We hired Clements Interiors to do a full kitchen reno. After app't cancellations, rescheduling, missed deadlines, we finally got a set of drawings that were completely useless to us. I was devastated. The design had an island with only 28" of clearance around it (by anyone's standards, 36" is the bare minimum with few designers allowing less than 40") and tons of "pretty" open shelving, a bar etc, but NONE of our requirements - large pantry etc.
When I tried to discuss this with our designer, I ran up against a brick wall "I know what I'm doing" was the response. We lost $1,000 for a completely useless design and had to fight to not spend another $800.
I HIGHLY recommend researching an interior designer. I was so excited about working with Clements, but ended up out of pocket and with a design that was completely useless. It was as if none of my requests were considered, and we sent in very, very detailed lists of exactly what we needed and required. None of these were considered. In addition, our designer researched appliances for us (we were not buying new appliances) and the ones she researched were ones that we would never have considered (an $8,000 fridge! a wine cooler, which we have a cold cellar in the basement etc.) and charged us heavily for the time she spent doing this research (what we got was a few print-outs from the internet of these appliances which didn't meet anyone's needs, nor were of any use to us as we were not even considering replacing our appliances...)
There needs to be some protection for consumers when things like this happen. Since Clements Interiors is not a member of any design organizations in Ontario, there was no recourse for us, short of taking them to small claims court, which I did not have the energy to do.
Just want to warn everyone to be careful. Our situation may be unique, but a warning is still a good idea.
