John W

“The result is really remarkable”

“I recently completed a whole house renovation project in Montclair NJ. The house, more than 3000ft2 and 100+ years old, needed pretty much everything redone. It is now a great two unit rental property.

Alison designed two full kitchens, and three full bathrooms for the house. One design challenge was that the house has a lot of original woodwork, including aged chestnut trim, oak and maple flooring with a wide range of wood tones. It is beautiful, and we wanted to preserve the classic character of the house. Alison spent a lot of time picking natural colors for the cabinets, counter tops and floor tile, which integrate the modern kitchen and bathroom designs beautifully with the classic wood throughout the rest of the house.

She also redid the design and layout of a bathroom to include a working laundry room in what would otherwise have been unused space, this also resulted in a walk-in closet in an adjoining bedroom: Really thoughtful design, and a big improvement over what the Architect had come up with.

Alison is not just a design professional, she was on site, taking careful measurements, and working with the contractor making sure that all the cabinetry was installed correctly down to the millimeter. She made great choices in the specifications of the cabinetry, appliances, and plumbing fixtures. The result is really remarkable, and we constantly get compliments from both tenants and realtors.

She was a real pleasure to work with, and super detail oriented, particularly with the specification and installation of the cabinetry. Alison was also a procurement genius, in that we were executing the project when supply chains were still disrupted in the aftermath of Covid.

I highly recommend Griffin Designs, John Wisniewski”

John Wisniewski | Houzz Review December 20,2023