Dogwood Design

Sarah was so helpful during our home building experience. Her skills and knowledge guided us through the selection process for everything from paint colors, faucets, appliances to lighting, tile, bathroom fixtures. Sarah was able to coordinate with the builder and help facilitate the ordering process. Sarah was able to make our house become our home. Our home feels perfect in every way and much of the credit goes to Sarah for her assistance, guidance, and really understanding our vision.

Sarah is awesome! So easy to work with, and I love her ideas. She has designed several rooms in our home, and I am so happy with all of it. She is easygoing, responsive, creative, and gives many options. She has a great eye and terrific taste.

Sarah is awesome. She listened to what we wanted and helped turn my vision into a reality. Sarah did an excellent job coordinating with contractor,suppliers and on line purchases as well as keeping us informed of budget /expenses. Her experience helped us to see where we would get the most bang for our dollars. She coordinated everything making our renovations easy and stress free for us. You cannot ask for more.

We started the construction of our new home in Virginia beginning in June 2017. We currently live in New Jersey and hired Sarah to assist with the selection process for paint colors, tile and counter materials, cabinet colors and hardware, light fixtures, and basically all of the details that make a house a home. Constructing a house long distance was a challenge, but Sarah was instrumental in creating the needed interface with the project manager, the multiple vendors and me that ensured continuity and at times helped me to keep the big picture in mind. Sarah was my design eyes during several critical moments and helped us through some very difficult decisions which would have a significant impact on the overall interior look and feel of the house. Sarah was thorough, timely and took the time to understand our vision on the style of the home we wanted. She stayed within our budget parameters and found wonderful options as we went through the selection process. Sarah did not impose her style preferences but was clear when some of my choices might not go with the overall "feel" of the home we were trying to create. She has an eye for detail which was event throughout the building process and creating the punch list over the past month. We received the Certificate of Occupancy this past week. As excited as we are, it is also mixed with sadness as it means I will not be working with Sarah to level we have over these past 8 months. I look forward to seek out her continued guidance (window treatments, furniture) for our new home. My only regret is that I did not have Sarah when we were actually designing the layout of the house!

Sarah is a very knowledgeable and talented design professional. She guided us through the many decisions that had to be made as our home was built. From flooring to lighting, plumbing fixtures to paint colors, door handles to appliances, she provided consistently great advice. In addition, she remained well organized and on top of details throughout a lengthy home building process. My wife and I strongly recommend her services.

I have used other designers before, and Dogwood Design is by far my favorite. Sarah has a beautiful eye, presence, and sensibility, and she listens so closely to clients in order to help them put together designs they will love--and to stay within their budgets and meet deadlines. Talented, reasonably priced, knowledgeable, kind, and artistic, she is also extremely courteous and easy to work with. The quality of her work is impeccable. Really, I can't say enough good things about her.

Sarah was fantastic to work with, from start to finish. She made scheduling and budgeting easy, and has a wonderful eye for design. We completely gutted a 1970 colonial and basically rebuilt the inside. Sounds easy, but we learned that there is an art to it, and it's not that easy. We would have been lost without her. Sarah only works with quality contractors and subs. I met everyone of them and feel great about the way our project was handled. I have already, and will continue to recommend Dogwood Design!

Sarah did a great job taking my vision and following through with all the details. She kept me informed at every step and stayed within my budget!! She made suggestions along the way and always took care of any concerns that arose. I've already booked her for other projects! Definitely recommend her if you need a designer!

I could not recommend anyone more highly than Sarah Knicely of Dogwood Design to design your new home or renovation. Our dream home came to fruition through her expertise, diligence and professionalism. My husband and I designed a contemporary-style but not modern house. We liked the clean lines and simplicity of contemporary design but did not want the sterile feel so often found in sleek modern homes. In our first meeting with Sarah, we reviewed the plans room by room to outline what features we were interested in having. I also had some examples saved on Houzz.com, which she reviewed. Immediately, Sarah recognized the key elements of the look we were trying to achieve. She also understood that our priorities were cost and how easily something could be cleaned; it was imperative that we stayed within budget. I was actively involved in selecting all the finishes for the house, and Sarah expertly guided me through each choice ensuring that we retained consistency and stayed within budget. The process became an evolution of style, which Sarah embraced. She did not force items or colors, and when I couldn’t find a particular light fixture or tile that appealed to me, she offered appropriate choices and often knew which one I’d pick. It was the perfect collaboration. In addition to the fun of planning our house, Sarah’s professionalism made the experience that much more enjoyable. She regularly provided budget updates so I knew where we stood before the next round of selections. We went over in some categories but stayed under in others to come out even as desired. On occasion, items that I selected had been discontinued by the time they were ready to be ordered. Sarah promptly informed us and offered potential substitutions. I could write to her about any question, concern or crazy idea and know I’d get a thoughtful response within 24 hours. More importantly, I knew anything she told me would happen and if something came up to prevent it, she would let me know. We always knew where we stood and what to expect, which considerably reduced the stress of building a new home. Sarah made it fun!