General Assembly

I recently completed a full apartment with Sarah and her team. They are one of the best team I have worked with. The level of detail, the coordination of the finish material and the fast communications. The construction process is so smooth and worry free. Most importantly, the client is very happy.

It was a pleasure to work with the General assembly team. The creative direction was in tune with what we wanted, very attentive staff.

I worked with Sarah and her team at General Assembly on the renovation of my kitchen, master and guest bathrooms, as well as some general improvements in my Brooklyn apartment. GA was exceptional to work with. They were organized, diligent and patient from start to finish. They established a workable budget, produced design drawings, screened contractors, and helped select finishes, fixtures and materials. During construction, they provided oversight of the contractor, and were skilled mediators between the contractor and I. They followed through and resolved any issues that arose, always attacking problems in resourceful and skillful ways. GA was creative, worked within my budget, have great design sense and knew how to guide me through some of the tougher decisions based on their experience (and tell me gently when I was wrong). I would highly recommend them!

General Assembly were very supportive of us through the whole renovation. They were incredibly responsive, organized, patient, and respectful of our budget. The team is incredibly easy to work with and has a great eye for finishes.

I hired Sarah because she came highly recommended to me and I can see why. She provided me a white-glove service throughout the process. She handled everything from dealing with my board, to obtaining contractor proposals, filing the necessary paperwork, providing many options for appliances etc. This was the first time I have purchased an apartment and my first renovation. Sarah walked me through everything and made me feel confident in my decisions. I can't even count how many times her company reworked plans and designs in order to get board approval. I can also say she is very passionate about her work, emailing me late a night with ideas and opinions, making sure that the end product met her standards. In the end I came out very happy with the job and felt that my vague ideas were reflected upon and improved in the different designs she offered me. I can without a doubt highly recommend Sarah and General Assembly.

It had taken me a while to finally buy an apartment, and when I did, I had a very fairly clear vision of how I wanted it to look. Sarah was instrumental in making my vision into an even better reality, She helped transformed an ordinary studio into a chic and extremely efficient space. She created storage where there was none and somehow made the studio feel bigger even as we created a sleeping nook in a tiny space. She always listened to my ideas and was very collaborative. She was extremely professional, very accessible and held my hand, so to speak, whenever I got anxious about the occasional unexpected issues that would arise. I would gladly work with Sarah and her team again.

Sarah helped transform our East Village duplex apartment from something dull and dingy to something beautiful and amazing. Her ability to blend modern design with a warm, home-y feel was exactly what we were looking for. Sarah provided amazing plans for us to choose from, helped us find our contractor (who we loved), frequently checked in during construction to make sure everything was on schedule (sending us photo updates along the way), and ensured that everything met her high standard. We couldn't be happier with our first home, and it's in no small part thanks to Sarah and General Assembly!

We worked with Sarah Zames to remodel our kitchen and two bathrooms. We initially hired Sarah to design a single piece - hanging shelving for the kitchen. But when our original contractor backed out at the last minute, we were so impressed with Sarah's design and her advice on the project that we asked Sarah if she would take on design of the whole project, help us find a new contractor and manage the construction. This was the best decision that we made for the project. First, Sarah's designs are both beautiful and practical. It became clear to us early in the process that her aesthetic was a bit different from ours, but she listened to what we wanted and suggested things that challenged us to step outside what we initially thought. Working together, we designed a stunning kitchen and bathrooms that look amazing. The kitchen is so unique and beautiful that it was featured this month in New York Magazine's Design Edition. But best of all, it is exactly what we wanted to make the space more practical and useful and we use it so effortlessly that it really has changed living in our apartment. Sarah is also great to work with and helped us control costs. She presented to us a proposal and a price estimate for her role, based on what we specifically needed to get the project done and what we knew we needed her to do. She helped craft a role that got us exactly what we needed without incurring extra costs for her time. Since our initial contractor bailed on us after we had ordered our bathroom fixtures, Sarah worked with what we had and built the toilets, sinks and bathtub into her design. She used sweeten.com to bring to us three contractor proposals and advised us as to the pros and cons of each one, and we got a price significantly lower than what we were expecting. When she presented her designs to us, she gave us a range of materials at different price points and quality, but didn't overwhelm us with choices. After the design, when she was keeping tabs on the construction process, we thought that it might not be worth it to ask her to be involved during the construction process, but we are very glad that we did. There was an issue with the placement of our electrical wiring behind the wall of our kitchen, and Sarah and our contractor worked together by presenting us with options and brainstorming how we could slightly redesign the kitchen to deal with the unexpected location of the wires. Even thought we had to pay a change order, it was much less than it could have been because Sarah raised the issue early and helped us modify the design in a way that wasn't immediately obvious to the contractor or to us. Finally, Sarah is just very pleasant, reachable and helpful. We're obviously not the only ones that have had a great experience working with her, as General Assembly seems to be doing quite well. We hope that one day, when we have a newer, bigger space, we will have the chance to give her free reign over designing an entire home for us. We know that whatever she does will be fabulous.

I've worked with General Assembly on three small custom projects now, and have been very satisfied. I wouldn't hesitate to hire them again for future work.

General Assembly is a top-rate company in terms of creativity, reliability and sensitivity to cost. I have heard many customers rave about their work.

Sarah Zames, of General Assembly, helped me gut renovate my studio apartment in Brooklyn Heights. From the start,Sarah was professional but also a great deal of fun to deal with.She struck the perfect balance between letting me direct exactly where I wanted the design to go, but also coming up with great ideas, and steering me in the right direction when I felt overwhelmed . The renovation involved taking down a small wall , and designing a huge kitchen island that also contained tons of storage, including a bookshelf for cooking books, and a wine rack. Sarah also designed a huge double closet,and a recessed area for the bed, to help distinguish the bedroom part of the studio, from the main living space and kitchen. She also re-stained my wood floors,and worked with myself and a cabinet maker, to build the perfect kitchen cabinets from scratch. In the middle of the renovation, we discovered that the wiring in the apartment had not been touched since the 1940's.Sarah was amazing about breaking the bad news to me,reassuring me that we could fix things on budget,and getting the electrician to do a fantastic job, in an extremely short period of time. Sarah always worked with me on coming in on budget, and on time, and was available at all times when I had questions.I cannot recommend General Assembly enough, and can't wait to work with her again on my next project!