Laura Vlaming | Arkiteriors

We worked with Laura to redesign our kitchen and master bath during a recent renovation. She was wonderful to work with through the design process. She listened to our concerns and input and in the end with ended up with beautiful and functional spaces that met our needs.

We contacted Laura to help us redesign and remodel our kitchen and laundry room. We are so glad we did! We love what she did with the limited space we had to work with. Laura is extremely knowledgeable, organized, professional, and very patient. She really listened to what we were wanting to achieve, and diligently worked to attain those results while respecting our budget. I was impressed with how thorough she was about every detail and aspect of the project. She effectively communicated with me, as well as the trades people when necessary, and was honest with us about what would work and what would not. She offered excellent solutions to all the design issues with our old kitchen and laundry room. Her experience in working with architects was evident in her detailed designs that impressed many of the contractors I was working with. In a nutshell, she is fantastic! Her work is exceptional! My kitchen, laundry room, and consequently other areas of my home have gone from feeling out-dated and generic to fresh and custom thanks to her expertise!

Laura did an amazing job helping us with our kitchen remodel. She was beyond patient with us as we went through the process of determining the best design to suit our family's lifestyle. She brought several ideas to the table and worked tirelessly to accommodate all of our personal requests. Laura successfully accomplished our #1 goal of making it a functional living space for an active family of 5 that frequently have friends and family over to socialize.

Each of these projects was completely customized and exceedingly detailed. In our most recent project, the laundry room, Laura took the time to understand my vague vision, and helped me turn it into an absolutely fabulous multi-use space. I wanted to be able to raise seedlings and keep a variety of pets in the laundry room, in addition to doing laundry. I don't think I could have found anyone else who would have been able to make this desire a functional reality, but she did, and I love working and playing in my laundry room! Beyond the design, I also hired her to follow these remodeling projects from beginning to end, to help make sure everything went well construction-wise. It was money well-spent, as Laura has lots of experience with contractors and trades people that help influence them to do their best. in contrast to the laundry room remodel, I had no vision whatsoever for the new master bathroom. It is completely Laura's creation, and it is absolutely beautiful and different. Laura is really great with all kinds of materials, and offered me a variety of choices across different price ranges. She met with me at various stores to look at products, and in addition, used the internet extensively to find just the right faucets and tiles. She is also funny, considerate, and very patient! Description of work: We have used Laura's services for about ten years, starting with an extensive second floor addition. Last year, she designed our new master bathroom, and this year, she redesigned our laundry room. UPDATE: Sadly, Laura moved away, from Illinois to South Carolina. I have more remodeling projects, but I can't and won't do them without her! I'm waiting for a time when she can again go through the process with me.

Laura was a pleasure to work with. She was professional, knowledgeable, friendly, creative, easy to work with and very helpful. She is detailed oriented...like I am. She listened to what I told her I wanted in my kitchen and what my needs were and she made and executed an excellent plan. I would definitely recommend Laura. I prefer that my name not be used, please. Thank you.

Laura did an excellent job in the design and anticipation of all materials needed for this project. she had a very clear idea for the design of this project yet was open to other ideas and possibilities. As a kitchen and bath remodeler I wish I could work with more designers like her.

We hired Laura to improve the kitchen design in our Del Webb mass designed tract house. The end result is a far more user friendly kitchen than the original even tho she had to work within the original footprint. Laura was very easy to work with & had many great ideas to improve functionality & storage. We love our new cabinets & the many features she incorporated in the design.

We hired Laura to help us transform our 10-yr old kitchen and portions of our adjacent family room. The space was not functional for our needs. From the first meeting with Laura, I knew we were in good hands. After listening to our wish list, she presented multiple plans for us to review. We combined portions of each and arrived at the ideal plan. Several contractors were amazed and delighted with her detailed drawings and specifications. She was always conscious of our budget and is able to "get inside your head" to instinctively know your tastes and style. Being a CKD, she examined countless details that make a huge impact on functionality. Laura cared for every facet of our project as if it were her own kitchen. Thanks to her, we have the kitchen we dreamed of and wouldn't change a thing.

Laura Vlaming of Arkiteriors did the design of my condo renovation, where we took some rooms down to the studs of my 24 year old property. I was down-sizing from a 4-bedroom, 3-bath house to a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom condo. Storage space was a HUGE problem. Laura was able to utilize every single inch of the condo into usable space. For instance, she designed a small walk-in pantry in the kitchen with floor-to-ceiling shelves and selected lazy susan corner cabinets so there were no "blind" cabinets (I hate those!). She even designed a kitchen cabinet around my pull-down spice rack! In the bathroom, I wanted a vanity that looked like a piece of furniture. She reminded me that they are hard to clean under and difficult to paint around. So....she designed a built-in vanity with recessed kick plates with 3 legs on the front and side, where they are visible, so that it has the look of a stand-alone piece, but the maintenance of a built-in! Perfect!! She listened carefully to all my needs. She designed a built-in piece that looks like a hutch with some glass doors to display my crystal stemware and drawers for my table linens, etc. She built out the half wall between the kitchen and living room by 11 1/2 inches to add an additional cabinet that opens towards the dining area for my china. Kitchen storage space solved!! She thought of EVERYTHING!! Her drawings were amazing! My contractor was blown away, having never seen a designer with that much detail, including all electrical placements, fixture placements, etc. My cabinet maker was also impressed with her detail, and in the end was amazed by her vision of the project as he stood back an viewed it upon completion. He is very much looking forward to working with her again. The wood tones, paint colors, wall and floor tile selections, fixture selections were all exactly what I envisioned! They are beautiful! The choices can be overwhelming, but Laura asked me specific questions about my preferences and needs and narrowed the choices down for me and then I made the final choice. Whew! Laura was also conscience of my budget. She asked up front what my budget was for the project and created a detailed estimate of all items, with some "wiggle-room" and counseled me on which items I should opt for quality and which items where mid-level quality will suffice in order to stay in budget. Okay, some things I did splurge on...and I have no regrets! I have officially unpacked from our move and thanks to Laura's innovative thinking for my storage needs, EVERYTHING FITS!! When my friends walk in, they cannot believe it is the same condo I purchased 24 years ago. It is BEAUTIFUL! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Laura. It was such a pleasure to work with you!

Having chosen Laura as part of the Houzz 2013 Sweepstakes she was a pleasure to work with and she took her time to listen what our needs were for our space. From there she had designed a truly enjoyable space..

From a builder’s perspective, I found it to be a pleasure to work with Laura. Her attention to the client’s needs, professionalism, creativity and ability to complete her work on time exceeded my expectations. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. You won’t go wrong choosing Laura to join your team.

It’s tough to recall way the kitchen looked during the first meeting between Laura Vlaming of Arkiteriors, Mandy Sammons the winner of the 2013 HOUZZ – Lowes Kitchen Renovation Sweepstakes, and myself. I attribute that to team approach that Laura adopted in working through the various options during our second meeting. She was eager to involve everyone in the process of turning Mandy’s kitchen into something that fit her needs and really made a visual impact when one walked through the front door of their manufactured home. Laura presented everyone with 8 different layout options, discussing the pros and cons of each as she walked us through her thought process. As Mandy narrowed down her selections, Laura then asked for our input into what was feasible and within the budgets that we were targeting. As the process wrapped up, Laura had 3 layouts in hand, each with different aspects that appealed to Mandy. She was able to put them all into one final design that was permit ready and easy to execute. As the project progressed, Laura stopped by to see how her designs were working out. She was present during some of the more intricate design details helping us work through options to keep the project within budget and still deliver the visual impact she was looking for. The project photos speak for themselves. Everything tied together nicely, offering Mandy a daily retreat and family gathering center. In all, the project was worth the effort and an enjoyable experience.