Interior Style by Marisa Moore

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MARISA MOORE Marisa Moore Interior Style Do not use. All this happened a year ago. Only now can I calmly write these comments. I asked Marisa the first time we spoke if we needed a general contractor to oversee kitchen and master bathroom renovations. She said, “No. I am kind of like a general contractor.” This was our first foray into renovations. Unfortunately, we believed her. This is what happened. Kitchen Renovations: There was a flood in my office while the kitchen was being renovated. Instead of showing concern or offering to stop by to assess the damage, Marisa just wondered why I was so upset. She quipped; it's not flooding anymore, is it? After agreeing that the new Kitchen Cabinets would extend all the way to the ceiling, Marisa had Carrie, from Barron’s Lumber, come over to measure for the cabinets. Carrie then created drawings that showed the cabinets that extended to the ceiling, just as we discussed. I was required to sign off of these drawing before the cabinets would be ordered. By the time the cabinets were delivered, we were staying in a hotel. The kitchen cabinets delivered did not go to the ceiling. There is about a 2 feet gap between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling. I told Marissa that Carrie made a big mistake. I wanted the cabinets that I signed off on, the cabinets that extended to the ceiling. In fact, Marisa ordered cabinets that were the same exact look and size height as the cabinets we had. “When I said cabinets would go to the ceiling it's when I thought the ceilings were 8 feet. (I never measured, just by looking).” “After I talked to Carrie she did tell me you already had the 42 inch cabinets, which I completely didn't think because I thought you had 8 foot ceilings.” “Carrie didn't do anything wrong you have to understand the computer system.” Marisa has Carrie do 100% of her drawings. Marisa repeatedly told US how stressful we were to work with. Marble Countertops in Kitchen: The marble countertops were defective. They were completely covered with stains. Marisa said some people just live with it, it is part of the stone and that it would not bother her. It bothered us. It bothered the supplier enough to replace all of the marble. We wondered why Marisa continually argued with us, steadfastly defended her supplier instead of being our proponent. Even when the marble company agreed that the marble was defective, Marisa told us that we were being too picky. Every time Marisa made a mistake, she told us that we were overreacting. In reality, we were bullied by her and by her aggressiveness. A $4,000 kitchen table was delivered with dents in both metal legs. Rather than reassuring us that she would handle the replacement, she said she would see what the company would do about it. After we sent Marisa pictures of the damaged legs, she insisted that we never sent the pictures. We finally got the legs replaced but only after we insisted, only after hearing many more times that we completely stressed her out. Other furniture that she ordered easily chipped and scratched after only a few months. In other words, the quality is extremely poor. All along the way, Marisa continued her riff about how difficult and stressful we were to work with. Marisa made numerous other mistakes, including delivering and billing for products that we never requested then vehemently telling us that ordered those items. We found it Everything was such a big fight. We found her completely exhausting and extremely upsetting. Our last conversation consisted of a tirade, her nonstop screaming at me so loudly, “I told you …” I just handed the phone back to the delivery guy and I told him that I do not accept delivery of the cabinet he came to deliver. I suddenly realized what we suffered with her and we were done. She fired us!!! Yes, you read that correctly. She fired US! Billing Nightmares: I told her she could charge items. But suddenly the invoices were coming so fast and furious I could not keep up. I never did sign a document that enabled her to charge anything. I often received several invoices in one day. It seemed like she was charging invoices only within days of having sent them out instead of charging them when they were due. We were given no information about items we ordered. For example, her invoices with say “Kitchen Cabinets” and the amount due. Or “Faucets, Sink, Floor, Towel Bar,” and the amount due. We have no model numbers, manufacturer’s name or any other information about anything we ordered. Several times, she lumped a bunch of invoices together and charged us one amount. But she never told us she did that which meant I was left to decipher my credit card bill. One of those times, she lumped five invoices together. But how was I supposed to know? And of the many invoices she sent, which five did she lump together? This next item sums up what it was like to work with Marisa Moore. Marisa ordered a rain showerhead that disbursed water only straight down. If not standing directly under the showerhead, you remained completely dry. Marisa insisted that this was the perfect showerhead for our new rectangular-shaped shower that was 6-foot long by 2.5 wide. We told her that we needed a shower head that dispersed water at an angle. She insisted that she ordered the correct showerhead for our shower. We said we wanted to return the showerhead and we requested a credit. Marisa said that she would credit us only if she had the showerhead back in her possession. We delivered the showerhead to her house. Marisa then said that she would charge us a restocking fee. By this time, we had paid her 65,000 or $70,000. Sadly, the error and problems listed above is only a partial list. The bottom line, in our opinion, is that Marisa is not suitable for large projects even though she says that she is and talks about all the large jobs she's done. She's really is a smalltime interior decorator. That is about it. Keep your money, keep looking but do not stop here.

We did a complete remodel and update of our master bathroom.  Marisa listened to our budget requirements and took us through all of our options.  She made material selection actually enjoyable by showing us the right price ranges and who to deal with for the best results.  Anyone who has done something like this knows that the devil is in the details.  Marisa helped us through all the things that we needed to consider.  Her recommendations were always right in line with our comfort zone.  Several times she suggested things that were out of the box thinking but resulted in a beautiful new bathroom that we'll enjoy for years to come. Using a designer made the process much less stressful and saved an unbelievable amount of time we would have spent trying to come up with a well thought out, picture perfect project.  We plan to call on her expertise for future projects.

This is the second house that we have worked with Marisa on. For our first house, she helped with a full renovation and I truly believe it was her design that allowed us to sell our house within 9 days and get over the asking price. The buyers even wanted to purchase our furniture that Marisa picked out for us! For our new house, Marisa has assisted us with paint colors and furniture.
 Her design skills are extraordinary and her taste is exquisite. She is great at working within our budget and on tight time constraints. She is responsive and helpful. We are forever getting compliments on our house and it's all because of Marisa!

My wife and I began working with Marisa soon after making the decision to build a new custom home.  Her artistic talent quickly became invaluable to us. We obviously wanted our home to be beautiful, but having to make countless design decisions was daunting.

 

In our first few communications Marisa identified our style preferences and ideas for what we had in mind for the house. From there, Marisa was brilliant at finding items that perfectly built on and coordinated with design decisions we previously made, and then providing us with narrowed-down selections within our budget to choose from. She was involved in every design decision we made ? the bathroom tile, kitchen design, paint color, hardwood flooring, living room furniture?and the list goes on! During trips to the tile and granite stores I was blown away by her innate ability to instantly pick up on small tinges of color that would make the item in question either work beautifully or not work at all with our design.

 

In the end, the colors, textures and styles she proposed came together perfectly! It is clear to us now that she was able to envision the end result very early on. Had we tried to do this on our own, our house would have been a boring mish mosh of conflicting styles and colors.  Instead our house is absolutely stunning. It?s one of the most beautiful and unique homes that I?ve ever set foot in. The design is subtle but with lots of unexpected touches around every corner giving the house a huge WOW factor! Working with Marisa was hands down the best decision we made house-wise. This talented, gifted woman gave us a dream home!  

 

Far too many people choose to live with design mistakes, vowing to ?fix and change? things down the road.  If any are on the bubble about spending the extra funds for such a creative interior designer, I say with absolute certainty that working with Marisa will be worth every penny.  Living your dream the moment your project is complete is exquisite.

 

Marisa's style is a good match with our taste. At each step along the way she guided us in making decisions by narrowing down the options to a few choices that were in line with her vision.  We are thrilled with the results.

Marisa helped me select finishes for my entire custom home.  She is so easy to work with.  Her sense of color and design is amazing.
She is the ultimate professional.  Provides guidance in a very timely manner.  She is reliable, trustworthy and personable.  She is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
Its very hard to find a designer sensitive to budget and timelines.  Marisa works so hard to help me accomplish all of my goals.  
I really trust her advise and design esthetic.

She came to us as a referral from a good friend.  I saw his bathroom design, and I really liked the design elements he had in his home.  Marisa was very easy to work with during the whole process.  We first interviewed several contractors to actually do the work, but we decided to work with an independant contractor to keep the costs down.  She was fine with us taking this approach, and understood our budget.  She was able to provide electronic renderings of the future bathroom to provide us an idea of how it will look.We used her for the bathroom design, and selecting the key elements of the bathroom.  We were happy with the elements she selected.  She also turned us on to HOUZZ site which was awesome.  My wife and I were always sending her ideas from our ideabook to see what she though of certain things we would see there.  She was great great to provide quick response, and would give us valuable feedback.  I would definitely use Marisa again, as I think she has a good understanding of design elements, and was very easy to work with.

Marisa came to my house several times to present ideas.  Of course, no pressure was exerted to use her designs and recommendations.  She joined me at the furniture company to make the final selections on colors and accent chairs.  We even made some fabric selections that had not been included in the original presentations as they fitted the furniture styles better.  Marisa was a delight to work with and when I need design help again, she will be the one that I will call.  My husband is very pleased with our selections, especially his reading chair. Everything worked out wonderfully.  We couldn't be happier.  We would highly recommend Marisa to anyone looking for a designer with great and useful ideas.

Bottomline?Superbly satisfied?Unequivocally recommend. Marisa could not have done a more professional and effective job. We started working together before I moved into my home. She listened and, with interactive dialogue, worked with me on the design approach; then we selected the room colors together and had the home painted. Then based on our design approach she would email 3-4 suggestions for this furniture piece or for a rug here or for lightning fixtures, and also wall pieces. I?d pick something and we?d keep going. Marisa was great at keeping a flow throughout the home. We?d discuss something and she wasn?t afraid to offer alternative perspectives. She would order the items and setup delivery. When needed we?d rendezvous at my home to talk about progress and the way-forward. We?d target signature, more expensive items and blend with less expensive things. She understands design, colors, and flow. While working together she?d travel to design shows and spice our fare with new ideas. She knew value and knew what things should cost. She did it just right, because I always felt she was working to meet my thinking of how I wanted a piece or a room and the home to look, but she wouldn?t let me steer us wrong. She answered phone calls, texted, and was responsive on email. I spent $75-100k and, honestly, feel I got great bang for the dollar because of Marisa?s professional skills.

Marisa is outstanding with a capital O.  We have worked with many contractors, consultants, and service providers over the years, but Marisa takes the cake.  
We hired Marisa after we decided to make a cross-country move and had purchased a house in the D.C. area.  Our goal was to get the house furnished with a blend of our current furnishings and new furniture we would purchase.  The furniture we owned already was from a very different style of house than the one to which we were moving.  So, right from the get go, this project involved the complexity of working long distance and blending different styles.
From our very first contact with Marisa, she impressed us very much.  We have only grown more impressed as we have continued to work with her.  Here are some of her defining traits, in no particular order.  
First, Marisa is a gifted artist.  She sees colors, shapes, themes, possibilities, etc. with excellence and ease.  Not only have we benefited greatly from her artistic gifts, it has been fun to be along for the ride, see her in the flow of creative thought, and collaborate with her.  Her advice seems to be unfailingly good, and she is just as good at listening and adjusting to our input and feedback as she is at providing advice.
Second, Marisa is a dream with which to work.  She is clearly very busy, but never seems to be too busy for us.  Our project is not an especially spendy one, so we would guess that this is just the way she treats all her clients.  Her responsiveness really is off the charts.  Even when we were working with her two time zones away and would email her in the evening with the hope that she would see it and respond the next day, she often would shock us with a nearly instant response no matter the hour.
Third, Marisa goes the extra mile (or two, or three).  While we were still 2,000 miles away, Marisa would arrange to meet deliveries to the house, would take delivery of items herself and then deliver them to the house, and basically made our lives easy as pie.  We met one time in person before we moved to discuss the project and do a little shopping, but then handled all of the rest of it (to this point) by email.  Marisa would find items to choose from, shoot us an email with a photo, dimensions, price, etc.  If we liked something, she would buy it and get it to our house.  I am sure Marisa would have met with us as many times as we wanted, but we had neither the time nor the money to make multiple trips.  Marisa made it so that the distance did not matter.
Finally, Marisa is very efficient.  Her rate is what you would expect from a designer of her caliber, but what she accomplishes with each hour is truly impressive.  The quality of her advice and the quantity of work she gets done per unit of billed time make her a very good value.  
Our project is not yet complete (we just made the cross-country move), but it is exactly on schedule.  In sum, we could not be happier with Marisa.  It has been like working with an extremely talented friend.

We?ve made a number of decorating mistakes over the years,
so in planning our kitchen remodel, we wanted to make sure we didn?t make any more.
We decided to work with a dedicated designer for our kitchen remodel.  We found Marisa on Angie?s List. We were
impressed with her credentials and felt she had the experience and background  (architectural schooling) we were looking for.
When we began working with her, we immediately appreciated her down-to-earthmanner and unique ability to cut through to what really matters and then build on that.  It didn?t? take long to realize she has a lot of vision and connections. From helping us to find a contractor,to accompanying us when selecting cabinets, granite and tile, she has been a tremendous resource to us.
Her ability to quickly see best value in materials and construction costs was invaluable.  She saved us an endless amount of time by helping us quickly narrow down our choices. Her natural ability to determine what works well made us confident that we?ll meet our expectations of both a functional and beautiful kitchen. The bottom line is she worked within our $80K budget (we have a large kitchen) and made the most of it, kept appointments, was always prepared, has the vision we didn?t and a network of resources that provide best value.  I feel like her compensation easily paid for itself because we avoided bad decisions that end up costing you in the long run.
If you are looking for design help from A to Z Interior Style by Marisa is a great choice.

In a word she is awesome.  She really listens to what we want, is mindful of the budget, and has wonderful ideas on how to use the space that we have.  She is helping us work with contractors to have the work done.  After just one meeting with us she nailed our style.  She really impressed my husband and that is hard to do -- he said after our first meeting "I really like her".  We have complete faith in her to help us through a very extensive home renovation.

The master bathroom is wonderful and Marisa clearly gets the credit.  We wanted to save our large jacuzzi tub and she helped with the floor plan, tile selection, tile layout, lighting, paint color, drapes, etc.  We hired the contractor but we could not have done it without her.  The combination resulted in a spectacular bathroom that is just as functional as attractive and well below what other vendors wanted for the job.  She is now working with us on the master bedroom.

I can not recommend Marissa enough!  She was fantastic every step of the process.  We had moved into a new home and wanted to make it our own, but didn't know where to start.  Marissa came over for an initial consult, and my husband and I were thrilled with every recommendation she made.  She spent time getting to know what my husband and I like both in terms of color and design preferences.  Her goal was to enhance what we love about our house and to work with our existing furniture as much as possible - AND SHE NAILED IT!!  From paint colors, to a few furniture pieces, and floor coverings - she made suggestions that made our home beautiful and kept everything within our initially proposed budget.  Also, Marissa must have her phone glued to her body b/c she would respond to emails/texts/phone calls nearly immediately.  Her timely response to every single question we had was so appreciated...and at times, we may have even taken advantage of this...I am sure we will work with Marissa again!

The results of our renovation are spectacular!  We are so thankful that we found Marisa to help us through this process.  She is incredibly creative and helped us to select everything needed to make our home beautiful.  She very quickly understood what we wanted to do and identified options for us that fit our taste perfectly.  She's also incredibly responsive.  She answered any questions we had immediately and was available to meet with us as needed to make selections.  She also checked in on us proactively while the renovations were underway and came by to check on the progress throughout the month of construction.  We've already referred her to several friends who have seen our updated home and now want her to help them as well.  We hope to finish our basement next year and wouldn't even consider undertaking that project without her.  We give her our absolute highest recommendation.  She's just outstanding!

We had never worked with a designer before and had no idea what to expect. In our first meeting with Marisa she came up with some ideas for our basement that we had never even thought of and loved. We knew we had to hire her to help transform our space and Marisa did just that. Our basement looks like something out of a magazine and we couldn?t be more pleased. Marisa is not only super talented but she is also extremely down to earth and easy to work with and be around. Her communication was top notch. There were many times we would email and text back and forth with links to furniture/accessories.  Some of the items we purchased Marisa ordered directly from the manufacturer and we were very happy and never had a problem with any of these items. For budget reasons, we did not implement all of the plans Marisa initially suggested. However, she never gave us a hard time or tried to pressure us to spend more money.  We used Marisa?s contractor for the tile work and bar area in our basement and he did great work and was reasonable. We feel lucky to have found Marisa and can?t wait to work with her again on fixing up the rest of our home!

She was very knowledgable about meeting code requirements which was a big plus! I would recommend her to anyone who desires a professional with an eye for design. She is very creative and willing to work with you about color and style recommendations! She is also reasonably priced!!

In a word, fantastic!  Marisa Moore is a smart, thoughtful, ethical, fun, yet no nonsense design expert who got our tastes immediately.  We aren't immediately given to trusting someone to choose the look of our space, but as we talked, my wife and I quickly came to trust Marisa to choose colors, paints, flooring, tile, furniture, etc. and to make it all work well together.  She's a gem, and I'd definitely work with her again.
She's prompt in responding, usually by email or text, and she follows through on her commitments.  Our job was relatively small, even if very important to us, but Marisa never made us feel like she wasn't focused on it.  She has a great eye and can visualize how a variety of combinations of colors, materials, etc. will look and work together.
Her pricing is fair, perhaps not the cheapest, but this is a case where you get what you pay for.  She also is able to get better prices on supplies/fixtures/furniture than we would have, had we gone directly to the store to make a purchase.  Further, she saved us so much time via her encyclopedic knowledge of suppliers and stores.
Marisa helped us get a good contractor to do the work, and she intervened for us when necessary to make sure his team stuck to the plan.
The only word of caution I would sound -- and she told us this herself -- is that she is a bit of a victim of her own success.  Marisa has many jobs going on simultaneously, so it can be difficult to schedule an in-person meeting on occasion.  But, really, that's a pretty good problem to have, i.e. a designer who is so good that everyone wants some of her time!  

Marisa did an absolutely fantastic job in helping my wife and I redecorate our home in Arlington.  She has all the characteristics you would want in a decorator: great taste, creative thinking, a good listener, a professional and friendly style, a comprehensive knowledge of various styles and types of furnishings, great responsiveness via email and phone, and the ability to work within a determined budget.  My wife and I are both rather picky and type-A lawyers, but Marisa absolutely wowed us.   Her rate is very reasonable, and she is conservative in her billing.  She also gets 15% off the cost of furniture we ordered, so the money we saved on what we bought nearly paid her total fee.  My wife and I couldn't have been happier with Marisa's service.

Marisa is a team player who listens to the client's needs and relentlessly will work to ensure that they are met. She captured our taste immediately, which minimized time lost picking out things. Though we never gave her a budget, she knew we were cost conscious, without wanting to sacrifice quality and beauty. We approached her with only the need to design a layout for one challenging bathroom as a big chain company changed its policies on design and no longer offered personalized service. We have ended up appreciating her services so much that she has designed three bathrooms, the kitchen and we have even cancelled the cabinetry order with the big chain in favor of the one she recommends. Marisa collaborates with a cabinetry specialist who is also very well versed in kitchen and bath design, Carrie. Their team approach ensures the client is always served by one of them when support is needed. We highly recommend Marisa and her team of resources. It is truly the best investment you'll make in any remodel, design, upgrade process. I'm a teacher and not independently wealthy but I value my health and time. Invest the money for a stress free process. Can't wait to report on finished projects. She and her team also do a great job collaborating with my own contractor, though Marisa can recommend various tradesmen if needed.

It is an understatement to say that my bathroom is gorgeous.  My friends are so impressed every time they see it.  It's very "spa like," and when I'm stressed, I find that I feel much better just being in my bathroom.  What is also especially important to me is that Marisa was extremely responsive.  She would respond to my emails and calls in a timely manner, which was something I had found exasperating with the last designer I had worked with.  No matter how busy she was, she would get back to me, even if her email was sent late at night. 
I'm someone who generally knows what I like and don't like once it's put together, but I can't put it together myself.  Marisa was perfect for that, and she saved me an inordinate amount of time and stress by pulling together a few options for me to consider.  I also found her prices to be very reasonable.  Among other things, unlike other decorators, she does not charge a markup on items that she gets a discount on; she passes that through to the client.  I have several more design projects to do in my house, and I will use Marisa for them.

We hired Marisa to help us decorate our recently purchased home.  We already had a majority of the furnishings needed.  We just needed some pieces to help pull some of the rooms together.  She had some great ideas from the start including changing some of the paint colors we hadn't thought about and adding furniture to fill in some empty spaces. After the initial consolation, she came back with a professional looking board showing some of the pieces she had chosen for us.  She was very considerate when working within our budget.  Many times she gave us a range of items in cost and design so we could choose what worked best for us.  She was also very prompt in getting back with us when we had questions. We would definitely work with her again, possibly for our back porch and dining room.

I have never worked with an interior designer before, but I bought a new condo, about 1000 sq feet and I did not want to make any mistakes in this small space. She provided that second voice to help me think about the consequences of one choice over another. What I liked best is that she sent me directly to vendors she uses, who knew her, and carried quality products. That alone saved me a lot of time and research, that i really diid not want to do. Also, she was able to save me a lot of money with her designer discount. I saved $400 on the sofa which basically covered her total costs! We communicated well over email and for the most part she was super responsive. She initially asked me how much I wanted to spend, and having no idea what costs really were, I saiid 10-15K. I went way over that, but I am pleased with the quick outcome.

Marissa was extremely helpful in leading the way for a new paint color scheme for my entire house.  Her suggestions were great for getting my home updated with color.  She was also available to answer questions via email after our consultation which really helped.  Her professionalism is great and I would recommend her services to others.