Judgment (Judicial Officer: Musselman, KT) Judgment of $592.50 Awarded To: Mindy Carroll Awarded Against: April Interiors This was the end result of our business relationship with with April and her business. what is not shown in this WILCO court judgement is the thousands she was suing us for before we were forced to counter sue for her breach of contract. The judge even agreed that she did not provide services requested or promised by her in the contract we both signed. She even stated in the hearing that she never provided her clients with a budget even though we had been promised one and they are a basic component of a project plan. She also would not provide a timeline. To create a design we did not ask for that was missing key elements of a project plan, she sent us bills close to $5,000. Then harassed and sued us when we refused the pay with the promised project plan that we had all agreed upon. she just wanted us to email her so she could bill us 1/4 of $150 (her hourly) rate to send a reply that just said to pay her for her already billed hours that she could not justify. read more

April and her amazing team went above and beyond in every way to help make our dream home even better than I could have imagined! From the very first appointment I knew I would be in good hands with how thorough they were. We went step by step and their expertise helped to guide me through the process from start to finish. From exterior to interior to all of the fixtures and finishes they did what I could only describe as a perfect job. I would highly recommend them to anyone and if I ever need help again I would only make one call. 5 stars! Absolute perfection! read more

Terrible business acumen. Her behavior came off disingenuous and she was not strait forward about her pricing! (Which was ridiculous for the project we discussed) She came to our home after we agreed upon her charging $150/hr. (which is fine) AFTER getting to my home she let me know that there would be a $3,000 RETAINER FEE!!! Just for HER services alone!!That's not including the contractors/painters/any work done!!! $3,000 just for HER! We felt it was shady that she didn't mention that on the phone BEFORE she came to our house! If i would have known about the $3,000 retainer fee, i would have never asked this woman to come to my home in the first place. Now she repeatedly harasses us for the $150 which i have refused to pay, simply because my husband and I feel taken advantage of and duped. If she would have been truthful in the beginning, none of this would be necessary! We tried to explain that if she would have been TRANSPARENT FROM THE BEGINNING, this would not be an issue, yet she claims this is how she handles all of her clients... so beware! She has threatened to turn is into the collection agency over $150 and keeps charging us late fees!! THIRSTY MUCH? Guess she REALLY needs that $150 by manipulating the public. There are a TON of talented designers/decorators in Austin that will make sure that the people they work with are happy while doing their job. That will be UP FRONT with pricing, kind, engaged, and that are happy in general. SHE IS NOT ONE OF THEM! It was never about the money! It was her lack of business tactics and communication that lead to this yelp post. read more

April, Sam, Erica and team were amazing to work with and the finished product (new build) is amazing. The photos of the project will speak for themselves once posted online. My wife and I asked the team to jump in and make decisions when we might otherwise spin our wheels in disagreement. We were never led astray. We are happy Clients of April Interiors! read more

Hiring an Interior designer can be a daunting task. Not the case with April Interiors. I was so impressed by her talent and professionalism that she has designed two of my homes. In our first home, she transformed our Gameroom beyond my husband's dreams (it was a surprise makeover). April's willingness to work with me, along with her attention to detail, exceeded my expectations. So of course, I had to hire her to design my new home. I thoroughly enjoyed working with April and would do so again. read more

My summary assessment of April Interiors (AI) and her husband's contractor business, "From the Ground Up" (FTGU) is unprofessional, low quality, poor communication and questionable billing practices. I feel the need to add to my wife's previous review of our experience. Admittedly, this was my first time working with an interior designer, but I have worked with many contractors. We decided to use AI for some design elements in our new home because we wanted someone to take ownership of the project from start to finish and deal with problems as they arose, as they always do in construction projects. During her consultation, April assured my wife that she would oversee the project and hold subcontractors accountable for mistakes. Unfortunately, our experience has been quite contrary to our goal. Firstly, we were unaware that AI was subcontracting a majority of the work to her husband, we foolishly assumed that she would seek out and hire industry experts for each project, rather than just hire her husband's "remodeling and handy-man" company, especially because we thought we were paying her hourly design rate to serve as our general contractor. We had multiple issues with FTGU from the beginning, primarily with the quality of their work, the details of which would make for a much longer post. We often found ourselves having to communicate with AI to arrange for FTGU to correct mistakes, rather than April ensuring the quality as promised. Suffice to say that there was not a single aspect of their work that went right the first time, and many aspects of their "finished" work are still unsatisfactory. More importantly, we found out later that we were being invoiced for every communication between us and April, as well as April and FTGU, regarding these issues, even regarding the instances when both AI and FTGU would acknowledge that the quality was unacceptable. We only became aware of the relationship between the two businesses when her husband reached out to us directly to apologize for a mistake they had made, and we realized they had the same last name. When we voiced our concern about the conflict of interest and requested that we not pay her for time spent to coordinate repairing their mistakes, she responded by demanding that we pay the remaining balance for the entirety of the project or she would not deliver the goods and furnishings we had already paid for, even though the agreement was that we would pay for all materials and half of labor up front, and the remainder of each project as it was completed. After discussing our options with an attorney, we felt we had no choice but to allow them to finish so that we might move on. This demand for early additional payment of over $17,000 came even though we had provided AI with a check for nearly $25000 to get work started and had paid all of our design invoices promptly. There was several months delay between the initial payment and any work starting, and sometimes weeks without updates. Communication was consistently poor, and primarily through emails that were often devoid of needed details but full of condescending generalities. We were repeatedly made to feel that our concerns were unwarranted and told that the issues were the result of us being overzealous in identifying mistakes early. If we wanted to actually speak with her by phone, we would have to arrange for a phone meeting in the middle of the work day, many days in advance. Our last invoice included a line for "harassing calls" because I tried to reach her at her office and by cell phone to discuss an urgent issue but she did not answer. AI also refused to honor the initial bid to paint/repaint the walls that they had already worked on (in four separate rooms of our home), even though we insisted that they complete the work. When we solicited bids from other painters, they either refused the job, because the decorative fretwork on the wall should have been painted prior to installation (a concern we had brought up to AI in the beginning), or their bids were 5 times higher than the original bid for the same reason. I believe that April Interiors declined to honor the agreement because they realized they had underbid the paintwork and took advantage of our dissatisfaction to get out of it. To add insult to injury, April would only agree to finish the other projects if we were not in our home when FTGU was working, and when they installed some new lighting fixtures on the accent wall, they damaged the finish. This issue happened not once, but three times. Rather than take responsibility and notify us, they tried to cover it up with black paint. When we brought it to April's attention, she came to our house, when we were not allowed to be, to inspect. She agreed that it was not acceptable, but while she was at our house, she directed FTGU to sand down the caulking on the joints of the decorative wall work, after it had clearly been newly painted by our painters! She invoiced us for he read more

Working with April Interiors has been one of the worst experiences we have ever had. We worked with her for just under a year, and to be honest things moved painfully slow, her work was such poor quality, her business acumen is less than stellar, and she has overtime become a nightmare for our family that will just not go away. We went into this relationship with her excited to create a few design elements in our home, and have been left with incomplete work that is sloppy, quite literally falling apart, and with damaged furnishings. During our initial consultation we discussed having April design the accent wall, and render custom metal work drawings. We also discussed having her oversee our projects and handle them start to finish. We knew this was going to be expensive, but we felt we needed someone to lookout for us during this process, make sure quality sub contractors were used, and ensure things were built and installed safely and to code. What she did not disclose to me was that her husband's company (FTGU) was going to be our sub contractor on all aspects of each design element. (April will say that she 100% discloses this information every time- but it is not in my memory and not in any of her email correspondence to us or in our contract). This relationship would have not ever been discovered or have been a problem for us except that work started going horribly wrong from the very beginning, and then she started billing us additional for her time to correct their mistakes. Every aspect of this project was wrong to some degree by no fault of ours, and each time we voiced our concerns to her about the errors - she first acknowledged the mistakes and then billed us additional time for handling the logistics to make it right. To be clear, this was not us changing our minds or changing course or unseen structural problems in our home, this was us pointing out incomplete and flat out wrong work done by her crew and careless mistakes. We understood from the very beginning that we were charged an "hourly design fee" for her to oversee construction, and were happy to pay, but we just cannot comprehend how we could be charged so much additional (to the tune of several hundred and sometimes thousands of dollars each month) for her to facilitate correcting work that was done wrong by her husband's company. How can she have our best interest at hand if it is her husbands company doing the work? What is the incentive to make sure that work is done correctly, if she gets to continue to bill for correcting FTGU's mistakes? We understood from the very beginning that we were charged an "hourly design fee" for her to oversee construction, and were happy to pay, but we just cannot comprehend how we could be charged so much additional (to the tune of several hundred and sometimes thousands of dollars each month) for her to facilitate correcting work that was done wrong by her husband's company. We wanted to redo our fireplace areas with new mantles and firewood holders, finish an outdoor shower area, and create an accent wall. Below are just a few of their errors: Her team mis measured the rigger placement and cut the new mantles in the wrong spot for hanging. Because of this the only option was to secure the mantels very uneven, and they have already since come lose. After patching up the hole in our wall they left it unpainted - in two separate areas. In the end we were left with crooked mantels that were stained the wrong color (was supposed to be Jacobean to match our existing beams and doors). See photos The metal work that was installed over our fireplace opening literally exploded out of our rock wall 3 days after it was installed due to it's weight, and it was not the agreed upon matte black powder coat finish. See photos Her team sanded over a freshly painted wall done by another contractor in our home without asking. We did not ask them to correct it, but we certainly did not expect to be billed for her inspecting the erroneously sanded areas. See photos Her team incorrectly installed light sconces on our accent wall three times. All three times they were crooked, and twice had to be removed because of scratches and paint/caulking that transferred onto the black light fixtures. Initially they tried to paint over it with a paint pen without telling us. She told me that I was not allowed to be in my own home while work was happening, and this was after her team damaged our walls unnecessarily, damaged our light fixtures, and installed warped wood for our shower. During the entire process our complaints have fallen on deaf ears. April will and has acknowledged the mistakes by her crew, but continues to say things like "We've all learned something here." This may be true, but my family is the the one hemorrhaging money by the hour for her team's mistakes each month. read more

I've done several jobs for April Interiors as a cabinet refinisher. I have to say that it's just been an overall enjoyable experience throughout. April and her crew are all extremely friendly and professional. I cant express how valuable that is. when working with other trades, communication and respect are extremely important and that's exactly what you get from them. The inspiration and quality of work is top notch. Over the past 16 years in this business, I haven't seen this kind of attention to detail. I highly recommend using this company as they can do almost anything you can think of. At the same time, they do it with a smile, an eye and professionalism. read more

April and Jason completed several projects for us at our house and the work has always turned out wonderful. April's attention to details and working with the customer to ensure they are happy is second to none. We are now in the process of an entire downstairs remodel and every step of the way has been above and beyond our expectations. read more

I have used April Interiors a couple of times now. Once, I was re-doing my daughter's room and needed extra help. She gave me a ton of new ideas and I was able to go out and buy what I needed and then she helped me arrange and cover a fabric headboard that makes a huge statement in her room! Another time, I called on her to help with our upstairs bonus room. I wanted to use this room for so many different purposes and she helped me consolidate and organize this space, and now its more functional and has a 'finished' look. I recommend her if you have a big project, like a multiple room design, or just need an updated look and advice! read more

I can't say enough good things about April Interiors. April is very easy to work with, organized, and straight forward in her design detail. Her eye in design and bringing a client's wants/ needs to reality is exceptional. Her projects are absolutely beautiful and always seem to capture the personality of the client and space. If I could give 10 stars I would! read more

April of April Interiors rearranged our furniture and gave us great advice and suggestions for every room in the house. She'll go shopping for you or with you--or just give you some tips for you to shop yourself. And she's very affordable, too. The best money we ever spent on our house! read more