Sanabria & Co LLC

Melissa of Sanabria & Co was the interior designer for my historic 1794 townhouse, responsible for color choice and furnishing all 3400 sq. feet from scratch. We both agreed that we did not want to try to replicate a historic Mt. Vernon style, but make the house feel both contemporary but traditional---quite a challenge. But Melissa Sanabria met it with flying colors. The house sings with character, and updated versions of traditional furnishings like chandeliers, day bed with trundle, bed with footboard and headboard, framed mirrors, couches with contemporary woven fabrics, beautiful throws, as well as vintage Persian and Turkish rugs all cry out "style with substance, respect for the past, comfort for the present." The house is rich with color and light. She thought of ways to bring in more light as townhouses only get light from two sides. I said I wanted something elegant but cozy, and she did it! There's not a room in the house that isn't comfortable and fun to be in, and not a room in the house that isn't beautiful. Bravo! I cannot recommend her highly enough.

Working with Melissa is a dream! She has a wonderful combination of phenomenal talent, great listening skills, and organization. She designed the entire third floor of my rowhome, including the master bedroom, master sitting area, and a family room. She seemed to perfectly understand the vibe and colors I had in mind and I was so thrilled with the result - it was even better than I had imagined! She also was clear about the process and respectful about budget, discussing options of where we might spend more or less to come in at target. She is an exceptional communicator and always open to feedback, so I always felt like I could be direct with her about any issues that came up and we could work through it. She has a great network of contractors, wallpaper hangers, carpenters, etc. If you are looking for a designer, you should definitely hire Melissa - we are now working with Melissa and her team on other spaces in our home and hope she will be our designer whenever we need one.

Working with Melissa Sanabria is pure joy. Her talent of exploring unique products to fit the tastes of each client, however large or small, earns her the recognition of being one of Washington DC's Hot talent of 2019 -2020. Melissa has a perfect blend of professionalism, methodical thinking, design, creativity and management skills that guides her team of professionals to unity with the client. Her sense of color and scale shines through with each project and she does it right each time. If you are looking for a design specialist that listens to your needs, creates spaces just for you and delivers quality products, I highly recommend talking with Melissa Sanabria at Sanabria & Co LLC

Working with Melissa and her team was a dream. My family was preparing to sell our home and looking to make design choices that were both honoring our historic home, setting it up well for its new owners, and optimizing our investment. Melissa was enthusiastic about our vision, non judgmental about diving in amidst our family chaos (preparing to move, three kids 5 and under) and provided thoughtful guidance about where we could make the biggest impact. She gave us a checklist of places to invest, made the purchasing process seamless and at the end result was that our house shined like it never had before. We had multiple offers on the house within the first week of putting it on the market and broke a residential sales record for our neighborhood. We couldn't have done it without Sanabria and Co!

We recently renovated our living and dining rooms under the thoughtful and artistic design guidance of Melissa Sanabria of Sanabria and Co.; we highly recommend her. Shortly after moving into our 100+ year old bungalow, we realized we were not spending much time in our living room. Also, the adjoining dining room, where we frequently entertained guests, lacked the ambience and level of comfort we desired. We hired Melissa to help us redesign these rooms to better meet our needs. Once she was on board, Melissa led us through an unhurried process that included thorough discussions about how we wanted to use the space and what features we were most interested in incorporating into the design. In our case we wanted to spend more time reading, conversing, and relaxing by the fireplace in our living room; entertaining dinner guests and hosting game nights in our dining room; and showcasing our collection of artwork. We also wanted better lighting throughout both rooms. Melissa absorbed our style preferences and requirements and then incorporated them into a limited number of design concepts that met our requirements yet also exposed us to ideas and pieces that looked great but that we wouldn’t have thought of on our own. We then discussed the design concepts and worked together to refine them until we agreed on a final design. We were impressed with how well orgnanized Melissa was. She scheduled the contractors so that all the disruptive work (demolition, floor refinishing, carpentry work, and recessed lighting installation) was completed in a short time frame. We could, as she said, “participate in the fun stuff,” while she handled “the less fun stuff” including execution and administration. The end result is that we love our newly designed living and dining rooms! We now use the living room much more than we used to and when we entertain in the renovated dining room our guests comment on how wonderful the space is. (We think they are also staying later than they used to...) Our needs have been more than met and aesthetically the rooms look wonderful. Everyone comments on them. Some long tme friends and acquaintences have said that they hadn't really noticed some of the art - art that we have owned for a long time - until after the renovation. We highly recommend Sanabria and Co.

Melissa is an amazing designer. I discovered her through her blog and was immediately inspired by her posts and images. I decided to hire her for my bathroom renovation, and I could not happier with my decision. I had a meager budget and was worried I wouldn’t be able to make something beautiful but thankfully I was wrong! Melissa was very respectful of my budget and was able to find really great pieces within my price range. She helped me figure out the best places to allocate my money to ensure the bathroom looked classic and put together. When a product we both initially agreed upon showed up and did not meet either of our standards, she immediately showed me more options to remedy the situation. Melissa was very realistic with timelines and kept me updated during the whole process; in fact, she helped me schedule the renovation around my family vacation to limit our time at home without a working bathroom. My family and I are extremely satisfied with our new bathroom and we owe it all to Melissa's expert vision and guidance.

My family and I are so grateful that we found Melissa to help us renovate and decorate our home. In the summer of 2017 we purchased a beautiful historic row home on Capitol Hill that we believe was built in the 1870s. Our home has a lot of historic details, including the original hardwood floors and beautiful crown moldings, it also had many quirks which were daunting. My husband and I have busy jobs, we also had a newborn and a three year old and we needed to do renovations quickly so we could move into the home. Melissa was an invaluable resource, providing insight and expertise that saved us money, created a beautiful final product that honored the historic nature of the home, and also ensured that our home would be comfortable and practical for a young family. Melissa worked seamlessly with our architect and general contractor and identified countless ways to improve upon our initial vision for both the remodeling and decoration. She also has a number of talented professionals that she works with for various special projects. The remodeling to the home was extensive (we gutted the basement, creating a living room, a guest room and redoing the bathroom, and we added recessed lighting and paint to the upper three levels of the home, and remodeled the powder room) and no detail was too small for Melissa. Her taste is exquisite, and her ability to anticipate what we needed and understand our style was remarkable. Melissa is incredibly kind, patient, professional and detail oriented. She also has a great sense of humor which is so helpful when dealing with the unexpected twists and turns of a remodel. We could not recommend Melissa highly enough and can't wait to work with her again on future projects.

Melissa is highly professional; a pleasure to talk to; open to hearing about the client's goals for their own house and working within that to also add expertise, knowledge and design savvy; and she is communicative and honest about plans, pricing, ideas and timing. I also have to admit that while I was at first hesitant about paying a consultation fee (because not everyone charges one) I am actually so glad that Melissa did because I got so much value out of the time that was spent. She spent extra time without batting an eyelash and provided a lot of knowledge and peace of mind about our house in that one meeting alone. The value add was worth it and then some. In fact, if she hadn't charged it, I would have felt guilty!

I had the chance to collaborate with Melissa on a residential renovation in Takoma Park, MD. Melissa contributed great ideas, was realistic and made sure the design process went smoothly. I look forward to working with Melissa again soon.

We could not be more thrilled with our experience working with Melissa Sanabria Design! Melissa helped transform our dark, tiny, row house dining room into a beautiful, light, functional space. She designed a cabinet and bench seating with a local carpenter, and recommended fabulous pieces of furniture and art for the space. She was very conscious of our price point while making sure to find quality pieces that really worked. A couple of times she gently encouraged me to go in a different direction with a piece, and I’m so glad in retrospect that she did. The best part about the space is that it meets our needs. We have two very small kids and all of the pieces can be washed or wiped down. Melissa really listened to us that this was an important goal and we love that we don’t have to worry that our kids will wreck our new beautiful things. Melissa also did a great job incorporating pictures of our kids and other items that felt significant to us, so the space really feels like ours, not generic. Above all else, however, Melissa is fabulous to work with. She is reliable, exceptionally talented, an excellent communicator, and really fun. We highly recommend her!