Shelly Gurley of Bella Designs completely misrepresented her services and fees and was flat out incompetent with all her services including serving as a general contractor and designer.. We hired her to oversee a renovation of a master bedroom and bath. She told us her fee was $50 per hour and that she worked with contractors who would provide us with the best price possible. Her statement was "I get discounts that I can provide to you". Not only was this statement untrue, (we were charged an average of 20% mark up from her price) she lied repeatedly about the discount, saying "this is the best price". We should have wised up when we found the tile we wanted for 5.50 per sq ft cheaper at Nebraska Furniture Mart. When we told her we would buy our materials there for 7.48 per sq. ft. versus her price of 12.99 per sq ft, she "suddenly" got us a better price from her supplier. We were told repeatedly that to get her discount for materials we had to pay her for them (another big clue we missed). As a result of this not only did we get gouged on material costs, we also have NO receipts for ANY of the materials purchased for the remodel. God help us if our house burns down. Gouging us on materials aside, Shelly's contractor services were also sub par. The first contractor she highly recommended wound up being total crooks. They were being sued by multiple customers and when they walked off the job, she "negotiated" us out of the contract by having US pay an additional $1300. Her next contractor she recommended was one she got through word of mouth at the Tile Shop. She informed us she would fully negotiate the contract to be sure that all items covered in the first contract would be covered and for the same price. This was not the case! Over $2000 worth of work that was included in the first contract was not covered in the 2nd. As the remodel continued and we had issues with her design and products, Shelly proceeded to lambaste the contractor that SHE brought to the project. The entire project went well over $5000 over budget and took 16 weeks, rather than the 6 that was promised. Shelly's design services were additionally incompetent. She repeatedly brought materials to the project that wouldn't work in the space. One example was a bathroom light fixture that would smack you in the head everytime you entered the room. She ordered a rug for the family room that was not only the wrong size but a color that didn't work at all with the sofa she had picked out and our wall color. She was in a big rush to get it ordered so she could get her cut but neglected to let us know that there was a 20% restocking fee if we didn't keep it. At the end of our 16 week nightmare, we rolled out the rug only to find the color and size completely wrong. We ate the 20% restocking fee and returned it. It took her 2 weeks past the time the company recieved the rug to refund the money. She would randomly buy things that weren't to our taste and put them on our bill. In every instance we would have her return things. I could go on and on in this area. Finally we had asked for a detail of how her time was spent on our project. We paid her over $3000 in design fees and have no accounting of how this time was spent. We repeatedly asked her for this information which she promised to provide, but was never received. Be very careful when working with her, she does not provide full disclosure of how her services work. read more