Splendid & Swanky

We had a 1 star experience with this design firm and their 2 owners. We hired them this past summer as we were wrapping up home renovations and needed some interior design help. We spoke to them on the phone, and they made one in home visit during the renovation. At the outset, we were excited to work with a DC-based, minority-owned business; however, we had some concerns that their designs are usually for staging houses for sale rather than for families who intend to live in the space and want the space to feel like them. We attempted to convey this our initial meetings and they assured us they have experience in both. Their first design review was not to our taste at all, we gave feedback on their suggestions, noting that we wanted our home to feel welcoming and not sterile or staged, without much success. In addition, when we went to West Elm to see the couch they suggested, we learned from their design specialist that most of the proposed pieces are West Elm, with a few pieces from CB2. We also learned that the same pieces would cost less if we purchased them directly from West Elm, which strikes us as odd given that they offer designers discounts. We could have simply used their free design services, rather than work with a firm that did not take our feedback into consideration. However, we wanted something more welcoming and unique and when 80% is from one store and they claim the rug “is the most unique piece” and not admit it is also yet another piece from West Elm. We did not see the benefit in going through another round of review to end up back in the same place, especially after we were told the artwork we like was not to their taste. The scale of our renovation was very large, so we were willing to spend money on a designer, but we were strained to understand what work has been done to justify their design fee. We asked to terminate our contract, as we would not be using any of their suggestions and did not feel they wanted to work with us in anyway. The most difficult part was not just that we did not agree on the pieces but the way they spoke and treated us never made us feel like the clients, but instead that they were doing us a favor. They refused to terminate and after trying to continue with them, unsuccessfully, we came to an agreement to break contract and they offered to refund us only half of the design fee. My wife and I agreed to this as we could not see moving forward with such an unprofessional team with a very simple and basic design vision. We really believe for the level of work and time they put int