Cayton Design Studio

Janene Cayton is a highly talented and experienced designer who saved the day as we dealt with a challenging remodel. First and foremost, Janene's personal qualities make her an easy and genuinely flexible professional to work with. Her own highly refined sense of design was never dismissive of our client preferences and process. That being said, she was very forthright if she thought we were making poor design decisions. As a result, we ended up with an incredibly elegant, coherent, and thoughtful design. Janene works with the perfect blend of confidence and receptivity. In other words, she is a professional with a strong guiding aesthetic who nevertheless allows room for clients to explore and discover their own ideas. A bonus is Janene's great sense of humor and philosophical perspective. Both those qualities helped keep us on an even keel and balanced out the usual stresses and anxieties of our remodeling process. Janene has a wonderfully developed modern aesthetic that has as its goal the balance of form and function. She is equally adept at overarching concepts and minute details, from space-planning to finish materials. My husband and I are not the easiest clients to work with due to our conflicting ideas about design and materials. Additionally, because my husband is a builder (and one with strong opinions), Janene was faced with the need to diplomatically and skillfully negotiate solutions between us when we were at points of impasse. With her strong people skills and upbeat attitude, along with her consistent ability to provide multiple design and materials options, my husband and I were very capably supported by Janene along the path to effective design compromises. Best yet, those decisions resulted in a unified and integrated design. Janene is able to work with whatever level of service is required, whether extensive accompaniment of a less experienced client, or on a "design service as needed" basis for a more hands-on client. Because my husband is a builder who has the skills to conceptualize a project and problem-solve in the absence of detailed architectural plans, we needed varying levels of Janene's attention and services throughout project. She produced a great floor plan to keep us going in the right direction in the early phase. And when we approached finish material phase, we increased the frequency of our meetings. Janene was always willing to come to the job site whenever necessary to nail down specifications that were not in our plans. As a bonus, because Janene is tech savvy and familiar with multiple online vendors, she was able to direct us to high-quality lighting and plumbing finish materials that were well-designed and affordable. And she kept scrupulous records of our palette and materials. The result is that Janene helped us transform a dumpy, truly ugly, compartmentalized 70's home into an airy, spacious, modern home with wonderful flow, beautiful and durable materials, and a wonderful palette that complements our pre-existing furnishings. We have been so happy with our designer-client relationship. Janene continues to be a "go to" designer for our personal and business projects. Stay tuned. Photos of our beautiful finished remodel are forthcoming.

I have worked with Janene of Cayton Design for nearly two decades. She is one of the best interior designers and space planners I have ever worked with. She has worked on my home designing interior spaces as well as custom furniture. As a landscape architect I have worked with her with my clients on many projects creating seamless living between indoors and out.