I cannot recommend Vicki highly enough. Seeking first-time help designing and project-managing a refurb on a small flat, I spoke to lots of other designers before lighting upon Balance Design. One conversation was enough to convince me – Vicki explained her process lucidly, asked me methodically about my intentions and throughout was warm, friendly and patient. The three in-person meetings underpinning her design process were held at my flat, some considerable distance from Vicki’s base and all at weekends at my request – a first-rate service. In these meetings, her calm, undogmatic manner and great sense of humour made what I was very apprehensive about become a breeze. I should say that she hits the sweet-spot between too much and too little guidance: Vicki’s experience enabled her to guide me around ideas, possibilities and pitfalls, never imposing any preconceptions of her own on the style I wanted but moderating it to reality and taste. It felt truly supportive and collaborative. The brief was to spruce up a one-bed newish-build flat to my rather trad tastes while leaving it of sufficiently general appeal for onward sale in the medium term. I thought this was a pretty brutal brief, but Vicki seemed to get it so clearly and produced some amazing ideas I’d never even considered. The final sketches, pricings and floor plans were amazing. If you want a designer who will guide without leading, listen without slavishly obeying, help in all ways without fussing or surrendering her warmth and humour, go for Vicki.

We wanted to update our home and put it on the holiday let market as we had decided to move to Ireland. We needed to update the kitchen, bathroom and rearrange the bedrooms. My husband and I have ideas of how we would like to decorate but sometimes we don’t agree and therefore don’t move forward with any changes. It was also important that the whole house flowed and would appeal to the market we are hoping to rent to. I thought a interior designer might be able to help us with this but I wasn’t sure as it is only a two bedroom property if this would be too small a project for a interior designer and if it would be totally out of our budget.

The thing that really impressed me about Vicki was not only did she assure me that the project size was fine but it was the questions she asked me regarding what we were aiming for and the market we wanted to attract. She really listened and understood what we needed. Vicki totally took away our apprehension about using a interior designer. Vicki’s style is very collaborative and I never felt pushed into any design decisions. Her expertise is without question and she certainly guided us on what to spend on and what to save on. We were so impressed with the designs Vicki produced for us and her approach that we went on to engage her to project manage the renovation for us. Without Vicki I don’t believe we would have achieved the fabulous result we have within the time we have. The only problem we now have is that due to Vicki’s wonderful designs we now don’t want to leave the property:)

Selecting to work with Vicki from Balance Design on a complete top-to-bottom refurbishment has been the best decision I made, the only regret is that I didn’t find her earlier! The selection process for identifying an Interior Designer was thorough and detailed, I was looking for someone that I felt I could connect with and as soon as I met Vicki the chemistry was spot on immediately. Her ability to make you feel understood and that you´re in total control of all the decisions being made is incredibly reassuring and empowering, especially for someone like me that felt he had zero creativity.

The full refurbishment of the apartment is absolutely incredible, in fact for the few weeks after moving in the apartment was unrecognisable to me and I have lived here on-and-off for 16 years. It has exceeded my expectations and aspirations of what I had hoped the end result would look like. It is a 1 bedroom apartment and making best use of the space for both living, working (as I work from home), and storage was a real challenge. Well this is no longer the case. Friends and family have commented on how the apartment design throughout reflects my personality, lifestyle choices, and cultural identity. In fact, when I shared the before and after pictures with people they all thought I had moved into a completely new apartment………that is how impressive and transformational the end result has been.