Riverside Designers

Jennifer Ferrell of Riverside Designers is a gem to work with. From helping work out a design challenge with our architect to keeping us on tract with selections for the builder, she made the process go very smoothly. Jennifer is never pushy but is not afraid to encourage her clients to go a little out of their comfort zone and we are so glad she did! She did an amazing job of picking out fabrics and colors for our home as well as great light fixtures. Very professional and keeps her client’s needs in mind. She did a great job on integrating items we wanted to keep from our previous home and still give us a fresh new feel in our new home.

We worked with Shay a few years ago. Her client was remodeling a bathroom. To this day, her design is one of our most popular patterns! She is very creative and we are proud to call her work "Riverside Folly"!!

We began working with Jennifer Ferrell at Riverside Designers while we still designing our Lowcountry custom home with our architect and builder. In the early stages of design, we engaged Jennifer to help design the major and minor elements of our home, all the way from room size and layout to kitchen and bath design, to the specifics of the built-in cabinetry in the living and dining room and home office, as well as selection of paint colors, tile, wood finishes, appliances, lighting and plumbing fixtures, etc. Once the house construction was completed, Jennifer advised us (and in many cases helped procure) furniture, window treatments, rugs and carpet and accessories. In short, Jennifer was with us every step of the way during the design, construction and furnishing of our retirement dream home. Ours was a long-distance project since we were living in NJ during the entire design and construction phases; not an easy situation! Jennifer helped to make it manageable by working closely with the architect and builder to ensure that the fine design details that she and I had discussed were executed according to what we had agreed upon. She was able to translate our desires and wishes into specific requirements for the architect, builder and tradespeople working on the house. She was also able to run interference with others if an issue did arise and could make decisions on our behalf that were reasonable and appropriate. She and our builder would sometimes Facetime me from the house when it was under construction to show me an issue that needed addressing. Both she and our builder were expert at using technology to help manage and document the entire design, building and furnishing process; this was a huge asset in directing a long-distance project. Jennifer has a great sense of style and helped us transition from the aesthetic of a NJ traditional colonial home to a coastal, Lowcountry vibe in our new residence. She encouraged us to venture out of our comfort zones and made excellent recommendations for new spaces, furniture and furnishings. When we didn’t agree on particular selections, she would respect our opinion and adjust accordingly. We found Jennifer to be flexible, reliable, very honest and fair in her dealings with us, and highly knowledgeable and competent as a design professional. We would strongly recommend her to anyone in the Charleston area who is looking for a home designer!

Jennifer Ferrell of Riverside Design has been an outstanding professional to work with. She is comfortable working with all design styles and has access to excellent furniture lines, fabrics, installers, etc. She is a great listener, very client-focused, works within a specific budget, and has really helped us achieve everything we wanted in our new home!

I have worked with Jennifer and Riverside designers on several high end custom homes and it has always been a pleasure. In addition to having excellent taste and stylish instincts Jennifer has the ability to keep clients excited, engaged, and on task. Of course Jennifer always has the client's vision and interests at the forefront of her priority but she also is very knowledgeable of what I as a builder need to keep the flow of work and the schedule on track. Keeping both the client and project on a smooth path is a tough job, and Jennifer has always pulled it off beautifully!

I hired them to help me decorate my new house. I worked with Shay who really listened to my vision and encorporated it into her design model perfectly. She allowed me to participate every step of the way and gave me the freedom (with guidance) to get accessories on my own if I desired. It was a wonderful experience and our home turned out even better than I expected.

Having Shay on our team puts my mind at ease. We wouldn't want to build a house without her. She is talented, honest, accessible, and practical. Everyone on the team enjoys working with her and trusts her judgement.

Riverside Designers and Shay are fantastic to work with! I have used them to assist with my new living room and an addition to my home. The furniture and paint colors that Shay picked out for my home are absolutely beautiful!!!

Jennifer Ferrell, owner of Riverside Designs, is a young professional with not only an eye for aesthetic but one for architectural elements as well. We met her as the design consultant for our kitchen cabinet maker and my husband and I knew right away that we wanted to involve Jennifer in our entire home building experience. Jennifer is straight forward but not pushy. If she thinks something might be off in scale or color, she will certainly let you know but it is ultimately up to the client. She notices small details during the building process and would offer suggestions to our builder about trim, moldings, colors, even door handles. We built long distance so it was truly a team effort. Each of us (myself, my husband, Jennifer and our builder) would give our opinion on why we should do things a certain way and I think our project greatly benefited from that. Jennifer worked well with the builder as he appreciated her eye for detail. Jennifer's style is traditional, clean and eclectic. She works with the desires of the client but tries to give everything a more "fresh" vision. I could not have gotten through light fixture and paint selections without her design instincts. We only recently moved to our river house and have put pieces where we could fit them and have hung much of our art by ourselves. I had Jennifer do blinds for the entire house prior to the move and that was completed seamlessly and was much appreciated by fabrics and artwork with the winter sun beaming in. I am finally getting Jennifer back to start working on softening my rooms with fabrics, looking for rugs, pillows and generally filling in the gaps. Aside from her personal abilities as a designer, Jennifer has an outstanding facility and workforce to get your job completed quickly and efficiently.

Riverside Designers exceeded all of our expectations for our family's beach house. They were integral partners in helping shape the overall style of the home, from the ground up. With several family members as partners in the project, and living a considerable distance away, Jennifer and her team made sure that the process was not only easy but incredibly organized and seamless. The house turned out more beautiful than we could have ever hoped. We get so many compliments on it from everyone who visits and stays there, and couples have even held weddings there. It's just that special. We would unequivocally recommend Riverside Designers to others!

We broke ground on the construction of our custom built home in early December 2011. It was at that time that we brought in Jennifer Ferrell with Riverside Designers. Since we were living in New York State while our new home was being built on Seabrook Island, South Carolina, we felt it imperative to have a designer on board from the very beginning. We utilized all of Jennifer’s services which included, but was not limited to, on-going consultations with our builder and architect during the building phase of our home, site-visits, design input, selections, vendor coordination, room design, interior design elements, custom interior furnishings and more. She stayed within our budget, met deadlines and interfaced well with our builder and architect. Jennifer’s charming southern personality and enthusiasm makes her an extremely likable and easy person to get along with. She does not put on airs nor is she snooty. One of her greatest assets is her ability to remain calm and levelheaded in any situation that may crop up. This is very reassuring to a client building from a distance of nearly 1000 miles away. She’s very professional and extremely talented with an endless repertoire of fresh, current ideas all of which she was able to parlay into our preferred decorating style and vision for the overall house. She has a keen eye for pulling together colors, furniture layout, room planning and the ability to visualize the completed project. And, that is key. As with all custom built homes there are numerous decisions and selections that must be made during every phase of the project. It’s a daunting task and can become a bit overwhelming for the home owner. Jennifer turned it into a fun and pleasant experience for us. For example, she would make pre-selections (based on our preferred style/use model) of the paint colors, cabinetry, door hardware, sinks, faucets, tile and so forth. By narrowing down the number of selections within each category, we were then able to make the final selections from her pre-selections. This made for a more manageable and efficient process and one that we could enjoy. She was never pushy or demanding. If I didn’t like her selections, which was rare, I would tell her and she would take the time to bring me other options without ever taking it personally. I very much like that I could be honest with her and she with me. If there was a design element that I was bent on having and she didn’t think would work, she would be honest and explain her reasoning. And if there was a particular design element that she felt strongly about and knew from experience would work but that I was resisting, she would ask me to trust her judgment and experience. That’s not always an easy thing to do but it dawned on me that since I had gone to all the trouble of finding a designer that I could work with then why not let her work her magic? In those instances her instincts proved correct and the end result was drop dead gorgeous. I often told Jennifer that she was worth her weight in gold and I meant it and still do. I have zero talent for decorating and design and did not want our dream home to turn into a hodgepodge of this and that design style. As our advocate, she led us through the entire design process working hard to please us every step of the way. Working with Jennifer has been a genuinely wonderful experience. She has exceeded our expectations and we truly love our home thanks to her talent and ability to achieve our vision.