I was referred to Mahlah Karpavage by a friend when seeking professional assistance for home improvements. I have been impressed with Mahlah from our very first meeting in 2013. What was meant to be a short-term consultation leveraging her design, décor and color schemes expertise quickly developed into a highly collaborative, exciting, and fun exchange of ideas with excellent execution on a series of projects. Mahlah is creative, visually astute, organized, trustworthy, and responsive. She possesses a unique artistic eye when it comes to transforming spaces into a masterpiece - whether for staging or traditional residential living. Her recommendations about many types of contractors and willingness to oversee contractors on my behalf demonstrates her commitment to end-to-end service excellence and going above & beyond for her clients. Moreover, Mahlah listens to client preferences and brings ideas to the table that align with such preferences. I appreciate that she is attentive and applies listening skills while being candid about the best style direction for my residences. Without hesitation I would recommend Mahlah as an interior designer to homeowners, real estate agents/ brokers and commercial entities. Appreciate you, Mahlah! Regards, BE read more

We found Mahlah on Houzz while searching for a local designer to help renovate our newly purchased 1980's vacation rental in Santa Cruz, which was very outdated and in need of a serious design overhaul. We disliked pretty much everything about the house except the location - less than two blocks away from Seabright Beach. We loved Mahlah's sense of design, color, and style and the fact that she had experience designing beach style homes. We had already purchased most of the new furniture ourselves, so we constrained her a bit in that regard. However, she didn't miss a beat and was able to work with what we had beautifully and ran with our "shabby beach chic" concept given our location, to transform our dingy house into the bright, cozy, and inviting Beach Haven at Seabright vacation rental home that we've fallen in love with. The remodel involved closing a loft, redoing a kitchen and bathroom, painting the interior and exterior throughout, building a new deck, and sourcing all new furnishings, accessories and appliances. Mahlah was absolutely great to work with - highly knowledgeable and creative, responsible, reliable, and professional - and she was able to work with our budget and deadlines. We would gladly work with her again in a heartbeat! read more

"Oh, now I understand", said my friend with admiration in her voice as I opened the doors to a few cabinets. This was after I had been raving about my newly organized cabinets. We stood and looked at the organization, order and cleanliness of the cabinets. Everything had a place. THIS is the magic of Mahlah! Mahlah's expertise when it comes to organization is invaluable. She helped me come up with a great system for a new project in my business and then organized it so the system would flow smoothly. And her eye for style and design is inherent in everything she does so not only does the system work, all parts of it look inviting and beautiful. Since this project is run out of my small home, it's important that it is clutter free and beautiful to the eye. Mahlah achieved this. In addition to being a talented organizer and interior designer, Mahlah is dependable, friendly, warm, caring and has a great knack for helping you question what you REALLY need - this leads to cleaner, simpler and more beautiful home & work environments. If you need some help getting organized with any aspect of your home or business, give Mahlah a call and be ready to experience some magic! read more

Mahlah has helped me with a number of projects over the last two years and done an outstanding job. But maybe the best thing she's done is work with my now-teenage daughter on redesigning and organizing her bedroom. As you might imagine, the bittersweet vestiges of childhood were everywhere (okay - hardest on me seeing those treasures turn into donations) and clothes no longer accommodated by daughter more "adult" body and well, you know, it was a kid's room. Mahlah collaborated with my daughter and they turned the place into a wonderland. Clothes left (tons of them), areas got simplified and streamlined. Childhood left and this amazing space was created. The result is one very happy teen, a room she actually keeps pretty clean now (well, still not quite sure what a hamper is for but we are working on it) and it was all incredibly affordable and lead to no fights between me and my kid. I highly recommend Mahlah as a collaborator for any kid-focused project. Her temperament is great (she didn't even flinch when I lost it a few times) and my daughter trusts her judgement and advice. read more

Wow! Mahlah has redesigned my guest room from a dump room into a zen room. My kitchen from a barely functioning one to a room that flows so well. Mahlah has a way of helping you reorganize your "things", let go of them once and for all, and it's just seems that whenever she comes to help me with my tiny house, she helps me transform it into something I always imagined, but never quited managed on my own. I think she's amazing, and I can't wait until I have her back to help me on my next project, my back shed, we have a plan to transform that into a art studio! Mahlah has such an amazing eye for color, decorating, putting the right things together. She is all about keeping the clutter out of your life. What would take me and a friend to do in 40 hours, somehow I've been able to accomplish in 7-8 with Mahlah. I highly recommend her. She is so wonderful at what she does, and such a charming, wonderful person! read more

Mahlah designed our new master bath, which is now the most beautiful room in the house. She is a gifted designer with the vision and skill to bring my scattered ideas together with gorgeous results. She's great with the big picture as well as all the small details that I would have overlooked but which ended up making a big difference (who knew a shower drain could be so pretty??) Mahlah collaborated closely with our contractor to ensure that all the bits and pieces worked with our particular environment. When it came time to start remodeling, our contractor and crew kept commenting on how smoothly things went because we were so well prepared. That was all Mahlah, not me! She's a good project manager and communicator, which makes a big difference on major remodels. And best of all, she was so fun to work with! I can't wait for our next project. read more

Mahlah is fantastic. Her sense for color and creating the atmosphere you desire is truly impressive. She gently steered us away from the initial ideas we had and guided us toward choices that did a much better job of creating the vibe we wanted. She taught us a lot along the way and we are so happy that we made the choice to hire her! She was also very patient with our very, very picky tendencies, our difficulty making decisions and our propensity for changing our minds! After remodeling our condo with Mahlah, we ended up selling it less than a year later for a variety of reasons, and I have no doubt that Mahlah's work helped us get all of our money back and more and we are grateful for that. On top of everything else, Mahlah is a fun person to work with and be around and we love her! Plus she likes cats. :-) read more

You cannot go wrong using Mahlah's design skills. She is incredibly gifted when it comes to supporting your efforts to re-do your house, especially those problem spots which you can't figure out how to improve. Her sense of color and space and her knowledge of materials makes everything seem easier. If you're busy, as I am, she can do a lot of the searching for just the right item you need--you don't have to run around yourself. She understands you're on a budget and will pitch in with the actual work. Finally, Mahlah brings not only her professional qualities but combines that with a compassionate, enrgetic and delightful personality-- you cannot help but smile the rest of the day after working with her, read more

In addition to having a great sense of style, Mahlah has a natural knack for organization (almost bordering on obsessive, but in a good way!). She can turn even the worst jumbles into a peaceful oasis. In just a short 3 hour session, she tackled my entry hall and a large, awkwardly shaped walk in closet. Both had been constant sources of stress, but now with Mahlah's help, are well organized. And the closet appears to have tripled in size due to so much free space. As soon as I finish getting rid of the junk from the first round, I'll be hiring to deal with other closets and rooms that lack closets. This was money well spent! read more

I have been running a very busy office in a living room for 8 years and the drawers cabinets and shelves where crammed full of everything. We started with some of the file drawers and before I knew it we had done all of them. I have empty drawers to put things now. and all the like stuff is together. What a pleasure it was to work with Mahlah. She senses when you might be on overload and helps to make the situation easy by organizing the area your working in. What a great experience! I will be doing my kitchen next! Thanks Mahalh! Tracy Taylor Sunrise Cleaning Service read more

As both a stager and designer, Mahlah has been a pleasure to work with. Mahlah staged several of my listings in 2013 and helped my sellers get top dollar for their homes. Thanks to her great eye she is able to arrange spaces for the best possible effect creating a relaxed yet elegant feel. Her use of color, detail and texture are thoughtful in bringing out the fine features of any home and helps potential buyers really "see" how they could live in the home. The buyers of one home were so charmed by the pieces she used that they wanted to buy them too! read more

The wonders of Mahlah... not only is she super talented at knowing what goes where and how to organize in a way the makes sense, she has an eye for beauty and design. She came to help settle me in to my home office and I learned a lot about how to bring beauty to organizing. She was very generous with her ideas and energy while at the same time being sensitive to my need to make the finial decision. She is skilled at establishing systems that are efficient, aesthetically pleasing and functional. read more

Mahlah offers a fun, collaborative and professional approach to interior design. She is helping us remodel our bathroom. With her imaginative and keen design expertise, Mahlah is transitioning our bathroom into an updated bohemian, but not too modern design that suits our taste and our home perfectly. She has also stayed within our budget and has a great network of construction and trades companies. I highly recommend Mahlah for her interior design and/or professional organization services. read more

Mahlah has amazing talents in the area of organization and design. As a working mom, I have a hard time keeping up with the clutter, kids toys and projects around my house, but Mahlah can find a home for everything. She can get you organized and help you stay organized by offering you great tips to minimize clutter. Mahlah is not judgmental and is very helpful in the sometimes painful process of letting go of "stuff". I highly recommend her! read more

We used Mahlah for a pretty extensive remodel of our Seascape home. At first I was concerned by her age....how could she have the experience?....but she proved me wrong! Very professional with excellent design taste. She kept costs under control and left us with a house we truly love. Brought in excellent contractors....highly recommend! We also flew her to the midwest to look at a condo we have there...again great ideas! read more

You will never have a faster or harder worker than Mahlah. She is worth every dollar! She has transformed my home inside and out to a beautiful environment. When she looks at a space she sees the beauty possible, and will use what I have to reorganize it. I am always amazed. I cried with joy when she created a beautiful and functional outside deck for me last year. I highly recommend this amazing designer. read more

Mahlah totally transformed my bathroom! I have a very small bathroom that needed a fresh look. My budget was very small as well, but she was more than willing to work within my budget and give my bathroom a beautiful fresh new look. I am super happy with the job she did. She is easy to work with and pays close attention to the style you like. Highly recommended! read more

Mahalah came on over to my home and set up a very organized system for my office and filing, she had lots of great tips for how to keep up on the seemingly neverending incoming tasks and did it all with a sense of humor and a positive attitude. She is fun to work with and gets stuff done. She brought light to an otherwise stressful situation. read more

Mahlah came to our house to help us organize our office nook. She helped us consolidate item in the space and change the design in the room. Now we can walk into the office and find the things we need immediately. Thank you Mahlah for helping my husband and I get on the same page about how things should be organized in our space. read more