I hired Lux to do a condo quickie for a recently purchased two story condo. Overall, the work was average at best. I am surprised their reviews are this good. If you want to pay retail or over for basic furniture and have the process take 6 months, but you just don't want to be that involved, they might be good for you. I wish I had done more research as now I certainly would not recommend them as a young professional. There area few negative reviews on the site that have a previous version that reflect my experience, but worse! It seems they have all been taken down or changed so perhaps their rating is a tad inflated?
First, they over promise to get you to do the quickie, touting the convenience of having someone manage deliveries etc. All of this comes at an additional cost -- you pay for it. They add 15% on the total bill for delivery and storage. In our original 15000 budget, a whopping 35% of it they used up in what they deem to be 'standard fees' before tax. All of this might have been fine if they were transparent about this at the beginning. We really felt like they only cared about selling us marked up furniture and contracting services and not about the design of our new condo.
They make you sign nothing initially, but they charge you the entire design fee upfront, so you are stuck. You know nothing about the process and procedures and get nothing in writing. While Lara, our designer, was nice and talented, the process is so unprofessional that we were instantly put off. Problem #1: they say they can work within any budget, they really can't -- we gave them a 15000 budget initially. They gave us a first design plan where the only thing we got was a couch (4000) and coffee table (2000) and the place painted. The rest was all gone in fees. Everything else was on an additional spreadsheet called the 'wishlist'. This is how they say they apparently work within any budget- by putting all the real design in a 'wishlist' that you can't afford and then get pressured to go over-budget.
They conceal their suppliers, but we found everything they gave us by cross referencing on google images, and their furniture is from the same suppliers as any basic store. Most of the time, they were charging a large premium. Occasionally when we asked for budget items, they threw in an image from a discount retailer adding a 15% (hidden) premium and then charging their other fee on top of it. They would send you just an image and a price so you would have no idea this is what they were doing. I understand this is how design firms make money, but with lux, you are so limited in furniture selection because they only suggest preferred suppliers where they stand to make a large commission - again, their bottom line takes priority over the design.
As for communication, every invoice was incorrect in their favor and the process lacked transparency. They would also give you an invoice that was thousands of dollars, only accept cheque delivered in person and give you 24-48 hours to pay it. What reputable design firm has these types of billing processes? And does not take a major credit card? I got a receipt that calculated 10% off 3000 to be $180. When I asked for a breakdown of contracting costs, they charged 900 to hang a 400 light. They also charge 800 dollars for a 'special door install' but it was the same unlicensed contractor they send for all their odd jobs. I definitely have no trust in this firm to ethically manage a tight budget.
The entire process took over 6 months. Toward the end of the project, we asked to add a murphy bed -- the options they gave us seemed thrown together and really didn't work with our space. Here was an opportunity to show us some good design and they were not interested. We went to another company which was expensive (over 5000), but at least the service was impeccable and their process was transparent. Completely night and day from Lux.
In the end, we bough our own couch, rug, art, bed, dresser, artwork and murphy bed. We only used lux to do the contracting, installs and entertainment system. That cost us $25000 alone somehow. It was also not coordinated that well. That's a lot to pay for bare bones project management and unlicensed contracting.
They make you pay premium prices and call themselves lux, but the actual end product is anything but. I wish I had read this review before I went with them. The condo quickie is not quick and not seamless or simple. They were not a good fit for our needs. The people who wrote good reviews seemed happy to write them a cheque and handover their keys. We were not that type of customer so it was a misfit. While we are happy with the end-product, we coordinated and purchased most of the interiors ourselves. Please email me - I'm happy to share my individual experience. I could go on and on, but trying to be as nice as I can be.
