Nystrom Design

Ellen and her team did an amazing job on our home. We wanted to redo the kitchen area and our bathrooms and were looking for someone with fresh ideas who wasn't afraid to suggest something completely different and she didn't disappoint. Thanks to her we dared a lot more than we would have otherwise, she really understood what we wanted and pushed us just enough so that the result was absolutely perfect. Ellen didn't only redesign the general layout of our rooms, she also took care of finding and acquiring the right materials and furniture/appliances to make it look awesome and had brilliant ideas when it came to color schemes, tiling design and decorational objects, always making sure she'd go along with what we were envisioning. We love our new home and can only recommend Nystrom Design!

I would 100% recommend Nystrom Design! Ellen and her team are fantastic! We worked with Nystrom Design for our master bathroom remodel. Throughout every step of the process - from drafting plans through picking finishes - I felt Ellen and her team really focused on incorporating my style and making my vision a reality. They created a functional and thoughtful design for my master bathroom and helped me pick out amazing finishes. Ellen and her team were professional and friendly and always prompt in deadlines/ turning around plans/ etc, and efficient! Ellen has great attention to detail, and was incredibly helpful on site during the construction process. I would definitely hire Nystrom design again!

I had never worked with a designer before so I was very excited to get started with Ellen for our new home. We worked with Ellen for our living room renovation and for small decorating projects in our primary bedroom, dining room, and outdoor patio. Throughout the process Ellen considered all of our specific requests and factored in where my taste might differ from my husband's to find a common ground. It was a long process due to some contractor delays and inventory delays, but Ellen and her team were very communicative through it all and worked hard to resolve any challenges. Would definitely recommend!

Ellen came in and immediately got to work. She understood the main needs I had and together with her assistant got a sense of how to guide me and put forth some lovely options. I needed help refreshing my living room and changing some outdated fixtures throughout the house. The process they supported me through helped me to zero in on good selections and get things moving. They set me up with a clear shopping list so that I could move forward confidently. The living room is on its way to looking great and I could not have done it without Nystrom Design.

Ellen effortlessly combined creativity, big picture vision and attention to detail to create the perfect home for us. We were initially a bit nervous about hiring a designer. We wanted a home that reflected our personalities rather than current design trends. When we first met Ellen, we described our design philosophy as quirky, bordering on eccentric, with a love of color (no white walls) and a need to work around our own eclectic decorative items. Ellen really listened and came to the next meeting with a samples of orange wallpaper with a turtle pattern and persimmon colored wallpaper with starbursts (for the dining room ceiling!). We gave an enthusiastic yes to both and expanded the project to include furniture design and sourcing. While we hired Ellen for her creative ideas, she also brought order to our project. She translated all of our decisions to the contractor and worked out the many challenges in implementation without needing to involve us. Hiring Ellen was the single best decision we made during our whole home remodel and we would enthusiastically recommend her for any project.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with Ellen and her team on our kitchen and bathroom remodel. We appreciate her spatial design sense and simple but elegant color choices. The experience was well worth the investment of hiring Nystrom Design. Their charges were very reasonable. During construction Ellen was involved in reviewing material and sample submittals and made very helpful recommendations in resolving construction issues. We are very pleased with the transformation that she made to our home. We highly recommend this company.

We worked with Ellen on a large full home remodel last year in Berkeley. Ellen is one of the most professional, well organized, and clear designers we have had the pleasure to work with. She presents a comprehensive package with incredible features like storage management plan, detailed plan sets, and finish samples. Any client or contractor would be lucky to work with her and her firm.

Ellen helped us out with a kitchen, sitting area, master bath and powder room as part of a major renovation. We were first time renovators, so we weren’t great at articulating our needs, whether in terms of budget constraints or aesthetic preferences. On both counts, Ellen was really amazing at figuring out what we wanted through very efficient process of elimination. Very quickly it felt like we were in a groove, and our main challenge was narrowing down her choices because we loved (and could afford) them all. The best part of course are the constant compliments we get from everyone who sees our “new” house (particularly for the wallpaper in the kitchen, which was all Ellen :)

Ellen came to us 5 months into the construction portion of our whole-house remodel. We had a great architect & contractor, but found that we needed more communication and help with deciding on the many many details of the project along the way. Our contractor suggested we hire a designer, and our architect suggested Nystrom Design. It would not be too much to say that Ellen & her team saved our sanity. We worked with Nystrom Design for the final 12 months of the construction, and it could not have been more of a pleasure. Between her calm and gracious demeanor, her skill as a thoughtful listener, and her unwavering competence, Ellen helped us navigate many decisions -- some very challenging, others fun -- and greatly facilitated communication with our contractor, as well as with several of the craftspeople we worked with. A good portion of the assistance Ellen's team's gave us involved creating technical drawings and troubleshooting technical issues with the renovation which she was very knowledgable about. She and her team were all extremely attentive to detail, which was just what we needed. I honestly do not know how we would have satisfactorily resolved many of our issues without Nystrom Design on board. Besides Ellen's professionalism, communication skills, and technical savvy, she was a great match for us from the aesthetic standpoint as well. Her shared love of color was vital -- we wanted to incorporate color in terms of tile and paint/wallpaper in addition to furnishings, and she totally got it. She also very successfully helped us create a transition that makes sense between the relatively unchanged 1931 details in the entryway, living room, and dining room, and the new modern spaces (kitchen, stairwell, family room, bathrooms). I saved photos on Houzz of projects that had details we liked and shared them with Ellen, then she and her team created idea boards for us with possible choices for light fixtures, furniture layouts and fabrics, furniture and rugs, wallpaper, paint colors, and fixtures and finishes. The process felt very collaborative, with Ellen knowing just when to listen to feedback and happily explore more options, and when to weigh in with an opinion when we were stuck. She made us feel there was no such thing as a stupid question and respected choices that mattered to us. Most of all, she is such a positive presence, supportive and encouraging and so nice. We loved working with her and the whole team and cannot recommend Nystrom Design enough!

We needed a space planner/interior designer when we right-sized from a 2,300 sf to 1,600 sf home. Ellen Nystrom did a great job! We moved in to a beautiful and functional "forever" home--best looking house in the neighborhood (we're told). Ellen is responsive, we can always rely on her timing, listened to what we need, reasonable in pricing, and most of all a great space planner and designer. Her drawing designs were approved for permitting and she helped our general contractor with follow-up questions. Our GC commented that the drawings prepared by Nystrom Design were easy to follow and detailed enough for his crew to "run with it". We also worked with Nystrom Design in selecting our new home furnishings, finishes, light fixtures, and window treatments. Nystrom Design made this process seamless for us. Ellen and her team narrowed our choices based on what would complement the style of our house, its functionality, the color scheme, our individual design taste and most of all our budget. Nystrom Design supervised the installation of the furnishings and window treatments. We love everything about our new home. Thank you, Ellen!

We worked with Ellen and her team over several months to re-furnish 4 rooms in our house. The project would have been daunting had we attempted to tackle this project on our own. But working with Ellen, everything fell into place quite easily. She walked us through the process, listened to what styles we like, and then showed us sample photos of items that aligned with our tastes. Ellen was always flexible - accommodating any thoughts we had. As we started looking at furniture, if we found a piece that we really liked, Ellen would work with us to tie it into the overall scheme. We ended up with a mix of pieces that both she and we picked. But it all worked together. And the biggest benefit of working with Ellen was that she knows how to turn your house into a home by adding the proper rugs, artwork, and accessories. We're very happy with the end result. Ellen and her team were very professional throughout the process, always showed up to appointments on time, provided concept boards to help us visualize the project, and complete project documents to help us track progress (both schedule and cost) throughout the project. We look forward to working with Ellen on future projects.

Ellen and her team helped me on a huge remodel of my San Francisco house. We worked together from the beginning ideation phase all the way through the finishing touches. Her design sensibilities are great and she spent time really understanding my style and then worked together to establish the design direction that guided the decision making process throughout the project. And as I mentioned, it was end-to-end -- she also collaborated with the architect to ensure cohesion of finishes and fixtures throughout the house. And even beyond the "hard stuff" she provided great consultation on furniture, rug, and accessory selections to achieve a style that suits my tastes and the style of the home. I highly recommend Ellen and her services!