Lifestyle Space Design

I used lifestyle for two projects in my 300 sq foot apartment: design and installation of built-​in cabinets, bookshelves and lighting; design and installation of an expanded pullman kitchen. I am very satisfied with both. Lifestyle was easy to work with. The cabinets and appliances are high quality and the project was well designed and managed, delivered within a reasonable budget and took full advantage of very limited space. I would use Lifestyle again in the future.

Kittie Lonsdale, owner of Lifestyle Space Design («LSD»), promised us a comprehensive, cost-​effective «Design at a Distance» service for our small one bedroom gut renovation, including sourcing and on-​site project management. However what we actually got was more of «Rip-​Off at a Distance» so we DON’T recommend hiring them. Here’s why:
* LSD quickly took a nonrefundable design deposit after our first meeting and promised to start the job in a month and be finished with construction in 3 months. However they didn’t even give us a written project proposal for 3 months. Construction then took another 5 months for a total of 8 months.
* LSD’s contract calls for bids from at least three general contractors but they provided only one. Mrs. Lonsdale refused to negotiate with her contractor and didn’t allow us to use our own contractor, so we ended up overpaying.
* LSD’s contract calls for a 30% product fee based on product cost. They promised to pass on exclusive designer discounts and provide us with at least 3 alternatives for each purchase. However LSD mostly used websites available to anyone with no special discounts. LSD did not send us ANY product alternatives for many items so we were forced to shop by ourselves, buy our own samples and provide specs for ordering. Even then LSD managed to make mistakes on orders — and still charged us a product fee.
* More than once, LSD demanded progress payments over the course of the job although the required work had not been completed. We discovered this when we went in personally to inspect the job. Also, LSD overbilled us more than once and then claimed these were «honest mistakes.»
* LSD used their stone supplier for our countertops without doing research or comparison shopping. We were charged over $ 275.00/sq. ft. for a product that lists at half that and got a sub-​par job with an unnecessary seam and a blue mark left by LSD’s installer.
* Several items in the contract were never received or installed, including expensive automatic closet lights, vanity drawer lights and TV cables channeled in the bedroom walls. We were charged for all of this, plus product fees.
* The design was poorly laid out and the job was never really completed. For example, one of our tall kitchen cabinets has dangling wires and no shelves.
In the end LSD agreed to accept somewhat less payment than they claimed they were owed. However, it was not nearly enough to compensate us for the costly delays, errors and omissions we endured throughout the project. Our advice: Don’t use LSD, you’ll have a bad trip if you do.