Stephen Walton

Hi Miriam,

I'm very sorry to read from your review on Houzz that you were disappointed in your consultancy yesterday. I do these consultancies very regularly and I have never before had a customer that was dissatisfied.

I would like to understand where your dissatisfaction came from. As explained prior to our consultation, the time would consist of me sharing my ideas as much as I could with you within the time and to not hold back but that choosing particular pieces of furniture or exact colours would be an interior design service and would not be covered in a consultancy. I was with you for well over the allotted hour and gave you ideas for your kitchen/living/dining, entrance hallway, master bedroom, living room and study as detailed below. Given that you wanted to cover so many different rooms in your house the time spent on each was somewhat limited but I offered ideas for changes to be made to each room/area. I know that if you follow through with all of the ideas and suggestions that your house will come on a long way and you will achieve that homely feel that you were after.

As I explained your house style and what you have done so far is very good and only needs some minor tweaks for you to get the look you are after. Part of a consultancy is for me to look at your own ideas and give my opinion on same. I thought your ideas were good and going in the right direction and hence I agreed with them. There is no point in disagreeing with someone's ideas when I think they will work and are the right direction to go.

I've summarised what was discussed and my ideas and suggestions provided below.

Kitchen - Oak shelves with black metal brackets, tall stools at the bar with oak legs to match existing and similar fabric to existing chairs.

Dining - Two feature walls in dark grey to match the image you had, have an upholstered back to your bench made to be mounted on the wall to match the buttoned backs of the chairs to make the table feel more grounded as it feels slightly temporary in location as is, 2 x pendant lights over, metal shades to create pools of light and greater ambiance and sense of intimacy.

Living room- Install white painted or natural brick slips to gable feature wall, install feature oak beams in vaulted ceiling to carry through the theme of oak from kitchen shelves and legs of existing furniture, new book shelves extra tall to meet vaulted ceiling finished in oak or beech ply. Construct Tv unit in corner painted with oak top, tall lamp in far corner or round table agreed you should use existing pendant light and advised you on its height. Large centre rug to extent of couches,

Lounge- agreed with your idea of a dark colour throughout, teal or dark grey, brick slips painted in the same colour to the fireplace ope around the stove, oak beam to be added as mantel, agreed painted units either side of the fire as per your magazine with oak tops and oak shelves over Suggested a height for same, suggested brass accents would work well with a dark grey, suggested a new feature arm chair to compliment your existing corner couch.

Entrance hallway- Long narrow hallway table against left wall for keys etc, mix of black metal legs and oak possibly, round mirror over, contemporary chaise long with super large piece of contemporary art over to wall to the right of kitchen door (both pieces would hide existing sockets, under the stairs to have built in book shelves painted white incorporated in radiator cover which I sketched for you along with single chair. Stairs to be carpeted with a light coloured runner to meet balustrade, suggested a design for a very large contemporary pendant light, I sketched what was in my head.

Master bedroom - Cushion to window seat to match fabric of kitchen chairs as a suggestion, oak radiator cover with lattice type front, large modern painting over bed, single chair in corner perhaps, oak scandinavian type design rocking chair or similar.
Bathrooms were good and didn't need anything.

Study- Of the four colour samples you had on the wall I recommended one or suggested green to match your child's room. I suggested you got a table made, either oak or white and located it along the longest wall with bookshelves over in oak with kitchen type lights under the bottom shelf, because your room was narrow this was the best way that two of you could work there and you could fit shelves into the room.

Again I am sorry that you were disappointed and I hope that you understand that there is only so much that can be covered in a 1 hour consultancy. Hopefully when you reread all the different suggestions I gave for each room as detailed above you will feel that you did get good value from the consultancy. Please feel free to call me and discuss as I would always prefer if a client would let me know when they are dissatisfied with any service I offer.

Best wishes

Stephen Walton