Awaken Interiors

Michelle assisted with our final finishes and made some excellent suggestions to tweak our kitchen layout. She is resourceful, professional, knowledgeable and reliable in the care she takes with/for her clients. The value she added to our project in time & money savings was exceptional.

Michele is so creative and spreads her knowledge in such an easy way. Michele visited my bachelor pad, gave me her inputs on making it an mid-20s adult living space, and provided the best pricing for all her recommendations. My girlfriend loves hanging at my space now!

Michele with Awaken Interiors has been amazing! She helped us with our color scheme for our new house and selecting flooring, window coverings and furniture. The result is beautiful. She has been great at helping us find items within our budget that still look great. Our project has been ongoing, and she's been available to answer my questions and provide advice quickly as I need it. I highly recommend her!

Michele is such a joy to work with, we always felt comfortable with her handling every step of the design process! She is a wonderful designer, who knows scale and color very well. I would definitely recommend her to friends and family ~ and that says a lot!! I wish I could leave her a 10 star rating! **********

I am a custom home builder and have worked with Michele on many projects. Michele is an amazing designer with the creative ideas and designs that stand out. We have created multiple award winning homes that I am very proud of. She also understands that as a home builder I have budgets and timelines to follow and works to make sure we meet those. I would recommend Awaken Interiors to anyone and look forward to working with Awaken Interiors again.

I have been a client of Awaken Interiors for over ten years and have used Michele’s expertise in a number of different projects from re-designing a drab spec house I purchased as a bachelor to custom building the perfect family home. I have been impressed with her abilities to translate ideas into designs and ultimately completed projects. Awaken interiors helped me realize my vision for a starter home I purchased earlier in life and took it from the typical cookie cutter spec house to a home that reflected my personality and lifestyle. Michele was able to bring me options for furnishings that met my budget, style, and even more importantly, quality standards. I also turned to Michele to help me stage that same home when I was asked to relocate for work. There is no doubt in my mind that Awaken Interiors shortened my homes time on the market by finding the right balance of design and function to appeal to a broader audience that would be looking to purchase a home like mine. I can add a bit of a third person perspective of Michele’s abilities by also pointing out that the buyer of my home made an offer that was contingent on a majority of the furnishings staying with the home. Fortunately for me, my work relocation, and subsequent building of a family, then provided me the opportunity to build a custom home. I decided to involve Awaken Interiors early in this process to help me with space planning as I developed the plans with my new builder. Michele was vital in the conception stage of the basic floor plan layout as she has the wherewithal to truly understand exactly how much space is needed to furnish a room. I will never build another home without having Awaken Interiors input on the floor plan. Awaken Interior’s expertise did not stop at space planning. After the final blueprints were approved she had an impact on practically every aspect of the home project, including; kitchen and bath design, flooring, wall coverings and furniture. Michele helped marry the preferences of both my wife and I into a cohesive design that was truly a reflection of our partnership and new home together. Needless to say, I have relocated for professional reasons once again and am looking forward to finding another place that will not only meet the needs of my wife and I but one that also incorporates the needs of our children. I am not sure if that will mean purchasing an existing house or building again but you can be sure Awaken Interiors will be a part of the process. It is fairly obvious that I have been pleased with what Michele and Awaken Interiors has done for myself and my family over the years regarding making the largest investments of our lives feel like our own. While she has been crucial to helping put our preferences and personalities into furnishings and giving us options that met the budgets at hand she was also acutely aware of, and had the ability to, provide quality products. As I proof read this review to make sure everything was grammatically correct I noticed one interesting fact that perhaps best sums up my experiences with Awaken Interiors. Whenever I spoke of my past residences I referred to them as houses before Michele helped me with her designs. It is no mistake that after Michele’s input I refer to them as a HOME!

Michele was over the top with the job she did on our new construction home in South Dakota. Her experience and knowledge with interior decorating made planning less stressful and a nice help in getting her Twin Sister (my wife) to commit to decisions that seemed overwhelming at times. With my wife expecting and planning for that and our new house things really stacked up at times. We really needed her help in just about every area with room layouts and furniture selection. How do you decided? There are so many options you can choose from when you have a blank canvas and she scaled things down to make sense and provide products that we loved. She was wonderful to work worth and I would recommend her skills to everyone.

I was fortunate to meet Michele at a business club, and what a difference knowing her has made this year! I asked Michele if she could help me re-purpose the furniture I've been living with (uncomfortably) for almost 20 years. I wanted to find better placement for it and get help with colors (because I also have a paint color on the walls I don't like, but for budget reasons haven't changed since moving in 3 years ago). Michele graciously agreed to help, and has been super flexible about how we could work together and very generous with her advice and talents. My husband had worked with a designer years ago, so the only model he knew was a decorator who needed $50,000 to buy stuff. Not so with Michele. After getting her design plans, I've been able to make massive changes to how the space is used and how it looks without breaking the bank. I've taken the lead on finding and buying "missing pieces" but Michele always is happy to give her feedback before I choose. I've re-purposed 95% of the stuff I had, which was my husband's , and while it was all very expensive it has never been my taste or sized right for me or the houses we've had since he bought it. This is one of Michele's strengths. She isn't trying to decorate a museum or a space for a magazine photo op; she is very tuned into how you actually use the space and getting maximum comfort. And being able to take the pieces if you need to move. Everyone who comes over is amazed, as I have been , at the difference putting pieces in their proper spaces makes. Living in a townhouse, I could only ever envision one placement/layout, but Michele came up with 6-8 that works great. The best part is so much of the square footage was under used or not used at all. Having unused space felt so wasteful to me, and much of the house felt like "dead space". Now, I feel so happy because every room has a purpose, looks lovely, and is being highly used. We also had a lot of nice art that was not properly presented, and now the new arrangements Michele advised have made the collection look terrific and really beautify the spaces. Michele nailed how to furnish and use a very difficult, narrow loft area. It is now my husband's office. He loves it, and I love that he is not working in my main space and spreading his papers about. Michele also figured out how to blend our two very different styles (he likes masculine, traditional, heavy leather and antiques ; I like Shabby Chic and white French Provincial). I had thought that would be hopeless without starting over with all brand new, which I couldn't do. On top of these great results, MIchele is a perfectly lovely , gracious, and generous person. She is truly a joy, and great to work with. Thank you, Michele!

Awaken Interiors helped us design our entire home and we cannot say enough positive comments! Michele was able to understand our style and combine that with our needs to create an amazing home! Michele helped with artwork, furniture, draperies and accessories. She has so much talent and is able to create extraordinary rooms. She is able to work on a small or large budget in any style. She has a nice balance of guidance and autonomy. Michele is very punctual and sticks to a strict schedule which fit our personalities perfectly. She also has computer software that is able to show a completed room and what certain options will appear. Michele turned our house into a home. We give her our strongest recommendation.

Michele with Awaken Interiors has the ability to visualize exactly what each room/ house/ space needs to reach its own potential. At the same time she listens and incorporates the clients desires into design planning. Our latest project was returning an 1880's 3 unit apartment dwelling to a rehabilitated single family house. The exterior of the house is restored. The interior , completely furnished, now sparkles. The paint colors, drapery and fabrics are traditional but not stuffy. The lower level has industrial feel but blends with the main and upper floors. Michele meets deadlines and budgets while working cooperatively with suppliers. I could not have done this project without Michele's expert advice .

Michele has helped my husband and I with a variety of different projects including window treatments, granite and solid surface selection, tile, paint colors, and accent pieces. We are currently working with her on our nursery and we couldn't be more excited! She is fantastic at seeing the big picture flowing from room to room as well as attention to beautiful detail. Michele creates inspiring, multiple-option idea boards offering expert advice while incorporating our own personal style and tastes. Thank you Michele and Awaken Interiors! We look forward to the current project and those to come.

Michele turned each room in our home into a beautiful, cozy, naturally warm and inviting space to live in. She always was timely, precise, organized and beyond professional, yet so down to earth and pleasant to be around. Having the opportunity to work with Michele in collaborating and bringing my vision to a reality was a pure blessing. She goes above and beyond to take your inspirations mixed with your personality to bring your masterpiece to life. She works hard at each job, but wants to get to know each client on a personal level as well so she can really formulate the best outcome for each project. Not only does she take what each client wants into perspective, but she also uses her knowledge and expertise to optimize the best possible solution for each and every aspect of completing a room or project. Nothing ever gets left unfinished when it comes to detail. She always adds the final finishing touches until a room is absolutely perfect and flawless. I will continue only using Michele for any future projects because she always seems to amaze me and inspire me with her ability to transform a room into a pure work of art.