Making Spaces

Karen is a genius and a pleasure to work with. Here's an email I wrote her after one of our rooms (a combo kitchen/dining room) was completed. The room has since been featured in tons of blogs, insta posts, and in the Yorkshire Post! "I’m sitting on the sofa in our incredible dining room/kitchen, the design of which magically emerged from your brain. It’s the first night that it’s technically, finally, ALL done, and I have to say…it’s the absolute f’ing best!! The lighting, the colors, the mirrors, the table, the radiator, the tile, the mantle shelf, the YELLOW CEILING?!…every last detail is so brilliant and amazing that I just wanted to let you know and to thank you for all the sweat and tears (hopefully not blood) that you put into the design. It is truly a spectacular room and just fills us with such great vibes — in the morning when the sun plays off the sofa and in the evening when the lights are dim and it feels like we’ve stepped into a really fancy yet cozy restaurant that just happens to be our home. The child has gone to sleep and the wife’s in London and I have this glorious room all to myself! I’m now going to fix myself a cocktail, and continue to enjoy the splendours of your design in silence." So...yeah, Karen's certainly worthy of 5 stars. If there were 6 available, she'd be worthy of those!

Karen has been an inspiration to work with from our very first virtual meeting. From the initial concept, all the way through to the tenacity demonstrated in sourcing furnishings, fitting and scheduling of works, her dedication and attention to detail has been exemplary. A last minute paint colour change after a sleepless night is an indication of the personal care and thought Karen puts into her creations. She has an uncanny ability to help you explore and develop your own taste and style, which for me has proved to be quite an enlightening journey. Karen took my ramblings and vague brief and developed them into an exquisite design, and I now find I have a room that almost feels like it gives me a hug every time I walk in. I feel I am the very lucky custodian of a work of art that Karen has produced and am looking forward to transforming the rest of the house into a unique and personalised home.

Karen is a superstar. We initially met on a colour consult for the hallway and after a cuppa and me moaning about our kitchen, she persuaded me the way to go was to put off the decorating and knock down a wall in the kitchen instead! This was a bit of a shock but after some discussions we went for it and the end result is amazing. The space has been totally transformed and it makes a difference to our family every single day. She is a true designer. I have also seen Karen recently to talk through the actual hallway, where she has given me the confidence to use colour everywhere and has shown me how to pull it all together (all walls still intact). She is incredibly creative and inspiring and I would not hesitate to work with her again.

I originally approached Karen during lock down having seen her excellent work on the Harrogate House and the 70's Living Room. Our rather tired, wonky and small detached garage offered a great opportunity for a new home office. Having hit the proverbial brick wall, we commissioned Karen for a day to provide layout, window and door position options/advice, then used her remote design service for the interior detail. Karen's creative flair and eye is for all to see in her projects. What sets Karen apart is her grace, intelligence, humour and firmness (when required) to shift your mindset to unlock what it is you are really looking for. It quickly becomes apparent that you are in safe hands. The depth of thinking behind her designs and importantly the fixture and fitting recommendations becomes apparent once you start delving into the detail. Karen works hard to find the most affordable solutions. A thoroughly enjoyable journey. Highly recommended.

Karen is absolutely fantastic! I was a fan of her blog & then realised she was Leeds based - so could actually work with her... We were doing a renovation & had lots of ideas... but it’s difficult to know what will & won’t work... so we booked a Karen for a day. (Split over a couple of sessions...) Firstly - she helped us with practical & realistic view of the architects plans. Yes - the architect needed to go back to the drawing board - and yes every day we are pleased we gave her the plans to look at! Second - she designed our living room. Chatted with us & just got exactly what we were trying to do & then made it possible. (She chose lights that were £25 from Made as well as some other higher end items - she understood our need to stick to budget!) Finally - we then booked an additional day - and this time worked with Karen as a sounding board and ideas vault rather than a full design as she’d helped build our confidence. She’s just bloody brilliant and totally doesn’t realise it.

Working with Making Spaces on an extension, ground floor remodel and total refurb of our three bed property has been fantastic from start to finish. From the very first chat about the architects’ plans (and a subsequent change which has transformed the space) to the finishing touches, Karen has been invaluable. She’s been approachable and non-judgmental whilst also steering us towards design choices that have created a home that we love. She has helped with sourcing products, layout issues, and even trouble with the trades. She is excellent value and we can’t recommend her highly enough.

We got in touch with Karen last summer as we were at a dead end with our snug room. It was quite tricky for a number of reasons and after several failed ideas of our own we knew we needed expert help. It was the first time we had hired a professional. After an initial consultation, Karen came up with a number of themes and ideas, all of which were something we would never have dreamed of ourselves. I think the art of a good designer is to push you to the edges of your comfort zone which Karen did. The results were transformational as hopefully the photos illustrate. As we had existing contacts, we managed the trades ourselves but Making Spaces can handle the full project if desired. Karen was very good at suggesting accessories within our budget which we bought ourselves. Finally, whilst the cost isn't exactly cheap, overall we got an outstanding solution that we couldn't have got without Karen's help. The proof of the pudding is we used Making Spaces again recently for input into another room. Good designers are a classic case of you get what you pay for!

We initially approached Karen looking for advice regarding a new kitchen to go within a proposed 2-storey extension to our house. We took along our architect's drawings. Immediately Karen could see several areas within the drawings which didn't make sense, didn't make best use of the available space and which would cause great frustration to us living there. We agreed to leave the drawings with her to try and work out a better layout. What she came back with blew our minds. Karen managed to put herself inside the drawing and walk around visualising all aspects, creating what is probably the best use of the space. She asked the right questions to get to know what would work best for us and our family. She then talked us through her proposed layout in such a clear, logical manner that it was easy for my husband and I to visualise it too. She was also very adaptable to any input we had. Karen manages to combine incredible creativity with a very logical approach. She will create something beautiful which also funcions perfectly. Communication was always fabulous. Prompt responses to emails and very approachable. So, we'll shortly get to the task of specific kitchen design, but oh my, we are so, so glad we approached Karen before any building work had started! Karen has likely saved us from a completely inappropriate and frustrating extension. She was worth every penny and I would wholeheartedly recommend Karen for any interior project when you would like to look at designing, reorganising and optimising your space.

Thanks to Karen's help we have been able to finalise the layout of an old house remodel that we are 100% satisfied with. We used her day rate service (remotely) and she was clear about what she could achieve with this service from the start. The process really helped us make our minds up and gave us the confidence to move forwards. The way she works is much more valuable than what was costed for, so thank you again.

I haven't worked with an interior designer before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. However since working with Karen - Starting in March. Karen continues to impress me with her amazing ideas (Which are on a limited budget by the way) Karen is an absolute joy to work with - Her communication skills are excellent, always clear and quick to respond be it over the phone, email, instagram, pinterest etc - Never leaving a question unanswered. I am absolutely thrilled with the work Karen has done for me so far. The use of colour and pattern, careful thought into proportions, design details are all very apparent to me and people who visit my home.Karen also has a great practical mind in terms of placement of furniture and the non-move-able stuff like dishwashers, boilers, storage space etc. Karen is also highly adaptable in terms of styles - She knows how to nail everything, without necessarily being a fan of it herself. I can honestly say I wouldn't chain anything regarding my dealings with Karen.Karen has very clearly surpassed all my expectations. A few bonuses I should point out that I didn't necessarily expect - Karen had lots of very significant trade discounts, a set of used and trusted trades people (All of which have proved to be very good for me) Karen is good fun to work with too! - I always look forward to the next appointment or call.

Wonderful experience; like working with a very experienced, expert friend. Working with my new house and looking to convert a very beige interior to something that aligned with my personality; Karen took a few basic elements, colours and plants to produce a beautiful home. I always thought of plants as an 'outside' chance for producing a nice home. I now have seven examples of how plants can enhance the combinations of furniture, paintings and colour . I now 'nearly (!)' have a very beautiful home, loved by all who come here, and a trusted fried. What could be better :-)

We chose Karen to help design a room in our Arts and Crafts house following a google search and finding some wonderful room designs that she had done. I just loved all the rooms she had done and really hoped we could work with her. She was really easy to contact and responded promptly explaining the option of remote design. It seemed to fit our needs and so we went ahead with it. I sent an email and a link to a Pinterest board detailing the dimensions of the room, what we would like to use it for and photos showing things we would like to include as well as images detailing our tastes. We then followed this up with a 1 hr skype chat where we could go through it in more detail. She was really friendly and instantly put us at ease. Once she had a good idea of our project she went to work and shortly after we were given the details of our design. I cant stress enough how happy we were with the plan. She took all our ideas and pulled it together in a fantastic design that we both loved. She managed to come up with ideas we never would have thought of but that also fitted our brief perfectly. We followed her plan pretty much to the letter and now are super pleased with the finished design. She really gave us the confidence to go bold with the design and I would thoroughly recommend her services to others. I feel we will definately be using her again in the future!