Y.Designs

We love Yuki. She helped us with designing our new home. We did a major remodel, adding a second floor and complete revamp of the home layout. She listened and carefully designed around our requirements and wishes and was able to let us have most of our wishes happen. She also helped with permitting process, during construction she'll help check on things as needed and she helped with interior design selections whenever we were in doubt. She's very good at pulling us back on track. We wanted to do Japandi and Modern and we love our home a lot now. Her style is modern and contemporary. Overall we are very happy and satisfied with our dealings with Yuki and do not hesitate to recommend her services.

We had a great experience working with Yuki, and we’d totally recommend her! Her design style matched exactly what we were looking for: modern, clean, and well-balanced. The final result is both beautiful and super practical. Yuki is really responsible and pays close attention to details from design all the way through construction. She listened carefully to what we wanted and made sure her designs were practical, safe, and actually buildable. During construction, she came to the site almost every week to walk through everything with us and the contractor, which helped us avoid issues and fix things fast. She’s also super precise with measurements. Yuki handled both the architectural and interior design for our home. Everything from kitchen cabinets and bathroom tiles to lighting and exterior finishes. We especially love the colors she picked for the outside: the facade, the front door, and the siding all look amazing. We’ve worked with Yuki on two houses now and have recommended her to friends. Everyone’s been really happy with her work.

We had the pleasure of working with Y. Designs for the complete teardown and rebuild of the interior of our law office. We could not be happier with the results–the design fits the office perfectly. The key merits of the design were Yuki's ability to blend contrasts–to make a small space feel big; to make a dark space feel bright, and most importantly to make a formal office space feel warm and inviting. Thanks to the design, the office is now not just a workspace, but a comfortable place to engage with people.

We had been thinking about adding a master bedroom and remodeling the kitchen and other parts of the house for some time. We interviewed several designers, including Yuki Sasagawa @ Y.Designs. Since we only had a general idea about the project and the details weren't quite clear, we wanted to work with a designer who would be willing to help us look at several plan alternatives and explore the details in order to finally settle on a design that would fulfill our requirements and would also give us a good sense of the costs. We decided to engage with Yuki because her conditions for achieving our goals weren't as limiting as those of other designers we had interviewed. That certainly became apparent during the design process. Yuki was very patient in listening to our needs and suggesting different solutions to meet our requirements. She provided us with several plan alternatives based on our needs and, on several occasions, we spent a substantial amount of time exploring different modifications to those plans. If a certain detail in our plan needed building code clarification, Yuki was willing to contact the City of Mountain View to clarify those requirements. And compared with other design firms, Y.Designs' design services fees were very reasonable. Yuki also worked closely with the engineering firm to ensure that the engineer had all the information to finalize the engineering drawings/plans. That phase of the project also progressed very smoothly. We are very pleased with the outcome of our engagement with Yuki and Y.Designs, and we feel reassured when we hear complimentary remarks from others who have to work with the plans. She has been very meticulous about including enough detail in the plans to help others in the building process. We highly recommend Yuki Sasagawa at Y. Designs.

It has been a great honor to have Yuki assist us throughout our addition and remodeling project. She is, without a doubt, one of the best professionals we've ever worked with, if not the best. Yuki’s attention to detail, precision, and direct approach made all the difference. Before meeting her, we consulted with several architects, all of whom recommended a complete rebuild because they struggled to envision a modern layout within the constraints of the existing structure. We also spent years trying to figure it out on our own but couldn’t find a solution. Yuki’s creative problem-solving transformed the space, and we couldn’t have imagined a better layout given our budget and lot size. During the construction phase, Yuki visited the site weekly, immediately addressing any deviations from the plan and offering invaluable suggestions and references.

We worked with Yuki after things didn't work out with our first architect, and this turned out to be the best decision we made throughout our house addition/remodeling project. Yuki listened to our needs carefully and redesigned our space to the best layout we could have imagined. She's also very responsive and provided all the help and guidance throughout the permitting, construction, and interior phases.

Having Yuki as our architect has been one of the wisest choices made throughout our remodeling journey. Many never-thought-of advices went into the design. We also appreciate the patience and time as we went through structural challenges. She made herself to visit and check on the progress on site every week. Response is swift and just a really pleasant individual to work with. Our house turned out beautiful in the end. We are very pleased to have her in our house project.

Yuki came to us through a friend’s referral and we were extremely happy with her services! Our project entailed reconfiguring the existing space, renovating the master bathroom, adding a new bathroom, and adding a deck to the backyard. Below are a few traits that made her an outstanding architect in our eyes: 1. Great advocate for the homeowner - we interviewed a few GCs and she helped us weigh the pros/cons of the contractors who made it to our shortlist. Additionally, during construction, she helped to make sure that they delivered what we were looking for and pushed back when they said certain things could/couldn’t be done. As new homeowners, having someone who is knowledgeable and experienced like Yuki on your side is incredibly invaluable to serve as a check on contractors. 2. Very responsive - Yuki always responded to texts and emails promptly (within, and usually less than, 24 hours). Even when some family circumstances required her attention, she was very responsive, accessible, and dedicated to ensuring our project would still proceed smoothly and on time. 3. Great ideas - we were looking to create a more open, connected, and modern kitchen that fit our lifestyle. Yuki offered a few options that took our ideas and budget into consideration, but also offered some of her own new ideas. One of her ideas was completely out of the box and we were initially skeptical about it. She presented a 3D rendering to help us visualize it better without putting any pressure to select that option. We ended up choosing her design and really love it! Everyone who has come by to visit also commented on how much they like the new design. 4. Attention to detail - while it took some time for the county to approve our permit application (which was not under Yuki’s control), they approved it on the first try because Yuki’s permit plans were comprehensive and clear. Even we, as layman, were able to understand it. We have already recommended Yuki to other friends and would definitely work with her again on future projects!

Yuki is a great professional to work with! Her design is amazing and her plans are so detailed which our construction team so easy to follow! I will highly recommend her to my clients!

After firing our first designer for being unresponsive, we hired Yuki for the interior remodel of our 2000 sq ft home and never looked back. You will never have to worry about Yuki being unresponsive! But actually we selected Yuki for her ideas. After interviewing a number of other architects and designers, and also consulting with our real estate agent, Yuki visited our house and we described the ideas so far: removing a wall to make the kitchen larger; and moving the entrance to the master bedroom to make it into a suite. Much to our surprise, Yuki had new ideas in both cases. For the master suite, she suggested moving the entrance to the bathroom, which made the whole layout much more efficient without adding much cost. And for the kitchen, everybody had been going to remove the wrong wall! Yuki suggested removing a different wall, and while initially that looked to me like a much bigger job, it was evident that the layout would be far superior. Well it turned out the the obstacles to removing the wall were superficial, a floor had to be raised 12", and a ceiling raised to follow the vault. It wasn't a big deal, but it required someone who could see through the artificial constraints. So we hired her because of her ideas. But that is only the beginning of why you should hire Yuki, that is, if you want a modern or contemporary design for your home. Yuki is one of the most trustworthy people you could ever hope to meet. She will always be on time, and she will never overcharge; at one point I realized she wasn't charging to return all my long detailed emails, and I had to tell her that she shouldn't work for free (sorry if I've ruined things for you all). My wife and I are very independent minded people, and we don't always agree. Yuki maneuvered this situation beautifully, slowly coaxing us into a workable decision making process. Sometimes I wanted to design things myself, and Yuki was very patient with this. I was able to send her my hand sketches and receive constructive feedback that was not at all dismissive. Selecting materials was also an area where we felt very uncomfortable; it seemed hard to tell the difference between creative and weird. Here is where we really came to trust Yuki, and learned to go through a patient process of matching and studying the designs of others. And in the end the house could not be more beautiful!

Yuki is creative, professional, detail oriented. We really enjoy working with her to design on our home. Our house had a room that was very dark, Yuki was creative and found a design that solved the problem. Yuki also came with us to select tiles and kitchen cabinets. We really appreciate her design perspective! Yuki attended weekly two hour meetings with the contractor and she helped us problem solve any issues that came up. She really cares about the home and wants to see it through. We love our new home and so happy to have worked with Yuki. We had a wonderful experience and would highly recommend her!

Before/After photos speak for themselves: https://www.houzz.com/hznb/projects/cupertino-transform-to-a-contemporary-house-pj-vj~6621088 Yuki is one of the few architects in South Bay/Pennisula that specializes in modern architecture & interior design. We feel extremely lucky that she had capacity to take on our project last year. With her help, remodeling became a super fun activity that we totally enjoy. To be more specific: 1. Customer focused: Yuki took a lot time listening to us and helping us figuring out our needs before jumping to drawings. During each drawing iteration, she creatively incorporated our input and presented solutions that beyond our imagination 2. Unparalleled service level: Yuki suggested having weekly standup meeting at the project site. This helped smooth out any problem/obstacle/mistake during the construction. She also accompanied us to showrooms for interior deco material selection. This service level is even more remarkable considering that she charges her projects by flat fee, not by hours 3. Easy-going, fun, engaging personality: as a homeowner, you will be working with your architect for almost 1 year. It's almost like having a co-worker or, in Yuki's case, a friend. It's just plain fun to work with her. Yuki has the super power to read your mind extremely well. She knows when to slightly nudge us out of our comfort zone and when to respect our important needs even if it means she may not achieve the best design effect she was hoping for. Thank you for reading this far. If there is one advice I can give, that is to get on her waitlist ASAP. It could still be a few months, if not more than 1 year, before she can accept your project, all because she wants to maintain the very best service :)