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We have worked with Melissa for over a decade, having just completed a major new construction project from start to finish with her.

The Process

For our most recent project we built a new home from start to finish.  While we started the process with a high degree of trust in Melissa’s abilities having worked with her in the past, we were still amazed at the full range of her contributions given the large scale and complexity of our most recent project.

Melissa really operated as much as a Project Manager for us throughout the project as she did as a traditional decorator. This was vital to driving the project forward and the value she added working with the entire team (architect, builder, subcontractors, etc.) cannot be overstated. Some form of “Wow, Melissa is amazing” was a conversation I had with nearly every person involved in our project.

From big picture design elements during the construction document phase, to real time in the field adjustments with subcontractors, Melissa was involved and adding tremendous value in moving the project forward without delay. The end results in all aspects of the project were significantly better due to her contributions.

Her Vision

One of the things we have appreciated most when working with Melissa is the design process itself from start to finish.  Our conversations always start with how our family intends to use a room or living space and from the there the discussion of style and furniture and colors flows quite naturally.

Melissa has an extraordinary spatial sense. She shows a in-depth of understanding of the interaction between a room’s scale, colors, lighting and the tangential spaces we find remarkable. Somehow there is a 3-D technicolor model of your project always running throughout her thoughts and ideas.

She consistently finds amazing colors, fabrics and furniture that match your vision and is a true talent in the space. Her gallery of projects will make this obvious to anyone who sees the finished product, but the intense focus on details during the design phase is what makes this all work in our minds.

Accompanying this vision is a fiscal sense we really appreciated, as with any size project there are budgetary trade-offs that must be made. Melissa sincerely cares about your budget and really works with you to understand how different decisions will impact costs.

Working Style

There is a boundless sense of positive energy when you discuss your project with Melissa, she is simply always into it, day in and day out.

There is also a relaxed confidence about her that we truly appreciate when working with her, as you feel like you are in great hands throughout a project. She will share her valuable opinions, sometimes strongly, but will always incorporate what you’re looking for in a space and makes sure you love the final decision.

While Melissa’s incredible vision and positive energy are what you notice first when starting a project, equally important to us were her organizational skills and dogged tenacity to keep the project moving. With any large project decision making fatigue can easily set in, and Melissa did a fantastic job of prioritizing critical decisions and presenting us with options, while also handling less critical decisions on her own.  That professional persistence to keep a project moving on the timelines that are required is incredibly valuable in terms of both project time and cost at end of the day.

What we really love about her whole approach is that in the end she is not trying to achieve some vision she has for “your” project, but instead is driving the project towards your ultimate satisfaction.

Summary

We could not be happier with the finished product after working with Melissa, and our friends/family are amazed when they come into our home and see her work  Quite literally we could not have achieved anything close to what we ended up with without her.

  • Jim & Kelli Morrow

 

 

Margaret and Jason Newton MA

Working with Melissa Gulley has been one of the most wonderful and rewarding experiences. We started with a completely stark white house, virtually no furniture, definitely no window treatments, and almost no concept of what we liked and what our tastes in decorating were. Because of this, the thought of decorating our house and making it a “home” was daunting and depressing. But, then, a friend of ours suggested we talk to Melissa. We went to a house she was in the process of decorating and we really loved what we saw and this encouraged us to make that first scary phone call. From the very moment Melissa walked in our house for our initial meeting we both fell head over heels in love with her. She was simply great. She laid out a plan, first helping us to learn more about our own tastes and what we wanted our home to look and feel like. Then, she guided us through a process of envisioning our home, helping us with colors, fabric, window treatments (as much as we insisted that our house was different and didn’t need window treatments, Melissa showed us the way to understanding that window treatments are the pivotal part of decorating, now we can’t help but notice the window treatments everywhere we go!), furniture and, most importantly, making our house a home for our family. The results of our work with Melissa are evident – our home is warm and welcoming with the all important beautiful window treatments, simple yet elegant furniture, fantastic colors, rugs and wall treatments that make everything come together, and, most importantly, our home is lived in and very much appreciated.

 

Melissa is the most energetic and exciting person we have had the pleasure of spending time with. She makes everything relaxed and easy going. She listens to your concerns and cares intently about everything you express. Melissa understands and respects your budget, she is extremely open and forthcoming about costs and comes up with creative ways to work within your budget. She has the most intuitive sense of colors, fabrics and style, mixing and matching things that you never thought could come together and making them look fantastic.

 

Every single day our entire family loves and appreciates how beautiful and comfortable our home looks. There is never a day that goes by that we don’t think about the gorgeous red carpet on our stairs, our welcoming and comfortable kitchen, our funky dining room, our more formal, yet still homey living room and our very exciting family room. We love it all and attribute every morsel of it to Melissa. We’ve known Melissa for over 7 years and we’ve grown to have a warm and wonderful relationship with her, both professionally and personally. She is a joy to be with, her creativity and decorating ability is just awesome and she is the most honest, trustworthy, reliable, considerate person – the total package!! Come see our house and get a first hand view of what we’re talking about! We feel very lucky to know Melissa – she is certainly our decorating go to girl!!

 

Margaret and Jason 

Newton, MA

Jennifer and Bob, Newton MA

Of the hundreds of decisions we made in our home renovations, the best one was to work with Melissa. She helped us avoid major mistakes and opened our minds to choices we had never considered. Melissa tuned in to our lifestyle and to the era and décor of our house, steering us to choices that are unique to us and our house. She is the ideal decorator: calm, cheerful, responsive, efficient, combining practicality with great taste. She held our hands as we nervously chose a stain for our hardwood floors that turned out to be lustrous and beautiful. Where we were stymied about cabinetry, counters, hardware, lighting and tile, Melissa narrowed our choices and made it easy. Her vast experience enabled her to recommend solutions we never could have imagined. Melissa was sensitive about how much we could stretch our imaginations before being overwhelmed; she knew when to introduce ideas and when to back off. Also, she helped us deal with our contractor successfully when there were differences of opinion. We would work with her again in a heartbeat – it’s such fun! And, our home is so much more beautiful and comfortable because of her help.

Jennifer & Bob