether it was picking paint colors, shopping for furniture, buying accessories, Lois helped me select almost everything for my home. She worked with furniture and accessories that I had. She got me through the worst part of the remodeling process. I cannot say enough good things about Lois and highly recommend her. I am still working with Lois and plan to continue to work with her until my home is completed.
From Eleanor D.
Lois provided a 2-hour design consultation to help make an older, dated home (recently purchased) into more liveable space for the foreseeable future. My goal was to get primarily paint color selections made that would help with the flow of the home and any design suggestions she might have that would improve the space until a more thorough remodel could take place.
Lois was very personable and recognized both our family preferences and the challenges of just moving into an older home. She brought color wheels for paint options and worked with me to find preferences. Then she guided those choices to select coordinated colors for the entire home. After leaving, she sent an email confirming all the paint color names and numbers, then helped again via email with new suggestions when one sample painted wall was not to our liking. I will be looking to hire her again to help with furniture placement and decor using what we currently have once painting is completed.
From Wendy W.
Lois has helped me on several different occasions, from the small jobs of helping me choose a paint color, to the large task of overseeing the remodel of our family room. In that instance, she designed it, continually consulted with the workmen, shopped with me for furnishings and then finished with her signature 1-day room decoration. She used things that we had purchased (at discount stores like TJ Maxx) and also moved many other items from other rooms in the house, giving them new life and character. When I started my family room project, I knew that I wanted to use her from start to finish in order to do it right. I can’t tell you how many people have said how terrific the room is in the 2 years since the remodel. She incorporated many personal touches, such as recessed lighting highlighting my husband’s black & white photos, displaying old cameras in the bookshelves, etc. She kept an eye on the budget and made sure that the room was functional too. I can’t recommend her enough.
From Kelly B.
Lois is wonderful! She is kind, professional, funny, warm, loving, and cheerful. She is a wizard. I had started a kitchen remodel and done a good job but couldn’t decide on flooring and color of walls. She sorted it out in a second and it looks beautiful. She then rearranged my living room, dining room, foyer, and reading room using my furniture and accessories into an absolutely stunning house. I have good taste and my house was nice but it is extraordinarily beautiful, warm, and cozy now. She helped me pick out tile for my bathroom floor so that it would match the tile from 1930 that was on the wall and which I love. The floor had dry rot damage and had to be replaced and it is stunning and looks like it might have been there the whole time. She rearranged my bedroom (that I have never been happy with) into a beautiful and romantic relaxing hideaway. She turned my breakfast room and laundry room into a lovely and delightful places. It sparkles and is absolutely perfect.
From Janey D.
From Lesley B.
Lois did everything I expected and more to help me complete redecorating for my living room and master bedroom (all new furniture, as well as art and accessories), including all the interior and exterior painting in my home, as well as a new front door, garage door, and shutters. My home looks brand new inside and out, and I’ve had so many compliments from friends and neighbors. I LOVE the end product thanks to her excellent advice and support from start to finish.
From Shankar V.
She helped us identify, design and select
– Kitchen Cabinet Design / Layout / Material / Finish
– Tile and Backsplash design
– Countertop selection
– Vanity cabinet selection and design
– Cabinet Hardware
– Vanity tile and backsplash
– Paint selection for all the rooms
– Carpet selection
– Wood flooring selection
– Interior Door and Fireplace tile and mantle design
– Light fixtures and Rugs
We reached out to her via email when we closed on our house knowing that we had a lot to do prior to moving in and NO experience in remodeling or home ownership. We knew we needed help to avoid expensive mistakes and also to help us discover what we were looking for. Lois was our perfect guide and we easily benefitted from both her experience and design aesthetic . Without her we could not have finished the project in the timeframe or incorporated the kind of quality or design thought.
After our initial consultation to understand the scope, we sought her inputs on the cabinetry and layout for the kitchen
She tried to understand the look we were after during these early days and ensured we picked the right kind of cabinets of the right quality and finish. She incorporated what now seems a great and practical design that provides us both storage space as well as a decorative aesthetic.
Once we decided on the cabinetry, she made numerous trips with us to pick the right countertop and tile to complement the cabinets. She also introduced us to several tile shops that carried a wide variety of quality products, and this was very useful.
The kitchen countertop and backsplash selections were perfect for the simplistic modern look we were after and provided the right amount of texture and variations.
We were hesitant at first to pick wood for the kitchen area but after some back and forth we decided on hardwood floors continuing in the kitchen. This was the right choice and resulted in a flowing open layout. Lois really helped us arrive at this decision and further with the right kind of floor to complement the overall design. Again here, we were challenged by the variety of wood choices and Lois really helped us arrive at the right selection in short amount of time.
Lois also helped design the fireplace tile layout to account for the styling in the kitchen and complement the colors in the flooring. The tile setter was given detailed drawings to mitigate any errors in installation and she even came by during installation to ensure she can clarify any questions for the tile setter.
We relied on Lois 100% on the paint selections for the entire house and were really happy with the selections. Lois provided us with detailed selections for paint in each room, closets, trim & ceiling and inspected the job to ensure the quality was per her expectations.
Lois really saved us on the carpet. We would have ended up with traditional and boring looking carpets but for her intervention. We could not envision how some of the modern patterns would look, but upon installation we are extremely happy with the choice and have received complements from so many visitors.
Lois also worked with us on light fixtures and rug selections. She is very prompt to communicate via email and we could go over a large selection and narrow down on a few very quickly
We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Lois and will be soliciting her help for all our decoration needs. We highly recommend her for a small or large project.
From Karen B.
She also advised me on all the finishes in our home, from tile to paint to door styles. Again, she helped me to move from my twenty-year old country style to a more transitional presentation. The result is wonderful. We love the calming color palette she designed, and especially like how she worked with much loved art pieces, using them as a focal point in the decoration.
Lois knows her stuff, but she also knows how to listen to her customers. Her mantra is, “You have to love it!” When she showed me a fabric that didn’t wow me, she would easily move on, confident that we would find something that would work for our family. I never felt rushed or belittled; she really wanted to know what I wanted and then worked until I did love what we chose. She also came up with great ideas for furniture placement, helping me see that my hopes to have a sofa and a loveseat would not work in the new space, but the larger, more updated sofa would provide ample seating.
I highly recommend Before ‘n After; Lois is a consummate professional with an amazing sense of flair and an unerring eye for color. Most importantly, she wants you to love the finished product, and she works to create a style that fits you and your family.
Leave a Reply