Lorain Design Associates

Penny and her team were a pleasure to work with. They designed a beautiful retail store for our group while staying within our budget. Penny’s care for her clients is evident from the beginning to the end. If you want a drama free, caring, talented designer who strives to deliver an A+ while respecting her clients budget.... you’ve found the best! Thanks Penny!

Penny was a pleasure to work with and very responsive. She kept to a schedule and had our plans completed very quickly. We had been in contract with a number of other local designers but they did not deliver as promised and we were lucky to have found Penny who helped us get on track.

Penny Lorain was a pleasure to work with. She was always on time. She always had pictures, or books, or samples to show based on our discussions. Most importantly she was always willing to hear our thoughts, and preferences and our ideas. She made suggestions based on our style, and was able to make great recommendations that please both my wife and I (we have very different styles). She warmed our space with her selection of earthy and vibrant colors. We were able to choose the wood type and colors to match our existing furniture. She has transformed a couple of rooms that were little used into warm and inviting spaces. The biggest part of the job was new flooring and the demo and removal of a large brick hearth and stove in the family room. The contractors she worked with did exemplary job. The general contractor had to demo the hearth and remove the stove with a flue that penetrated my beloved wood ceiling. He did a great job matching and staggering the 30 year old wood planks on the ceiling. Her flooring specialist carved the wood floors around irregular areas on a stone wall and circular metal support base for my stairs. Overall a great outcome, within budget and on time. We now have wonderful new living spaces in our home. Definitely plan to hire her again when we do our bedroom suite.

My project was to use a corner cabinet that I already owned that needed modification to hold a vessel sink for a redesign of my powder room. I also wanted to use a grass cloth wallpaper for the walls. Penny Lorain provided creative and expert advice to use faux paint on the walls instead of wallpaper and to modify the corner cabinet removing the middle shelf to accommodate the vessel sink. I’ve worked with Penny before on a living room project and appreciate her professionalism, ability to collaborate and dedication to ensuring client satisfaction. I highly recommend her because she is able to enhance my general design ideas and provide the specifics to implement in a timely and cost effective manner. Penny is cheerful and easy to work with to achieve the goals of the project.

We started with Penny Lorain over a year ago to redesign our kitchen. She has been extremely helpful with all phases of the project. She helped with design, material selection, contractor choice, expedite of shipments and constant follow up during construction. Her design sense was very helpful because we were neophytes with a project of this size.

My wife and I engaged Penny Lorain (Lorain and May Design Associates) to help us remodel our kitchen. The house is a contemporary modern style home custom built by my parents in 1954. This project had been difficult for us both to envision due to the complicated layout of the space and we were not making much progress on our own, so decided that we needed help from a professional. From the beginning, Penny was very patient in listening to our needs and sensitive to our desire to keep the kitchen improvements true to the architectural style of the home that would both serve our needs and be within budget. Penny coordinated several meetings with the general contractor and their sub-contractors in order to prepare bids and then prepared layout drawings with price estimates from the contractors. She also took the time to meet with us at various kitchen suppliers to help us select appliances and kitchen cabinets, and brought us various tile, flooring and countertop samples for consideration. She also met with us to look at kitchen cabinets at a supplier to compare the cabinet choices, interior options and costs for each. All in all, we couldn't have gotten this project off the ground without her dedicated efforts to coordinate all of the numerous decisions and steps that were needed to get us through the process. Penny is an enthusiastic and energetic professional and a patient problem-solver, who enjoys working with clients. Over time we have come to appreciate her valuable input and ideas which have given us the confidence to proceed when we were in doubt. We recommend her highly. Ed and Rhonda O'Brien

We have worked with Lorain & May on various home design projects for over 20 years. We started with furnishing for our empty new house back in 1996. Penny helped us furnish our living and dining rooms, including window coverings, our kitchen and our family room. When we did a major remodel of our house in 2010, Penny served as our design consultant and was instrumental in the project being completed on time and on budget. Every facet of the project reflects her design skills: granite, tile and fixtures in the kitchen and bathrooms, hardwood floor in the family room and kitchen, carpet colors in the bedrooms, cabinetry design for both form and function throughout the house, lighting, wood stain colors, concrete flooring colors, paint colors both interior and exterior. We would never have gotten through the remodel without her amazing assistance. One of the many things we appreciate about Penny is her ability to work within our budget on our various projects. We are currently working with her on a redesign of our master bedroom and look forward to the finished project!

A marvelous experience - that was our kitchen remodel. Very professional, excellent ideas and gentle hints and a fabulous support team of cabinet makers, contractors, tile folks. The very best.

We used Lorain & May for several jobs in our house. They do amazing work. From start to finish, they were easy to work with, kept the project on time and on budget, and transformed each room that they worked on. I cannot recommend them enough!

We hired L&M for 2 back-to-back projects and they did a great job. We were happy with our working relationship and the results. We are already talking with them about a third project.

I have hired Lorain & May periodically for several years. This is a professional, personable and excellent company. My opinions and ideas were heard and implemented with excellence . I always felt like we were a "team" on the various jobs. Past jobs included general interior home design, wallpaper, faux finishes, window treatments, tile work and upholstery. Each job was always completed in a timely manner and with complete client satisfaction.

Lorain & May were the designers for my total remodel. I was extremely happy with their work and would highly recommend them. Penny Lorain painted some of my walls and ceilings and did excellent work. They were so helpful in many decisions. It was a pleasure to work with her and I am thrilled with the outcome.