I hired Geri from Freespace design when I was building my new custom home. We were building in a more traditional neighborhood, but have contemporary taste. We asked her to first assist us with selecting colors for our painted brick house so that it fit into the neighborhood, but kept the contemporary look we were going for. She came incredibly prepared, and had different combinations already paired, and a rendering that shows how each color looked on the house. It was amazing! She really has an eye for color, and factors in lighting and trim colors to create a complete package. We are so pleased with how the house turned out, we could not have done it without her!
Once we got into designing the kitchen, we again realized we needed help. We didn't want just a plain layout and we didn't want elaborate, traditional cabinets. Geri listened to our wish list, and came back with a unique, interesting and contemporary design that was not too modern, but definitely not traditional. In the design, she incorporated walnut as an accent piece to go along with the dark wood cabinets. I never would have imagined anything like what she designed. The walnut was used on the front of the island, and undercounter puck lighting shines down onto the walnut wall to showcase a very cool design feature. On the front of the bar, she used a similar walnut design, but used tape lighting behind so that light shows through the walnut slats. In the coffee bar, she designed a walnut cabinet and 3 shelf unit, which ties the entire kitchen together. The walnut adds an unexpected, yet very cool element to the overall design making it look truly custom.
Instead of traditional granite, Geri suggested white silestone and a white backsplash. It gives it a minimalist look without all of the competing colors that granite introduces. My favorite aspect of the countertop is that she designed the island the wrap down the sides into a "waterfall". So the sides of the island match the top and it looks like one continuous piece. Brilliant!
Instead of regular or frosted glass for the cabinet doors, she found glass that had bamboo-like grass embedded into it. With the light shining through the glass, it adds an enexpected element to the overall look and some texture as well.
Lastly, we realized we could not make color and design decisions on our own at this point. We trusted Geri too much by now! It was time to pick out paint colors for the entire house. We wanted to keep it to 6 or less. She again came prepared with swatches of colors grouped together. We went room to room and used different light to make sure we liked the combinations. Then, once we agreed on the 6 colors, she helped us place them into each room. But not just painting the room, she thinks of a room in terms of planes and volumes, and selects combinations of these colors to highlight certain walls or corners. She thinks about how you look through a house, and which walls are on the same plane and should be the same color, even though they are in different rooms. Her design eye is like nothing I've ever seen.
We are so happy with our choice to work with Geri during this process. She was the easiest part of building our new home, and really took away a lot of the stress. If I ever build again, I would get her involved before I even finalize the house plans and have everything designed up front instead of trying to do it during the building process. It would have saved us a lot of rework with the builder!
I strongly recommend Geri, she is so talented!
63 Comments