“I can’t rate Kate highly enough. She is very professional, very sensitive and flexible.

The project was the renovation of a dull 1980s house which needed completely updating and refurbishing. I chose Kate because I liked the projects she’d done. She worked with us to design the overall interior scheme for every room (and a great deal of the outside) having taken a very sketchy and possibly vague brief in order to produce mood boards for each room. She made loads of suggestions for the furniture, lighting, ornaments, rugs etc in order to give ideas and choices for how the rooms might look, helping us to decide what we liked and wanted. In our case, we had various pieces of family furniture we wished to incorporate and she worked around/with these too. There is a bewildering array of choice in every aspect of interior decoration and design, bathrooms are especially confusing, and Kate was invaluable in guiding us through the many options. She sourced and ordered most of the items thus saving a huge amount of time and effort. She put together drawings to show the layout of each room from bedrooms, to bathrooms, and what they would look like so we were able to make decisions on which decorative scheme to choose and which items to include . She designed a staircase and entrance hall plus joinery for the dining room and living room. She worked with the architect, with the horrendous builder (who we had to sack in the end) and other suppliers and tradespeople, always remaining positive, helpful and encouraging. I’m not sure how to sum myself up as a client, but possibly, opinionated and indecisive, among other traits, but I trusted Kate completely to guide me to the right decisions along the way with tact and wisdom. She is very well organised, always very responsive. Her documentation is impeccable - wonderful project plans, keeping tabs on what needs to happen, what’s been bought (essential when there is a multitude of items for a whole house) and by when.

The main thing is she is wonderfully easy to work with and I couldn’t have found a better interior designer.

Do I recommend her? Definitely!”

“At the time we were planning on building a completely new-build house on a plot of land and we thought we had an idea of what we wanted to build but we thought when you see all the buildings on the TV or magazines you always feel that the interior sort of lets it down so we thought actually let’s try and build that house with an architect and an interior designer at the very start of this journey so that everything works together as a cohesive whole. So we came to you pretty much right at the very beginning, just after we’d engaged with our architect. It was the right thing to do for sure.”

“[Working with An Artful Life studio] was a very relaxed experience. I feel like I was able to communicate everything that I wanted out of the experience and I felt like you went out of your way to really try to understand what it was that we wanted, and I think you really nailed it!”

“We can’t thank you enough for all your hard work on this. It’s amazing to be able to trust you so completely with this huge project and part of our lives.”

“An Artful Life offers a bespoke contemporary architectural design service. They listen carefully to their clients and produce high quality designs that are beyond expectations. At each stage, they communicate effectively, provide innovative ideas and offer solutions to design problems. The approach is truly professional and we would have no hesitation in recommending them to other people.”

“It’s like having a friend and expert on our shoulder, and you’ve really helped us with our thinking and to be ambitious in what we’re trying to achieve. ”

“I loved working with you - and we are still keeping you in mind for how we can use your talents again!”

“Our concern was finding the right person to work with who would ‘get’ us and could be a really good collaborator. You’ve helped us to be braver and ambitious in our thinking and you’ve really helped us to really think through what we want, what’s important, what we’re aiming for and to be brave in going for something that feels a little bit special. There was just something about the quality and the detail in your designs that has really inspired us to think about things that we might not have thought of otherwise.

As a result of working with you we will have details now in our design that we otherwise wouldn’t have thought about or wouldn’t have been brave enough or confident enough to pursue.”

“It’s really made me so much more confident about bringing the spaces together. The process has really helped, it’s been invaluable.”

““I can’t tell you the excitement when that landed in the inbox last night! I was cooking dinner so had to wait to look until I had finished else no one would have eaten! We are already very very excited - I couldn’t sleep last night! I can’t believe you have managed to take some ideas that have been floating round my head and put them on paper. There are some amazing options there - the hard bit will be choosing which to go with.””

“We absolutely love [the house now]. We can’t believe we live here, it’s amazing!”

“We used An Artful Life to design our interior layout for our new build. From our initial site meeting, Kate was very professional and totally understood what we were trying to achieve. She was very easy to work with and her attention to detail is phenomenal, the work was submitted on time and to a great standard. The final design drawings were so good, I cried.
Not only did she manage to give us exactly what we wanted, she also managed to give us amazing functional design we didn’t know we needed! We couldn’t recommend An Artful Life enough.”

“You have a very relaxed style in a good way, you’re really easy to talk to and really REALLY helpful in trying to figure out exactly what it was that we wanted.”

“The fact that you were able to be on site regularly and give us your guidance as well as your aesthetic point of view was really helpful. The design process was really good. We really liked your approach of doing things room by room, sending us a pack with the elevations, the visual, that really helped bring things to life for us.
Your tenacity with sourcing things, really trying to make sure that they fitted with our desired aesthetic was really beneficial.”

“Kate travelled to Dublin to do a consultation with us about our house renovation project here in Ireland. The whole experience was brilliant!
Kate’s skill and vision were immediately evident - from the way she looked at our property, to her ideas, suggestions and questions. It felt very collaborative and comfortable as we walked through our house with Kate helping us to see all our options and all the potential.
The experience left us feeling so much more excited and much less overwhelmed by the prospect of our renovation.
It is so reassuring to know that we will be guided by Kate’s experience, creativity and sound advice throughout the process.
We’re so excited to work with her to deliver our project.”

“The thing that’s really important was that I think we really enjoyed having our vision articulated in much more clarity than we ever thought we could do ourselves. So, we had an idea of what we wanted but then you sent us some boards and some pictures and put it all together in a way that completely clarified how we wanted the house to look. Rather than you influencing the way it was looking you showed us what we were trying to visualise but we didn’t have the skill to do. You showed us that we do really love this style, this is exactly how we want to live, and then you made it happen, which is awesome.”

“[Would you recommend An Artful Life studio?]
YES!! This is a very easy answer for us. The fact that we’re having this conversation again [about further work]! In every part of the engagement so far you have been really helpful for us as an advisor and a neutral third party for us to balance our different approaches. I’ve also found you to be very calm. What I’ve really found worked really well was when you’ve been able to ask questions with open ended prompts so that we can go away and think about it, that’s something that I found really helpful in this crazy and wild building/architect/design world where there’s so many things and opinions its kind of useful to have someone else to help us ground that conversation.”

“Kate provided an extremely supportive service, listening to our requirements and preferences, asking about important considerations we hadn’t thought about ourselves and coming up with proposals that were exciting, effective and original.”

“One of the things I’ve learnt just by the process of designing our house with an architect and yourself from the very beginning, it showed me firstly that that’s definitely the right thing to do, get an interior designer on-board right from the beginning if you’re going to build a house, even if your architect is amazing there’s another element of detail that you go in to that I don’t think is always thought about at the architecture stage (because there’s so much to think about at the architectural stage).”

“Without hesitation I would recommend you. One of the big things that I’ve learnt going through the process of doing the work with you is that although your design studio and online store have got a very strong aesthetic (I love it) it’s partly me, but it’s not completely me, working with you you’ve completely taken on board my aesthetic. From that point of view that’s really great and that’s obviously what great designers do, they absorb the clients’ needs and wishes. You’re lovely to work with, very personable but also very professional and focussed and keeping [me] on track. It’s definitely been money well spent for me to get the project done in a professional way and in a really smart way.”

“We have been working with Kate on design and furnishing for a large open plan living dining space, with an adjoining snug and mezzanine area. It has been a pleasure. She has been a true partner in the process, working closely with us - guiding and also challenging us with new ideas where needed. She has really listened to our needs and how we live day to day, quickly suggesting designs and moving at pace but not pressuring us. She has been very effective at sourcing pieces, including adapting based on our initial feedback. Her patience, flexibility and gentle guidance as we made decisions has given us confidence in the choices we are making for our home. Kate has also done a great job identifying tradespeople to complete the joinery, building and decorating works we will need to finish the design. Would highly recommend working with Kate!”

“You’re very approachable and professional and also very responsive which I’ve also found is not always the case, so your approach has been very helpful for us.”

“100 percent, I would absolutely recommend you to everybody.
You won’t know if you could have done it better, if you’d just let Kate do it.”

“We are really happy with where you’ve gotten us to so far and know it will help us make informed decisions as we get into tendering. Again, thank you so much for your support for our home reno project.”

“We have worked with An Artful Life on a number of residential and commercial projects. The team have extensive experience in both sectors, and curate the most gorgeous, creative and eclectic interior schemes using a palette of the most original and interesting finishes and products.”

“You can’t just live in a bog-standard house all your life, life’s too short! Walking into one of your designs, you’ve got to aspire to that right?”

“With the help of Kate we turned a selection of our thoughts and ideas into a beautiful reality. Kate helped plan the shape and layout of our extension, drawing and creating numerous visuals for options to ensure we would maximise the usage of space whilst ensuring it beautifully and seamlessly linked to the existing space. We thought we had strong ideas of what we wanted, but it turned out they weren’t so clear. Through the design process Kate really helped turn this collection of thoughts into an amazing and cohesive design. As we liked what we saw so much, we extended the scope of work further and Kate provided lovely design drawings with furniture and fitting options for several other rooms in the house, including dining room, guest bedroom, en-suite and most excitingly of all our new born daughter’s nursery. It’s my new favourite room in house”

“[What was special about working with you?] Thinking about the whole package. When I think of an interior designer I think you’re going to come up with some curtains and some rugs and here’s a couch and a chair or whatever and that’s great but not here’s what the bedroom layout should be, here’s how you could finish the wall with the wood and here’s how you could build the bed and start to bring in the furnishings and thinking about the actual physical construction of the product.”

“We had been looking for a new house for many years, then decided our best option was to stay in the old house we loved, extend it, and renovate it to make it feel even more special. We asked Kate to guide us through the process and help us to realise our vision. We are extremely happy how things turned out. Communication with Kate was excellent and timely. When problems with suppliers or builders occurred, she was quick to identify possible solutions. She created very nice visuals which made us feel confident in our decisions. It was a truly positive experience. I would strongly recommend her professional and friendly advice.”

“When you started providing different floorplans for us it helped us say yes we want this and no we don’t want that and because it’s obviously not just myself it’s also my partner, what do either of us want? It’s not just about the design, it’s how we want to live in it. So that was actually quite insightful - spending time working with you aligned our foot-prints.”

“100 percent [I would use you again]. Without a doubt I would go to you at the very beginning of any project we consider and really try to think about it from the beginning and get all of those questions answered ahead of time so that we’re not scrambling at the last minute trying to find a fixture that fits a specific parameter for a spot. All these things, having you along the way with the original construction would have made it so much less stressful because you’ve done it before and thought about these things. Undoubtedly I’d engage you in any of our projects.”

“You’ve been a pleasure!”

“Kate is a delight to work with. Calm and professional with amazing designs ideas. She drew the plans for our new extension and provided us with visuals of the exterior of our house which really helped us to visualise what it would look like. We look forward to working with her on the next phase of our renovation.”

“Your advice has been invaluable to our build and really helped us think about the best way to use the space to work for us. Doing the mood boards with you helped us decide early on what we liked and what we didn’t, and you’ve always been so helpful with tips and advice along the way.”

“We were struggling with how to bring it all together. We had some bits but not the soft finishes and the things that would tie it all together. How do we bring all these colours and textures together and make it look cohesive and thought through? We had a blank canvas, we had a building with some walls and some lamps built in but that’s the extent of it. What art goes on what wall, what about the rugs and the pillows and all the soft finishes and putting together the shelves that were open and bare? It was a house but it felt very austere and it needed to be brought together and made to feel cohesive, whole and comfortable. And I think that’s what we achieved in the end.””

“Once we had decided we were going to redesign our studio/office we knew Kate was just the person to ask! Kate was professional, understood what we needed and completely designed a space to suit our style. I would highly recommend her and we look forward to working with her in the future.”

“I’ve worked with Kate over a few different projects and we absolutely loved the solutions she has proposed to us. She is an absolute pleasure to work with - fast, professional and very efficient. She is a brilliant designer. I’d always highly recommend her to everyone.”

“When we wanted to reinvent our attic space we reached out to An Artful Life. working with Kate was a brilliant experience. She came up with an overall creative vision for the space together with excellent ideas for all the details. Her input and vision has really transformed the space! We’ve since asked for her input on other areas of the house. It was a really good experience working with Kate and I look forward to working with her again.”

“Kate has been really great to work with and we would highly recommend her. We are doing a small redecoration project and she was really helpful in tailoring a package to exactly what we needed. Her inputs were super helpful and we are really looking forward to enjoying the space when the project is finished!”

“We used Kate to put forward interior layout/design concepts for our house renovation - she was really easy to work with and has delivered the work very quickly. She is great at listening to what you want and can think outside the box! We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to anyone else.”

“I was really impressed with the designs Kate came up with for our utility room and office. She understood what we were individually looking for and has come up with some innovative solutions that meet both our needs!”

“[Would you say it’s been helpful working with me and An Artful Life studio?]
It’s an emphatic YES. I’m sure anyone who’s worked with you would be able to share something similar. One thing that’s been very helpful is to have someone with a more independent approach to asking us questions and giving us prompts so that we can go away and think about it. Having you on board to help us frame our thought process, ask questions about how we want to use the space, ask us about our design and aesthetics and frankly even our budget just to put it in to perspective. ”

“Thank you so much for sharing all the different layout options. Very cool! It’s been very helpful to see our ideas on paper and even more exciting to imagine our future living space redesigned.”

“We have both found your approach and philosophy aligns with us well and would be very lucky if you decide to see us through the demolition and building phases.”

“Very good design, really easy to work with. Would recommend Kate whole heartedly and have!”