Inside Stories

If you’re building a new home or working on a large project, read this before signing a contract with Inside Stories. We hired Inside Stories for a large new construction home that had not yet broken ground. Before signing, they spoke extensively about helping with critical early decisions like cabinetry, tile, plumbing fixtures, accent walls, lighting, and courtyard design, all things you need early to work with a GC, build a realistic budget, and secure a construction loan. After signing, it became clear that none of that information would be released until we paid for furniture through them. That timeline does not work for new construction. Furniture is selected last, while cabinetry, fixtures, lighting, and finishes are needed much earlier. By the time their process allows those details to be released, it is too late to be useful. Their milestones may work for small projects, but they are not structured to support large new builds. We were effectively paying for design services we could not use when we needed them. Their business model also appears heavily dependent on furniture sales. Specifications and usable documentation are withheld until furniture is paid for, creating a situation where clients are financially committed before receiving meaningful deliverables. In our case, it felt like the process was designed to trap us financially before giving us anything of real value. We paid a $10,000 deposit and an additional $15,000 design payment. When we terminated the contract after realizing the process would not work for our project, Inside Stories acknowledged they had only performed $4,950 of billable work. By their own accounting, this meant they owed us a negative balance of $20,050. However, they refused to return this overpayment, claiming they were entitled to keep it because they had supposedly provided significant “intellectual property.” This is bogus in my opinion. The contract says nothing about forfeiting refunds due to IP, and what they gave us was a PowerPoint that mainly consisted of inspiration images, some provided by us and some selected by them. Regardless, it does not seem proprietary or usable to me, and it provides no real value to our project. These were just reference images meant for them to work from, not something we can build from or use. I even reverse image searched several images and found them on other websites and Instagram, not anything suggesting original IP. We cannot build from it, budget from it, or use it in any meaningful way. Even more frustrating, they admitted the work completed totaled only $4,950, based on hourly rates they set, not us, yet they still insist on keeping over $20,000 beyond that amount. Our advice: be extremely careful. Make sure milestones are tied to specific, usable deliverables, and understand that under their model, you may pay substantial amounts long before receiving information you need to move your project forward.

I was really excited to try this firm’s “microdesign” offering, which promised personalized design help for any size space. I spent hours pulling together inspiration images and meeting with my designer, but the final design I received was extremely generic and didn’t reflect my preferences at all. I was hoping for thoughtful, customized ideas, but it felt like the design was repurposed from another client's project. For the time and money invested($5k), I expected much more creativity and attention to detail. After I gave feedback on the design, Kate was kind enough to meet with me and help me do some reselects. However, if I wanted designs that matched my preferences, I would've been billed for additional hours. Sadly I spent thousands of dollars to have them select 1 paint color for my home.

From start to finish, it was a pleasure working with the team at Inside Stories. They have a very unique process that eliminates all the pain points that people encounter during interior design projects. There are no surprises in terms of the scope of work, pricing, and deliverables. The design team is brilliant and demonstrate professionalism every step of the way. Truly exceptional.

After the total loss of our home and contents due to a house fire, we were faced with rebuilding a new home from the ground up. This included designing and furnishing our new home. We chose Miranda Cullen at Inside Stories to help with this enormous endeavor. We looked to her expertise and guidance in our complete custom home build in all aspects of home design, including working with the architects and the builder. Our goal was that when the project was completed, we would walk into a beautiful and completely furnished home. Each step of the way, Miranda worked with us to choose everything that goes into a new home, including floors, appliances, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, furniture, all decor, accessories, etc. Miranda, Sarah Beth and their team spent a lot of time with us learning what we wanted and needed in our home, and about our desires for use of space, style of furnishings, textures, colors, lighting…everything. At our design proposal meeting, every room was presented to us with swatches, samples and the design of each room. We were overwhelmed with the beauty and quality of what they had designed for us. As is very common, changes are made during the building process whether it be in the dwelling structure or changes such as lighting. We relied very heavily on Miranda’s opinion when faced with those changes and she was always readily available with a quick response for us. The entire Inside Stories team’s attention to detail was invaluable and we had so much trust in their judgement and expertise. Three years after the fire when the home was finally built and ready for move-in, Miranda and her team at Inside Stories welcomed us into our completely furnished home. It is everything we had wanted and more. It is beautiful and comfortable and it all makes sense for our lifestyle. After living here for several months, we couldn’t be happier with our new home.

I have been so thrilled with the support from Inside Stories. We hired them for one, smaller project but have since hired them several more times to complete various rooms in the home. The process is simple, clear and collaborative. In addition to the deliverable itself, what really sets Inside Stories apart is that they continue to field questions/substitutions as they present post project completion. Really thorough and a pleasure to work with! We've worked with Sam Leffel for all projects.

My husband and I wanted to remodel our kitchen and do an update to dining and living room. We contacted Inside Stories and were initially impressed with how professional and organized they were. The problems started when we were assigned an interior designer. The designer was friendly throughout all out interactions. However, as we worked with her, we found that she was slow to respond and lacked attention to detail. When we finally got our plan, we were happy with the ideas. (I should mention that our meeting to go over the final plan was on Friday. We were assured that we would get the document to access all the links and the digital presentation the same day. Did not get it until Monday. Designer claimed she had the email ready to go in her drafts folder and forgot to press send.). I started to go over the plans in more detail and discovered that the recommended chairs were not drawn to scale and would be too big for the space. Designer recommended dining chairs from a company that has terrible reviews (so not buying those). She recommended a high-maintenance shag rug for the living room even though we have a dog and had asked that all recommendations be low-maintenance. She failed to include a planter that was on the space plan in the presentation for the design and the shopping list. We sent her a detailed email pointing these things out and asking for a revised design to the kitchen hood (which was not at all our style). When she responded, she assured us that she would make revisions and get it to us by Friday (or Saturday of that week, at the latest). Monday morning came, and no revisions. I sent another email. Did not get a response until Tuesday morning. The revised plans arrived Tuesday afternoon. At this point, we knew we would have to double-check everything. When we looked at the plans, we saw that the new living room chairs were still too big and the hood had not been redesigned. Links in the revised presentation were not working so I could not find some the recommended items easily. We had planned to work with Inside Stories again in the redesign of our bathrooms and the project management of our kitchen. We will not be doing that now. I do not know if we just got a designer who is not very good at her job or the company did not think we were worth much time because we were only spending a few thousand dollars on their services. Either way, we are frustrated with the experience and will not be recommending this company.

I had an idea of what I wanted but Kathleen really listed, asked probing questions and pulled together a beautiful design for our kitchen. She was very professional and timely. Highly recommend inside stories!

My experience with Inside Stories was exactly what I hoped for when I first reached out to them. Each person with whom I interacted was friendly, helpful and responsive. Special my kudos to my designer, Brittany. She was thorough and efficient, providing all agreed upon deliverables complete and on time. I appreciate what has been accomplished and would not hesitate to use the Inside Stories team again.

Rachel Vanek is amazing!!! We absolutely love her, and her ability to truly listen, understand what we want, and take into account what our family needs. I also love the Inside Stories process. They're very upfront with costs and their entire process, which led to a great experience. We were absolutely blown away with the final design, and the space is so incredibly comfortable. I can't wait to work with Rachel again on our kitchen project :)

Wonderful experience from start to finish - Sam was professional, prompt, and a delight to work with. I am most impressed with the deliverables, however. I wanted an eclectic, curated look - nothing catalogue-y - and she delivered in spades. The look is layered and luxurious, and she stayed on budget. I would highly recommend this company.

Hired Inside Stories to refresh a few rooms in my home while incorporating some of my existing pieces. Worst experience I’ve ever had with a design company. After paying required 95% deposit, multiple items were so poorly scaled that they were not physically installable in my home (see pic). Every single piece of furniture and art was many months delayed to me and/or never delivered. I had to hire an attorney, because the owner refused months of my requests, to get the company to return my $ for goods (not custom) they couldn’t deliver.

Lauren & her colleagues created a beautiful Rustic Contemporary design plan for our CO mountain home! She was extremely professional, flexible, responsive & creative. She listened closely to our lifestyle details & design preferences, resulting in design ideas & furniture recommendations that satisfied both my husband & I - not an easy task - bravo! We plan to return to Lauren in the future, for additional design planning services. Many thanks!