Making Spaces

Wonderful experience; like working with a very experienced, expert friend. Working with my new house and looking to convert a very beige interior to something that aligned with my personality; Karen took a few basic elements, colours and plants to produce a beautiful home. I always thought of plants as an 'outside' chance for producing a nice home. I now have seven examples of how plants can enhance the combinations of furniture, paintings and colour . I now 'nearly (!)' have a very beautiful home, loved by all who come here, and a trusted fried. What could be better :-)

We chose Karen to help design a room in our Arts and Crafts house following a google search and finding some wonderful room designs that she had done. I just loved all the rooms she had done and really hoped we could work with her. She was really easy to contact and responded promptly explaining the option of remote design. It seemed to fit our needs and so we went ahead with it. I sent an email and a link to a Pinterest board detailing the dimensions of the room, what we would like to use it for and photos showing things we would like to include as well as images detailing our tastes. We then followed this up with a 1 hr skype chat where we could go through it in more detail. She was really friendly and instantly put us at ease. Once she had a good idea of our project she went to work and shortly after we were given the details of our design. I cant stress enough how happy we were with the plan. She took all our ideas and pulled it together in a fantastic design that we both loved. She managed to come up with ideas we never would have thought of but that also fitted our brief perfectly. We followed her plan pretty much to the letter and now are super pleased with the finished design. She really gave us the confidence to go bold with the design and I would thoroughly recommend her services to others. I feel we will definately be using her again in the future!

Karen Knoxx is a design genius. I have hired interior designers before, been to interior shops where they help you furnish and style a room. None of them have had the same creative flair or deep understanding of space and functionality. Karen delivers a very personal service and goes to great lengths to understand you and the space. She always starts with who will use the room, it’s purpose and relationship to the whole living space. Not all interior designers do this. Secondly she spends time getting to know you, she listens and then reflects the best parts of your personality in the space. On seeing her first design for us my husband said “oh wow that is VERY us just a brave cool version of us”. I first hired Karen to help me with the over all design of a two bedroom holiday cottage. She meticulously reviewed the architects plans and suggested several changes that have greatly improved the layout and space. Without her early input we would have made expensive mistakes. Hire Karen BEFORE you start any building work and you will reap the benefits. Karen Knoxx is fun to work with, and challenges me in a good way. She shares her expertise and knowledge generously so that you grow and develop during the process. I like the way she manages a project and keeps me focused. She has aptly demonstrated that she can deliver stunning interior spaces for different budgets. One obvious benefit of working with Karen Knoxx is her vast knowledge of where to shop and which products to buy. This has been a huge benefit to me personally, saving me time and money. Her communication is exceptionally good. She always exceeds my expectations on time taken to complete a task. If you are fortunate enough to work with Karen Knoxx you will love the experience and the finished product.

We hired to Karen to help us make sense of the million different bathroom styles that we had pinned on Pinterest. She helped us to define and create a cohesive theme and more amazingly, to squeeze in a standalone shower alongside a bath in quite a limited space. I also loved the shopping list that she put together for us. We would never have found those products without her ... or not without spending several weeks hunched over a laptop. She's a star!

Karen is exactly the type of no-nonsense person you need to knock some sense into you when designing a room. She knows what will work and what won’t, and isn’t afraid to tell you straight. This is what we needed for our bathroom. She came up with innovative solutions to make our bathroom a practical and beautiful space and we love it.

Needed good honest advice and creative thinking in our new house development - found Karen at Making Spaces - she’s awesome.. challenged our thinking, pushed the boundaries and wow, what a result.. you need to involve Karen, don’t hesitate; do it.. I don’t write many reviews if any.. but felt the need to share “making spaces”.. thank you Karen, we love your work and what you designed and planned for us.. until next time...

The very talented Karen Knox helped - over skype - to design our very large living room and hall on a really (really) tight budget. She worked with my floor plan and photos to work up ideas for colour schemes and a room plan, and then we refined this during a skype conversation, with her sending me web links to furniture, rugs, wallpaper, a pallette of colours for our home, everything I needed really. She took into account real life dilemmas all families have (what to do with all those coats and shoes) as well as more individual issues (how to store an orchestra of DH’s musical instruments). An email even popped into my in box a few hours later - she had taken the time to find an on line stor with reduced price wallpaper for me after the consultation - completely above and beyond what I had paid her to do. And the rooms are way, way better than anything I could have come up with, she gave us options in my comfort zone, then a wild card option we ended up loving and would never have thought of ourselves. Can’t recommend highly enough. Saved so much money on mistakes and sample paint pots - as well as lots of stress. I will post some photos once the decorator has left!

I’m really pleased & impressed by the online design consultation Karen provided. I gave Karen a brief of what we were looking to achieve, how we used each space in the house and sent over photos/floor plans. A few days later we had a 2 hour Skype call where Karen explained her ideas, showing me images to assist which helped me to visualise how things could look. Karen also suggested some specific items such as lighting, rugs, artwork that she thought would work in our house. Couldn’t recommend Karen more, she came up with some ideas we would never have thought of and given the distance between us Edinburgh/Leeds the online approach worked really well and was good value at £80. Karen has also always been at hand over email to answer any queries etc. 5 out of 5 without hesitation!

Karen is a fabulously creative, versatile and clever professional who has helped us to transform our space. We always thought that hiring an interior designer was completely out of our reach. However, after falling in love with one of Karen’s featured projects on Making Spaces, we came to find out that we could work with Karen on an hourly basis, on a daily basis or by project – perfect! Unlike many of her London counterparts, Karen offered a completely flexible (we work together remotely) and budget friendly option. We have worked with Karen on two projects to date, and will no doubt continue our collaboration. We started out with a very dark, dingy hallway and a gloomy claustrophobic living room. For both projects we have relied on Karen for everything from sourcing hard to find pieces, to designing bespoke cabinetry, to choosing paint colours, to finding ways to harmoniously work our existing pieces into the design. We could not be more pleased with the results. Not only do both spaces look beautiful, but they really reflect our own personal style. An absolute pleasure to work with, Karen has also proven to be very creative and flexible given a number of constraints – budget, pets, time-scales. At times we’ve had to pause projects while the handy man (aka hubby) constructed joinery, or I was finally able to decide from a few of her fabulous suggestions. Who knew I’d get so hung up on choosing the absolutely perfect chairs! Her creative magic coupled with her collaborative approach make the process fun. I would confidently and wholeheartedly recommend Karen for any of your design needs.

I turned to Karen for help after stumbling across her blog and falling in love with her approach to interior design. I worked with Karen on a double study which needed to flex to accommodate both kids and adults alike over the next 10 years. Working over Skype and using photos she immediately embraced the challenge and came up with a fab design first time! Karen had managed to combine a modern and fresh workspace with Lego storage! We absolutely love this space and can't recommend Karen enough. In fact we have just used her to freshen up our hallway and landing. Review coming shortly.

Working with Karen at Making Spaces is a dream! We had a guest bedroom which had a beautiful cast iron fireplace but the rest of the room just didn't do it justice - there was magnolia everywhere. After a bit of building work to create an en-suite & steal back a piece of the original bedroom, we were ready for Karen to work her magic... and oh my goodness did she deliver! Using her skill and attention to detail, Karen created a mood board of her vision, which we loved, and after a bit of tinkering to find the perfect green chairs, we were ready with our shopping list. Once I saw the wallpaper sample, I knew it was 'the one' and the whole scheme frames it exquisitely. Once everything was decorated and purchased, Karen came back to add her finishing touches, which just seems to pull everything together. Her skill is undeniable and she really is excellent value for money - always hunting for a bargain and making sure we didn't pay over the odds. She is a joy to work with and I'm looking forward to starting our next project together real soon!

I was really happy with the job completed by Making Spaces. Karen has fantastic sense of style, combined with practical skills, and organisational know-how. For us, this meant that she maximised the space of our spare room and it's functionality, and also made it look amazing! A room which was previously a no-go dumping ground is now pride of our house! Thank you for your excellent work at such low cost :)