I'm not sure what to say about my experience working with Denise. She's a very nice person, but I can't say I was 100 percent happy with the overall experience. My fiancee and I found Denise online and liked the look of her work. The prices were a bit weird, but we really needed help with our place, so we hired her. The GOOD: She came out a few times and measured our place to create a "space plan" that basically allows you to see what size furniture will fit in the space. This was very very helpful and she did it very quickly. She also found furniture on web sites we said we liked that she thought would work in the room. We didn't have ANY furniture to start with, so we needed a lot of suggestions and she came up with several options. She also found a couch at a VA store that we ended up liking enough to buy. It was a great help and a good deal. The painter she uses is great. He did a great job, even though he charged us $1,300 to paint three small rooms. The BAD: She charged us $2,500 flat fee to do the following: - Create the space plan - Surf the web and go to her favorite store (the one in VA) to look for furniture that would fit in the plan - Pick the paint colors for three rooms and order the paint - Measure the windows for window treatments This was WAY TOO MUCH in my opinion, considering the amount of work this ended up being. She basically met with us twice and we did the rest of the communication through email or through her assistant, Sarah. Denise acted a lot like talking to us through email was a bit of a pain for her, because we had a lot of questions. She always wrote back, though, I've got to give her that. The real problem was she wanted us to use her vendors for the window treatments, but I found out that they were charging us DOUBLE what I could get from J.C. Penneys. So I ordered the treatments myself and had them installed independently of Denise. It would have been a real ripoff to use her people. Also, the paint color she talked me into choosing for the bathroom I ended up hating. We had to pay to have the painter come back and repaint the room back to white, but Denise didn't really apologize for this at all. She made it seem like she was doing us a huge favor by getting the guy to come back and repaint. Plus, we had to pay him another $350. In the end, I'm glad we hired her because it helped give me piece of mind that everything we ended up buying would fit in the places we wanted them to fit. I also have been happy with the two wall colors I did like that she helped us pick out. But since we hired her and the job was done, we never heard from her again, except in a brief email about the repainting, her assistant said it was "great to work with us." If you want to be recommended to my friends, you'd better send me a nice note or call to make sure I'm happy with everything before you sever our relationship. read more

Thank you for you comment. I did receive my refund. It's unfortunate that our business together could not work out. I truly did not have a time line. I simply believe in people sticking to their word. If you say you're going to do something within a certain time period such as coming to my house to take pictures next week and THEN providing me with a proposal, then that's what I expect. Not an email from your assistant with a short email about cost and no follow-up from her or you (which by the way I contact her before her email to me about the price). In fact I've only seen you once and this is the second time you're communicating with me. I've been dealing with your assistants. My complaint is simply this.... there was a lack of professionalism. I'm a reasonable person and very understanding. Had you told me what your office is going through I would have waited until a later time to do business with you, but I was pushed to the site and no one would follow up with me...I had to constantly contact you and your assistant to find out what the delay is. Again, I DID NOT HAVE A DEADLINE. I just wanted to know where I stand...and since I was being ignored, I became more demanding of details. I don't agree with your comment that I didn't have a grasp of how the process works, I simply went by what you and your assistants told me. Please don't try to make me out to be the bad person. Like you said, you shouldn't have taken on extra clients knowing what your office has to deal with during the busy schedule and moving process. I seem to be the unlucky one that fell through the cracks. Good luck with all your future endeavors. read more

We recently hired Denise Willard at Decor by Denise for some Interior Decorator services for our family room in our Northern Virginia home. We found her through Google searches and it seemed like she did some really good work at least from the before and after pictures on her web site at http://www.decorbydenise.com. We called her up and her assistant Sarah booked us a time slot for a few weeks in the future for her to come out. We were a little surprised to find that there was an initial fee of $175.00 just to have her come out and give us a proposal. Usually it seems that this would be for free in order to secure the deal, but I figured she would probably provide some real insight into her ideas that she had for us and that it would probably be somewhat worth it. When Denise Willard finally came out, she reviewed the room that we wanted to have redesigned. Our family room is a rather spacious room and we needed help picking out furniture, space planning and selecting a color for the walls. As far as furniture goes, it has enough space to accommodate a sofa, a large chair and a coffee table as well as a small entertainment center. Denise Willard while pleasant in demeanor although had a bit of condescending / elitist tone to her presence. She would cite example after example of homes in high end real estate markets (e.g. McLean, Capital Hill, Potomac, etc) in order to establish her credentials as a "high end" designer. The vibe was that the majority of her clients were from prestigious addresses inside the beltway and that she was out of her element a little at our outside the Beltway home (Herndon). A typical conversation would go like this (literally)... "I'm so stressed right now. We're laying down 2000 square feet of new hardwood flooring in my client in McLean but I'm having a terrible time reaching them because they are on vacation in St. John right now." In any event, near the end of the meeting Denise Willard inquired about our budget. I had mentioned that I was hoping to keep things under $20,000 (keep in mind, we need a sofa, chair, coffee table and small entertainment center) and Denise cringed. "$20,000 is going to be tight. Perhaps you don't need to get all the pieces at the same time" was her response. She seemed to lose a lot of interest in the deal after I dropped that "low ball" budget. A week after her visit, we received her mostly cut and paste proposal which had total fees of over $4,000 for her services. Again, we were talking about a single room. I responded to her that this was over our expectations and that we were going to pass on her services. In response, Denise replied with a curt email that she "was not surprised" by our decision and wished us well. We ended up calling Ethan Allen instead who sent out a comparable designer and provided us with the exact services we were looking for at no charge. Of course, they are pushing their furniture in the solution, however, I would MUCH rather spend $4K extra on furniture than a condescending designer. read more

My husband and I were extremely pleased with our experience in using Denise Willard of Decor by Denise for revamping our living and dining room and television family room. My husband and I have very different styles and had checked-mated ourselves in moving forward. Her process worked magic by listening to what we both liked and merging the styles into a very pleasant space -- we have made little changes over the past few years since she completed the work. What we liked as well - as she identified places where quality would make a huge difference in our investment, and where we could use existing furniture and art. I didn't think I wanted to invest in windown treatments but she convinced me that it was one element that would really make the difference - and she was right. It was the first time we had used professional services like Denise's but we now know that her services is like investing in a good architect in building -- a good plan saves you time and money - and guarantee's a perfect result. Highly recommend Denise - and trust her judgment. read more

I wanted to take a few minutes to commend Denise Willard of Decor by Denise for the fantastic job she did revamping my living room. A business associate recommended Decor by Denise after they did work for him. Upon the first consultation she came across as being very professional and passionate about her work. I expressed to her my desire to "go green" and that I like contemporary lines mixed with older rustic pieces which she dubbed as Transitional. Even though she admittedly hasn't done a lot of green interiors, she seemed to have a clear understanding of what look I wanted. To my amazement she was able to locate a beautiful rustic Redwood beam that was pulled from an E&J Gallo wine tank which was torn down because it was leaking. She suggested we use this for the mantel on my fireplace but have it suspended by wrought iron versus to traditional approach of supporting from underneath. It is truly a work of art and a great conversation piece. She was able to locate more fallen redwood that was cut to use as shelves. The room was accented with other sustainable products like bamboo and flax linen drapery panels. Denise's professionalism and enthusiasm remained throughout the project even though we were working on a tight budget. I would not hesitate to retain Decor by Denise in the future. Thank you Denise! read more

Denise Willard of Decor by Denise was a true professional. She has completed a few projects for us in our Clarendon Home. The first was a reconfiguring of a family room to improve flow utilizing our existing pieces and picking a chair for that room. Second was finding an area rug that pulled together a room. Third was conversion of a dining room into a sitting room/study including major contractor work. Her biggest strengths were listening skills, not pushing to the most expensive path, sticking to scope, budget and timeline. Also, she is not extreme rather came up with livable solutions while incorporating views of both husband and me. I also liked that she came up with a few potential plans and short lists. Her deliverables were easy to read and well executed - 3 D diagrams and floorplans. She didn't push towards pricey custom pieces and where going retail could save us money (albeit lose her on %), she always encouraged it. She has a great eye and sense of style. The biggest thing I can say is that regardless of scope I didn't feel that her utter attention/focus shifted. in other words, she went after the small projects with equal gusto to the bigger one The first project was a floorplan for our family room. She didn't shy away from "heavy lifting". She was able to manuever pictures, furniture, etc to make the flow a billion times better. I have done this kind of project in past with another decorator and the solution would always result in recommendations to buy multiple brutally expensive pieces. Not so with Denise. We ended up needing a chair to round it out (which we kind of knew before hiring her). She gave us a short list of choices that were varied but not overwhelming. Also, she didn't direct us to only high end vendors where she can collect a huge percentage. On the contrary, the chair she envisioned for us was sold retail and she made no mark up at all but she felt it suited our need best. She came out with us and helped us narrow down to a workable pile of fabrics, listened to our feedback to come up with new alternatives and ultimately helped us pick out a great fabric that worked in harmony with walls, other pieces, room, etc. On the rug project, she really listened to our concerns. We had a lot of one style and wanted something different. We told her we have kids and she really listened. She helped us come up with a custom piece but gave us ideas that worked and the end product really pull the room (and colors) together beautifully. The far larger project was that we have never been happy with our dining room. It was confining, unwelcoming and as such, went without much use. We mentioned liking the idea of converting it to a sitting room/study. She went on record as saying that she didn't recommend this because for resale purposes it might be tricky not to have a dining room. However, if we wanted to move forward, she would suggest built ins that are "convertible" to china cabinets. It was brilliant. Again, she didn't go for the path with the most dollars. Once we decided to move forward, she worked on 3 potential floorplans and 3 dimensional diagrams. She told us her first choice but made it clear that all 3 would work well. I really like this approach. I have worked with designers in past that overwhelm with too many choices. This isn't our forte which is why we hire a decorator. Denise's approach of boiling it down makes it a pleasure. She managed all the contractors very well. They did a superb job. i urge you to look at the transformation on her website. Ours is the table with something on it and blank walls (before) then beautful built ins, yellow walls, two leather chairs (after). We get constant compliments. Denise is fabulous. I recommend her strongly with no caveats or hesitation. read more

I saw Denise's work on Washington Post and then saw her portfolio on her website. I had her come to my house for a consultation. She then sent me an estimate to do the design for my living room area in my townhouse. I can't remember the exact price but it was approximately $1500. I had never worked with an interior designer before. So when she went me the estimate, I then began wondering what happens if I don't like the design she provides. So I sent her an e-mail and asked her about this. Clearly, I offended her because then she did not want to work with me anymore. I was incredulous. There was no, "We'll tweak if if you don't like it." I feel confident my e-mail was not rude, and when I received the very angry response from her employee, I apologized profusely expressing regret if I had offended Denise. Denise wanted nothing to do with me and said she'd recommend someone else. As a result of this experience, I will never use Denise's services. The lack of professionalism she displayed was astonishing to me. I am glad to see that others have had issues with her as well, as she made me feel like I should be ashamed of myself for asking what would happen if I wasn't happy with the design. read more