Wendy O'Brien Interior Planning & Design

Wendy was always professional in working with us, in her partnership with our contractor and our home is a beautiful reflection of her planning and execution. We would highly recommend to anyone who is looking for good design.

We were utterly confused when we started selecting options for our new home. Kitchen Slab, backsplash, flooring, paint, …. too many variables and it was very stressful. Fortunately we were able to find Wendy, what a relief! Wendy took our inputs - the look and feel we were after for our future home. Wendy helped us narrow down cabinet choices, picked fabulous slab and backsplash, gave vote of confidence for the wood floor and wall color we gravitated towards. Wendy pulled together all the options of our home considering our inputs and this put us at ease. Wendy was very supportive during the building process, promptly responded our questions. Our house turned out stunning with choices Wendy put together. Wendy is very detailed oriented and talented in picking the right colors to pull in everything together. With Wendy, there won’t be any confusion as she clearly suggests what would be the best choice out of several options, which would turn out amazing at the end.

I highly recommend working with Wendy O’Brien for your next renovation and design project. Wendy worked with us through every stage of a complete gut and renovation of our mid-century modern. Most of which we were navigating from a different state. Wendy not only provided design and planning services, she and her team also helped manage the project with both architects and builders to ensure even the smallest details were thoughtfully addressed. What resulted was a seamless flow that reflects our personal aesthetic and feels wonderful. With Wendy’s help we were able to bring the best of the mid-century openness, light, and linear architecture, together with more contemporary warm and functional finishes and furnishings. There are subtle playful nods to the home’s history in lighting and wall treatments, without resorting to atomic era kitsch. Instead our home feels like a meditative sanctuary with rich natural finishes and lovely textures. I especially appreciate Wendy’s use of proper scale in furnishings and treatments. Because of this, our home feels peaceful and approachable, not cold and large. She also has an excellent network of local craftsmen and tradespeople that are happy to work with her, which speaks volumes in this industry. As a homeowner new to the area, these connections made the whole project go smoothly, and her willingness to share with our whole build team helped everyone. She managed the design process with the same care she would put to her own home - even to identifying two critical errors in HVAC and electrical that nobody else caught. (Thank you Wendy!) I would be delighted to work with Wendy again.

I had the pleaser of working with Wendy on multiple projects. She brings great benefit to the team. Her recommendations on design and finishes are on target, because she listens! I would recommend this firm any day.

Wendy designed a major kitchen and family room remodel for our home that included a total kitchen gut and replacement of the fireplace wall in the family room. She spent the time to talk to us about our needs and gave us several options that she thought would work for us. We’re really happy with the final layout and the color and material choices were exactly what we were looking for. Wendy worked with us every step of the way, and she worked closely with our contractor, Joshua Farrand of Eight Inch Nails Construction, to make sure that the project followed her vision. Our project turned out great! Thanks to Wendy and her team!

Wendy was able to take the ideas from my wish list and create the kitchen of my dreams. After a meeting to discuss the things that we would like to have, we were able at our next meeting to pick from the beautiful samples she had selected to begin our remodel. The result was a kitchen that reflected my personality perfectly. A statement of simple elegance that will hold with timeless beauty and the luxury of fine living. She has created a beautiful kitchen with elegant fixtures and finishes while selecting colors that all pull together to create an environment of beauty and bringing into existence a place of sanctuary. Not only has she designed a beautiful kitchen but has remained a part of the project even when her design element had been completed, stepping in to help with contractor issues and dedicating extra time and effort to obstacles when they arose. She works with integrity and a true passion to make sure her clients are fully satisfied with her work. We will most certainly be using her for future projects. ~A. Martz

Wendy was great to work with and provided some great insight for my project! Definitely recommend her for your project needs.

I hired Wendy to remodel our great room and kitchen that wasn’t very outdated and really had no design to it. I had collected pictures of rooms and things over the years that I liked but wasn’t sure how to pull it all together. Wendy really listened to all of my requests and transformed both rooms into warm, family friendly spaces with beautiful, furniture and accessories and our kitchen now has a place for everything and is a pleasure to cook in. She has an uncanny eye for colors and pulling together different materials that complement each other, that I would never have thought to put together, but they totally work! She is very professional, a great communicator and set my mind at ease by walking me through each phase of the project before we got started. She also referred us to one of her contractors and was there when needed to make sure every detail was done right. There’s not a thing I would change! Thank you Wendy! Project price: $80,000

I am a Portland area real estate Broker who has hired Wendy numerous times to stage my listings. Absolutely every time she stages for me, my properties sell quickly. Her eye is phenomenal, her creativity boundless. Sometimes the smallest change makes a big difference but most often her work is transformational whether she is working with my clients' existing furniture and décor items or whether she is bringing in furnishings for staging purposes. Many of my clients have hired her to do design work for their new homes, as well. I get rave reviews from my clients! That makes good sense for my business - keeping clients happy and getting my listings sold!

I hate to sound stereotypical, but I am a guy and I found the idea of doing an extensive add-on/kitchen remodel to be daunting, at the very least. My wife and I had talked about this undertaking for many, many years. I knew I was going to have to be involved. Hiring Wendy O'Brien was the catalyst that got us started, and kept us focused. From the first "field trip" to look at appliances and in subsequent visits to tile and flooring showrooms, it was very evident that Wendy had truly listened to us, expertly narrowing the choices in order to allow us to make comfortable decisions without feeling overwhelmed by the myriad of possibilities. Another benefit were the many suggestions Wendy made to enhance our project without pressuring us in any direction. Wendy was very good at keeping us informed, being on site to assure her vision as needed, and communicating effectively with contractors. Wendy is a definitely a worthwhile investment to get the results you're dreaming of.

I called Wendy because I just moved into a 1912 bungalow with a very challenging floor plan. Wendy offered great advice that actually helped me understand my house better, and made it feel more like home. She was able to focus specifically on the questions I raised, instead of getting distracted by other details of the house (that probably also need improvement!). Her approach showed careful consideration of our family goals for our space, and a deep understanding of how to furnish for function as well as aesthetic appeal. I am grateful for her advice.

My husband and I hired Wendy after a referral from a neighbor who had recently worked with Wendy to re-design her kitchen. It was a fabulous transformation from a 1980’s palette to an elegant, rich, stained-wood look that increased the functionality without changing the footprint. I was headed in the opposite direction: from a small, cramped natural-pine and paint to a bump out that required completely gutting the existing kitchen and nearly doubled the square footage, plus I wanted white cabinetry and lots of light. I handed Wendy my decades old “Dream Kitchen” file (we’ve lived in the same house since 1986) and linked her to my kitchen files on Pinterest and Houzz. She took all of that information and distilled into the gorgeous, functional, spacious, light-filled heaven that is my new kitchen. (See it at Wendyobrienid.com—it’s the Cottage Kitchen. Don’t laugh too much at the Before photo, you’ll hurt my feelings.) That is her genius—she listens to your ideas and hears your hearts desire. We couldn’t be happier. Wendy’s attention to detail, her drive to see you get what you are after, her work ethic and ability to communicate well with contractors couldn’t have been better. She showed us options we wouldn’t have even looked at on our own, such as our hardwood flooring, which is one of our favorite pieces of the puzzle now. Plus, she referred us to Josh at Eight Inch Nails Construction, who is an absolute jewel. Wendy is worth the investment. Snap her up.