By Design

We engaged Elma to design the remodel on our 1915 Craftsman and she did a truly wonderful job. She reconfigured a very funky arrangement of rooms into a family home just perfect for us. She was able to add a full bath and laundry room, turn a former upstairs attic into a proper primary suite, and relocate a poorly placed bathroom, all within the existing footprint of the home. More than anything, she helped us create a space for our family, with openness and flow, while still maintaining the character and charm of a 106 year old house. We'd highly recommend her design services.

Elma and her team took our ideas and made improvements and modification that made more sense in planning our kitchen remodel. It really helps when we start throwing out ideas and Elma is able to gather your input, combined with her industry knowledge and design expertise and produce a fantastic finished product. Excellent Job!!!!!!!

We began working with By Design in 2000 and we are still working with her today! Over the years, every time we have a new "home improvement or remodel project" we know who to call...Elma! She is the absolute best designer on the planet. She begins by listening to your needs, daily routines and "dreams!" She then follows up with excellent questions to gather specific information. She uses uses all of this to create the most amazing designs for every room and space in your house. After this comes the fun part! Elma takes you "shopping" to pick out the fixtures and materials that will make your home YOURS!! Elma uses her keen sense of color, texture and style to create a design that is unique to YOU! Elma's incredible knowledge of kitchen appliances, plumbing fixtures, and decorative lighting ensures that your home will not only look amazing but will have all the functionality you desire. As Elma is a dealer for WoodMode cabinets, you will have access to the highest quality and most beautiful cabinets. This is very important because cabinets are key to bringing the style of your home to life! We highly recommend Elma Gardner of By Design for your next remodel project. You will love her and your new home!

Elma completed a remodel several years ago and we have been very pleased with the results, her service and her creativity. She completed a master bedroom and expanded the room by moving an exterior wall, 2 bathrooms, 2 offices, and a guest room. With her knowledge and love for what she does, she guided us through lots of decisions and got the job done with wonderful contractors. She was quick to follow up with answers to our questions and worked with the contractors to get the details right. I would work with her again in a heartbeat!

We had our kitchen designed by Elma 15 years ago. To this day the quality of the cabinets and appliances that she supplied has stood the test of time and heavy use. During the design and installation process, Elma listened to what we envisioned for our kitchen as well as other areas in our house. She takes pride in her work and great care was taken to get all the details correct in a professional manner.

Elma is fantastic! She is very professional with a great eye for flow, colors, and the tiniest of details. She designed our complete house remodel. She walked us through each step and helped us with the millions of choices we had to make. We couldn't have done it without her. We are so happy with the final product! The transformation is amazing.

Elma Gardner is a very professional, talented and well-sourced designer. She created the design for our Contempory kitchen, master bath and dressing areas. She also designed the lighting throughout our remodeled Eichler-inspired home.

Six stars! We are extremely happy with the outcome of the major whole house remodeling project that we undertook with Elma Gardner of By Design. She was creative, knowledgeable, personable, efficient, artistic, innovative and very enjoyable to work with. She listened carefully to our goals for our remodel and helped us to articulate those aspects that we did not have clear ideas about. Her cost and time estimates were realistic and were in writing so that we always knew what to expect. There was never any delay with appointments. Elma has a wide network of business contacts. She recommended the best quality materials and appliances, but also keeping our budget in mind. She accompanied us on all visits to suppliers. She has specific ideas and opinions and can explain them effectively. She did not let us be overwhelmed with an excessive number of choices, but would present a series of several options at a time. It was never a case of “Whatever you want … “ Elma worked well with our contractor. She continued to work with us at the end of the project when it was time to purchase furniture and furnishings. Our circumstances were such that we did not have much time to give to this remodel project. Elma made the best use of our time. The response by all who have visited our remodeled home has been most enthusiastic. Elma Gardner has our highest and unqualified recommendation as an interior designer. --NES&CES

Elma helped me to completely redesign my townhouse at Telegraph Landing in San Francisco. She has an extraordinary understanding of architectural issues and contractor work flow and is therefore listened to and well respected by architects and general contractors alike. Things run smoothly under her watch. She has an exceptional eye for beautiful form and colors. Elma helped me to select a multi-toned wooden floor that I would never have trusted myself to select on my own. I love how beautiful this floor turned out, and it turned my home into a showcase. All colors, everywhere, flow and compliment one another - something I could not have achieved on my own.

We were looking to update our kitchen and were told Elma Gardner of By Design was the best kitchen designer in the area. We are so lucky that we were able to work with her. She spent hours helping perfect our plans, coming up with "solutions" to tricky areas, such as expanding our ceiling soffit to define the kitchen area and making the most of every hard to reach area. Every detail is perfect. She is a true professional. We love our classic white kitchen!

I had hired Elma to do a design plan and oversee construction of the kitchen in my previous residence. I moved about ten years later and the kitchen was the primary selling point. It remained as current as when it was built a decade earlier. When I considered redoing the kitchen in my current residence, I contacted Elma again. After much discussion a plan was made. Although the space, as before, was gutted, in this most recent project everything went back into the same location - fridge, ovens, dishwasher, sink, etc. The project also included the addition of small wine fridge, construction of a banquette dining area with storage and redoing a small half bath adjacent to the kitchen. Besides reconfiguring storage areas and lighting, Elma assisted in the selection of all materials, cabinets, appliances, countertops, fixtures, flooring, etc. Elma has a keen attention to detail and a thorough knowledge of available materials and products and it shows in the finished job. Although the remodeling experience is never a pleasurable one, the end result was more than worth it. I couldn't be happier.

Elma provided design services for the kitchen and two bathrooms of a full home remodel and 1100 square foot second floor addition. She listened to what we wanted in our home and provided a beautiful design. She worked very well with our architect and general contractor to coordinate her elements with the plan and construction for the entire house. She met her deadlines, was pleasant to work with, and met our budget. She was an integral part of our team and provided the knowledge to tie all of the design elements of our home together, even assisting us with exterior paint colors. Though we completed our remodel over ten years ago, we have worked with Elma up to the present time in adding furniture, artwork and fabric to our home and a 2012 update of our master bedroom and bath which was not part of the initial remodel.

ByDesign completed a an award-winning kitchen remodal in my former home and assited with my kitchens and bathrooms in a home I built in 2006. ByDesign and Elma Gardner provided cutting edge and practical design solutions to a home which was featured in Fine Homebuilding's annual home issue. One of the key features was the use of concrete countertops as a design element and part of a strategy to provide more thermal mass.

We have worked with ByDesign (Elma Gardner) twice, both with excellent results. Elma has a great sense of style, and how your renovations will fit within your dwelling style. All of our meetings were easy to arrange and designs followed in a timely manner. ByDesign uses Brookhaven/Wood-Mode cabinets which are very high quality with great features. Our usable storage space was vastly increased and much easier to organize. Our contractor worked well with By Design and we would be pleased to work with them again!

We have a kitchen, powder room and laundry room remodel. ByDsgn has done the design and is consulting on all aspects of the project. We are doing the work ourselves. This is the second project we have done with Elma Gardner, MKBD, the principal of the company. We have had an excellent experience this time, as with our previous project 13 years ago. She is very experienced, is conscientious about deadlines and has worked with us on budget. We enjoy working with ByDsgn and highly recommend this company.

Elma Gardner is a very talented designer and a fun person to work with. We originally contacted her to help us with the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry design and install for our new home. She offers all the design help needed to complete a project. First, she presented a couple of different layouts for us to consider. The designs were fantastic. Then she scheduled appointments for us to meet with her at several different showrooms including: lighting, plumbing, appliance, and tile showrooms. She listened to what we wanted and helped us make good choices. She was available to meet at the job site during construction. Elma runs a great business; she is very organized, efficient and accommodating. She gets things done on time and she is easy to contact by phone, email or in person. The cabinetry company that she works with makes high quality, beautiful cabinets.