Mary Best Designs

Working with Mary has been a thoroughly pleasant experience! We are in the middle of a 2nd large project with her but have consulted her for several small projects, as well. Mary is a wonderful collaborator. She works skillfully with our ideas and general vision while gently asserts her opinions, which are excellent in their own right. I found a photo I was drawn to for our kitchen floor but our efforts to find the right material were unsuccessful so we began considering multiple alternatives. Our contractor then recommended Mary who thought my idea was perfect. She found the exact tile to realize the idea. The result was beautiful! Mary is prompt, professional, punctual and clear in all her communication. She works seamlessly with our contractor. She has a calm, gentle energy we find so reassuring during a period of upheaval and stress in our home and her costs are very reasonable. I whole heartedly recommend Mary as a designer!!

Working with Mary has been a throughly pleasant experience! We are in the middle of our second large project with her but have consulted her for several smaller jobs, as well. Mary is a wonderful collaborator. She works skillfully with our ideas and our general vision but gently asserts her opinions, which are excellent in their own right. I found a photo I was drawn to for our kitchen but our efforts to find the material were unsuccessful so we began considering multiple alternatives. Mary was then recommended by our contractor. She thought the idea was perfect and was able to find the exact tile to realize the idea. The result is beautiful! Mary is prompt, punctual and clear in all her communication. She works seamlessly with our contractor. She had a calm, gentle energy we find so reassuring during a period of stress and upheaval in our home and her costs are very reasonable!

We decided to have the exterior of our home painted and to decorate the front porch during the summer. We didn't know where to start with paint colors and Mary was fantastic! She made the process of choosing a color so easy and efficient, and the new color is beautiful. She also recommended an amazing company to do the painting. Also, the porch looks great - so welcoming. I especially appreciated her suggestions for using what we had and various options for buying the rest. The porch became my favorite place to spend time this summer, and we can't wait to get Mary's help inside of our home next.

Mary is just the best! She helped me refresh multiple rooms on our main floor including the dining, room, office, foyer and powder room and remodel a full bath upstairs. From paint, wallpaper, chair rail and box moldings, glorious window treatments, tile, vanity, countertop, plumbing fixtures, shower door, etc. - her selection guidance and contractor coordination was invaluable. I very much appreciated the personalized Pinterest design page which enabled me to visualize options and make informed choices. Can't wait for the next project with Mary!

Mary has helped us in both our Third Ward, Milwaukee condo and our Elm Grove home and we couldn't be happier. She was accommodating to our price point and style and was always willing to work around the chaos of our three kids. She made things fun and easy! From creating boards for us to shop from and taking trips to different stores with us, we were so grateful for her advice and patience in the process. She helped create custom curtains for our condo, chose materials for our kitchen, bathroom and bedroom renovations and helped pick out furniture, paint colors, etc. She does it all! We cannot wait to touch more rooms in our home using her expertise and help. She has an eye for timeless style and the talent to understand and work with yours as well. We love Mary and would highly recommend her to anyone!!

Mary helped us pick out living room furniture pieces, kitchen lighting, wall decorations in our foyer, bathroom tile design for our master, and so much more! She is full of great ideas , like when she had us paint a rug on our dining room floor (always get compliments!). I personally thought her aesthetic was perfectly on par with mine, so ideas and items she presented were perfect and saved us a lot of time and hassle. She has great resources and often brought samples to our home. Will work with her again and I recommend her to everyone.

I am actually pretty confident about my decorating but I hired Mary Best because I was going to redo 2 bathrooms, paint all of my interior and exterior, and buy all new furniture for my living room- and I’m so glad I did! I was surprised how stressful these projects could be and every step of the way Mary validated my feelings, gave me good advise, and was able to refer me to professionals (ie a professional wallpaper installer rather than a painter in my area). I was able to work closely with Mary even though she lived 2 hours away. I loved that she encouraged me to buy from whatever stores I liked from furniture store to a tile shop. She gave advise while putting my style and budget first. I highly recommend Mary Best Designs for small and big projects- I feel like she brought out the best in my house and style. She’s also fun to follow on Instagram at marybestdesigns -

In June, 2018 we worked with Mary on a lower-level remodel of our home. Not only did Mary produce a great final product, but she also listened to all of our needs including style and budget. When we wanted Mary to help reach a decision she did, when we knew what we wanted she allowed us to lead the process. One particular highlight was our powder room. We would have likely opted for a more boring/plain option, but through Mary's insight and skill she told us to "go bold" now it is the first thing people compliment when they see our remodel. I can not recommend Mary any higher, a true professional with a great eye for design.

I am a custom woodworking & carpentry contractor and we have worked with Mary Best on a number of projects. Not only does Mary create beautiful designs - but she is also able to communicate those designs to the craftspeople who bring those ideas to life. This is invaluable because it allows us to do a better job in bringing the design to life accurately. It also prevents the client from having to answer a lot of questions mid-project due to an unclear design. In the end - whether your project budget is large or small - a good designer like Mary is well worth her fee because she makes sure that you get the most value per dollar spent.

Mary was such a pleasure to work with in the design and layout of our new furniture. I was feeling stumped in what to buy, what sizes and shapes would fit and look best, and where to shop. She provided detailed layouts, made excellent furniture selections and was nice and easy to work with throughout the entire process. After our initial meeting, I still had questions and she was always available and happy to provide additional insight. I absolutely love the look of our new furniture and couldn't have done it without Mary. She is the BEST!

Mary was very easy to work with. She has a great eye for both colors and textures and is not afraid to try something new. We had a want for a custom reclaimed wood piece and she was able to both create the concept and find someone local to manufacture the piece,

I started working with Mary over a year ago on a kitchen project after finding her on Houzz. We couldn’t be more pleased with the results! The kitchen project started with choosing colors which turned into re-doing a sun room, painting and pulling together the first floor, window treatments and now we are re-doing the living and family rooms! She really listens to the look you want to achieve and helps guide you to get there within your budget. Mary is a highly qualified professional with a great personality and is very easy to talk to. We get so many compliments on her work!