REVIEWS

Our mid-century house had never been updated and we knew a renovation could turn it into the home we wanted but had no idea how to make a viable plan. It wasn’t functional for our family and all the finishes were very dated. We needed a master bedroom suite and another bedroom for our teenage son. We were referred to Lisa & Gary who immediately saw our vision and more. They envisioned ways to reconfigure the house to make an open floor plan on the main living level including the dining room, kitchen, and living room. They also reconfigured the lower level to add a large family room with access to the yard and a bedroom for our son and another full bathroom. They created a laundry room and a wine cellar and even figured out a way to add an exercise room off the garage while still keeping storage and the parking space. They even put in a custom garage door that makes the curb appeal even better. The heating system was also upgraded as was an entirely new concrete slab with waterproofing for the lower level. Lisa Violetto and their team redid the narrow steep stairs going to the lower level and created a beautiful staircase while giving us mudroom access from the garage. They merged rooms on the main floor to create the master bedroom with a large bathroom, a huge walk-in closet for two and a separate home office. The floors were redone up and down with contemporary hardwood flooring, all new windows and new doors and a new gas fireplace with a dramatic tiled surround and a recessed TV niche above the fireplace with the heat from the fireplace bypassing the TV so it could be mounted there. They also redid the exterior of the house to waterproof the entire house as the stucco was failing. Lisa selected the perfect color scheme inside and out. Lisa helped us select all the finishes from tiles, paint colors, flooring, window treatments, lighting fixtures/plan to bathroom fixtures and even new furniture. Gary led the construction team who did impeccable work. We couldn’t be happier with our “new” dream home and the full services from Gary & Lisa addressing everything from planning, permitting, implementation, troubleshooting any issues and finalizing the entire process.Read More

From start to finish, Lisa listened to my very personal and specific desires for my forever kitchen (I had waited 25 years for this!) and she, Gary and their marvelous cadre of professional crafts people delivered! Lisa and Gary provided excellent resources for purchasing every item from large appliances to the perfect cabinet hardware and Lisa took the time to walk me through every showroom to see and handle the products. They also ensured that every person who worked on my project was pleasant, professional and accommodating. My kitchen is "me" and I am extremely grateful to Lisa and her team!Read More

We love our condo's open space layout but needed help with interior design to give it the personality that would turn this beautiful space into our home. Lisa was strongly recommended by a friend, and we are thrilled with the results. After meeting with us and discussing the styles/vibes we wanted, she immediately got us and came up with a thoughtful plan with great suggestions that respected our budget. Importantly, she made it a priority to find the “right” pieces/furniture even if it meant a longer wait time during the covid pandemic to make sure to create the atmosphere we were looking for. Thanks to Lisa’s exceptional design vision and sense of esthetic, we honestly could not be happier with the results! When it came time for a bathroom remodel, we did not hesitate to reach out to Lisa and Gary. From the beginning to the final finishing touches, their combined expertise and knowledge about the renovation process, material and design choice and their attention to detail in every aspect of the remodeling project proved their commitment to excellence. The final outcome far exceeded our expectations. They created a modern and stylish design while maximizing the functionality and space of our small bathroom. We now love our bathroom, thanks to the meticulous work of Gary and Lisa! If you are looking for help with interior design and/or remodeling, Lisa and Gary are a great team that we highly recommend!Read More

When we were ready to remodel our 1930s kitchen and adjacent small breakfast nook, we reached out to family and friends for a referral. Gary and Lisa were highly recommended - and after working with them, we know why! We are remodel newbies, so we were grateful for their expertise and general hand-holding. On our initial meeting, they helped in forming a vision for the remodel which included knocking down a couple walls, gutting both rooms, updating but also keeping the original feel of the house/adjoining rooms, and providing recommendations on modern appliances. When we were stumped on some of the important decisions, Gary and Lisa both patiently listened to our desires, threw out options and ultimately came up with excellent concrete ideas to bring them into fruition. Gary handled all the contractors and sub-contractors and communicated to us as needed for scheduling, questions to address. It made it very easy for us to speak about everything with Gary who was always very responsive. Lisa specializes in the design side of things, and she shared her ideas, listened to ours and helped us pick out awesome materials and colors. From the quartzite slab and cabinet colors to the matching ribbed glass for the kitchen window and kitchen cabinets (which allows light without compromising privacy), Lisa’s design recommendations were spot on. When an Irish knot tile piece caught my eye early on as it reminded me of our wedding design, she made sure that it got incorporated into the quartzite backsplash personalizing the space for us. By knocking down two walls, we have a much larger kitchen with a beautiful view of the ocean from the kitchen and dining room – but still have retained the separate feel and design to the dining room by creating a large open framed entrance. They also recommended a narrow island for the kitchen which has become the centerpiece for parties, informal family dinners or just hanging out in the kitchen, not to mention providing 6 extra storage drawers! Maybe one of the best ideas from Gary was to install two skylights in the kitchen – the natural light coming in has transformed the kitchen and this part of the house in general. In sum, we love our kitchen which has turned from rarely used to the most loved space in the house!Read More

TLDR: Lisa and her team have my full endorsement! They were flexible, communicative, and always willing to go above and beyond. Some background, I hired Lisa towards the beginning/middle of 2022. I was completely new to any sort of home renovation but was tasked with fixing up my family's home. After speaking with a couple designers and reviewing their work, Lisa was the clear standout. Her portfolio speaks for itself, and she was always understanding of my inexperience in the field (unlike many of the other designers I spoke with). I appreciate how approachable she made the entire process: providing one stop design at my home, discussing the pros and cons of different fixtures and hardware, recommending functional additions such as opening the kitchen into the dining room, and providing furniture options. The first couple months were dedicated to planning. I have a two story home that needed a complete kitchen and bathroom remodel, refinished floors, new lighting, better shades, more insulation, and a fresh coat of paint among other things. They took into consideration how I wanted a beachy feel for the bathroom and made sure the kitchen counters were not easily stained (we ran some tests with my family's favorite brand of kimchi). As a designer, Lisa also helped me select colors for the cabinets, walls, etc. She made the living room fireplace a statement instead of an afterthought with a beautiful grey, added depth to the kitchen with champagne handles, and modernised the whole place with an array of whites. After I approved the blueprints, steady progress was made. Gary, Lisa's husband, supervised everything, and would often come by himself to double check and re-measure things. If something was not done to mine or their standard, he would always address it. There were some delays due to COVID and the Canadian strikes at the time, but because of the robust planning we did prior and Gary's expertise, these were kept minor. I would also like to highlight how painless Gary made the entire permit process. This is what worried my family the most about a home renovation but Gary handled everything. He knows what is and what isn't up to code like the back of his hand, and worked out all the paperwork. I hardly noticed the inspection - it was so fast! The end result is something my family and I are proud of showing people. We often host parties for friends, more family, and Church members and I cannot count the number of compliments the house receives. We often get told that it looks like something out of HGTV and it feels like that for us too! So if you're looking for the same, I would fully recommend Lisa and her team!Read More

We've worked with Lisa and Gary for years on a variety of projects, most recently on an extensive remodel of our home in the Castro. Their work was absolutely stunning! Our house was completely transformed from a comfortable but dated and weathered home into a modern and shining refuge. It has been more than a year since they finished work, and we still come home every day to a home that continues to wow us. There were so many amazing touches, but the highlights include: -- They transformed our eyesore of a fireplace into an absolute showpiece -- gorgeous stone from floor to ceiling; it is now the highlight of our great room -- Our kitchen--oh boy, was that a disaster--it was a black hole for light; but Lisa's perfectly selected stone and backplash (along with tasteful and useful updates to the hardware) transformed it into a glowing feature of our home. Plus we now have boiling hot water on demand. -- Our basement was a depressing cave. Somehow, with not a lot of work by Lisa (a few targeted design touches, like the perfect rug that makes the room sing) it is now one of our favorite rooms in the house. A great place for guests to stay, for kids to play, and for us to get work done. Lisa and Gary were professional, friendly, and efficient throughout the whole process, and the designs and execution were perfectly tailored to our taste and budget. I can't say enough about the smoothness of the process and our satisfaction with the results. A+.Read More

I've been working with Lisa and Gary on a kitchen remodel project and water damage repair work for my condo in downtown San Francisco, and they have been wonderful. I have actually pushed the kitchen project to next year due to financial reasons for myself, and they truly could not have been more understanding, which speaks to how much they value relationships and lead with empathy. Since day 1 they have been kind and helpful. They helped me navigate my insurance claim to ensure I received a great settlement to cover my repair work. Lisa took me to pick out the right materials, taking time to understand my style through a shared Pinterest board. She gave me great advice on pieces that would clash or become outdated quickly stylistically. Both Gary and Lisa think about the owner's ROI when providing suggestions on what to invest in, which I appreciate. For anyone looking for partnership and guidance -- as well as the benefit of both design and build expertise in 1 family-owned firm, they are WONDERFUL. Highly recommend!Read More

I love my new condo - thanks to Lisa Violetto. I picked the condo for the location, space and the views. It was really modern, but also kind of like a white box -with very little personality. I knew it had great potential but I didn’t know how to make it happen. I hired Lisa to work with me and she brought the condo to life. Lisa listened to what I liked and how I wanted to use the rooms. She was able to keep to budget by making some existing pieces work with new ones. Lisa was able to find the best furniture pieces and accessories to bring the rooms together. She has a great eye for palette, finishes and texture and was very responsive to all my questions and ideas, sometimes pushing me just enough out of my comfort zone and the result was fabulous. I was so pleased with the results that I hired her to prep and update my 4 bedroom home in Noe Valley for sale. She made just the right upgrade choices to give the home a fresh modern feel and the resulting sale was more than I could have believed. She is not just talented, she is really committed to her clients and a lovely person to work with. She did a superb job on both of my projects and I highly recommend her!Read More

We hired Lisa and Gary to upgrade our home in the Miraloma Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. They knew exactly what to do, including a main bath remodel a year before we were ready to sell. The bathroom was gorgeous and we loved being able to use it. They did a superb job with all the upgrades such as fixtures, paint and flooring and lastly staging. The house sold for well over what we were hoping setting a new comp in the neighborhood. We found our new home in Sonoma but it was far from the dream home we wanted. So we hired Lisa and Gary again - this time for a complete remodel. They came in and immediately had great ideas which included opening up the ceiling and the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and opening up the walls in a hallway that became another sitting room - all connected. The large living room had an old funky fireplace which they designed with beautiful natural rustic stone and reclaimed wood mantle, carrying the reclaimed wood to shelving for a media center. Lisa found this stunning wood flooring that we used throughout the house. I had a vision for the master bath and Lisa found the perfect material to make a custom vanity and quartz countertop. We worked together to find all the right finishes in gold and theRead More

We love our newly remodeled house in Petaluma thanks to Lisa snd Gary, without them we would not have gotten through this. Their combined knowledge of the process and products, the design choices opening up a small kitchen and bathroom not only resulted in the house we love but made our lives so much easier during the renovation. Lisa has an incredible sense of style and design vision. She “got us” - what we needed in terms of function and what we wanted stylistically all while blending both seamlessly. Gary focused on the construction issues and both were focused on moving the project forward from sourcing materials we loved and getting everything ordered and ready for installation. They were there to make the on-site small changes so important to the outcome. The final touch of the paint colors pulled the entire project together. We love everything about our renovation and couldn’t be happier. Lisa and Gary are a great team.Read More

We hired Lisa and Gary to help us with a newly purchased 1933 home, that needed updates of all major systems, as well as redoing the inside and outside finishes. The project has taken a very very long time. Partially this was Covd, partially doing decision making long distance (Indiana to SF), partially having my niece living in the home and with a brand new baby not wanting any inside work done, and partially because Lisa and Gary are very popular contractors, and very busy. All that said, the work they have done has been fabulous. Lisa has an amazing eye for design decision making, and Gary and crew have the expertise to do craftsman-level work. We are very pleased with the results, and have received many compliments. We expect to use them for other projects down the road as well, and would highly recommend them to anyone.Read More

Lisa helped us transform our home from a comfortable, hodgepodge of oversized and mismatched furniture to a contemporary, elegant and peaceful space we absolutely love. Walking into our bedroom every night brings us much joy. It’s calm, serene and beautiful. And we are inspired to put things away, because everything has its place. Also, our bedroom went from the darkest room in the house, to the brightest room in the house (hello top down/bottom up shades!). We loved what we were seeing with our bedroom transformation, that we extended the project into the living room, dining room, and after we started sheltering in place, Lisa upgraded my home office. My husband had reservations about working with a designer, afraid that it would feel “overly designed”, not feel like “us", or emphasize form over function. But that is exactly the opposite of what happened. Lisa listened to our needs, got to know us, and provided excellent guidance, patience and design education (you don’t want “match-matchy’, you want pieces to “talk to each other”), to help us perfectly curate our space, that absolutely reflects “us”. In addition to the design project we needed some remodel work and Lisa brought in Gary for these projects. We refinished floors, leveled our driveway, replaced doors and hardware and had electrical work done. Gary is a collaborative contractor, and all the crews he uses are top quality. We highlight recommend this team!Read More

We have now done two projects with Lisa and/or Gary. The first project was with Lisa. She stepped in when I was halfway through a bathroom renovation and realized I was in over my head. She totally got me and what I wanted right away, and was able to help me design an amazing bathroom despite starting after renovations were already halfway done!! I still don’t know how she did it. The second project was much bigger, this time with both Gary and Lisa, and I had wisened up enough to realize I needed to hire them from the start. We turned half of our garage into a room addition, and once again they delivered an excellent result. Working with them was easy, pleasant, and as stress-free as a renovation could ever be. We are beyond happy with how the room addition turned out, and Gary went above and beyond to help us navigate the difficult path of obtaining permits, dealing with codes/inspections, and making high-value design and building choices with a mind to potential future renovations, and somehow could even do this during a pandemic. Lisa and Gary are professional, knowledgeable, and fun to work with. Do not hesitate to work with them for any design or constructions projects in SF!!Read More

We hired Lisa and Gary to get our rental house ready to sell and are so very happy we did. They handled the entire process, assessing where spending money would make the most return and supervising sub contractors to perform the work. Lisa’s staging was perfect. She’s a genius when it comes to creating an inviting space. Gary was great at communicating and quick to respond to questions. We ended up getting 11 offers on our house and acccepted one that was well over asking. I would most certainly hire them again!Read More

Lisa and Gary did an amazing transformation of our home in San Francisco. They work with talented, high quality contractors, source from excellent vendors and have loads of experience dealing with complex issues that you will find in older homes. It is always hard to live in a home while undergoing a renovation, so they made sure once started that the project moved along quickly. Lisa oversaw design choices and they were perfect. Our home is now a lovely blend of original features paired with modern sensibility and with a timeless design scheme that will no doubt pay off when/if we sell.Read More

We got $400,000 over asking for our house, no small part due to the expert attentions of Gary and Lisa. They are truly one stop shopping -- remodeling, staging, power washing the front and back, hauling away debris -- the works. Their taste is right in tune with local buyers. I was so pleased that I gifted them with a dinner at the restaurant of their choice!Read More

Lisa renovated and staged our condo for our recent sale. Throughout this whole process I was nine months pregnant with my third child. But Lisa made the entire renovation and staging process entirely painless. She has impeccable taste and provided thoughtful and practical advice. The staging was beautiful. We fell in love with our condo all over again. She did a great job designing and overseeing the improvements, and everything she suggested was reasonable and worth the cost. She is also very personable, and I feel like I gained a friend through the process.Read More

We are completely thrilled with the renovation project managed by Lisa and Gary. When I walk in my front door I still can't believe I live here. We live in a 100 year old home that we wanted to modernize and redesign to suit our love of cooking and hosting family and friends. Gary and Lisa had the artistic vision to change the layout of our house to achieve our goals, creating a beautiful and functional space for our family. Lisa and Gary understood our wishes and worked closely, creatively and economically on the project. Lisa and Gary were also flexible, willing to change the scope and direction of the project, welcoming our ideas and providing valuable direction and insights. Gary and Lisa are consummate professionals who are as dedicated to their customers as they are talented. Everything we envisioned they made happen. I highly recommend working with them in every respect!Read More

28th Avenue - Family friendly Sunset district home: This is the home I grew up in and we wanted to keep it in the family. The home was in original condition with an old kitchen and 2 very old bathrooms. We wanted a modern family home with a better floor plan and more bedrooms and baths. Gary and Lisa came up with a great design plan that not only increased our square footage but created more usable living space. They changed the floor plan by opening up the public rooms that created a “great room” which is rare to have in San Francisco. They also creatively converted lower level storage space into habitable living space for the house. Our home increased from approximately 1740 to 2320 sq.ft. They selected perfect finishes that were modern but timeless. Every detail was addressed and followed through. The end result is an open floor plan that connected a fabulous kitchen with the dining and living room, 3 full baths, a master bedroom suite with a walk in closet, 3 additional bedrooms, a family room, laundry facilities on the main level and a radiant floor heating system that also supplies endless hot water. They even took care of making a low maintenance landscaping front & rear yard. We could not be happier.Read More

We bought our lovely traditional stucco home knowing we would remodel much of the house. It had great bones but the kitchen and baths were in dire need of being redone. The stairs to the lower level were terrible as were the lower rooms. We wanted our dream house. We had worked with Lisa & Gary on upgrading our previous home for sale and were very pleased with their work, so we called them to do the remodel. We love to cook so the kitchen was a priority. Gary and Lisa listened to everything we wanted and came up with the perfect plan doubling our square footage and adding 2 master suites, a fabulous kitchen with a family room and office. With great planning we were able to live in our home during much of the work including working around our 2 kids and 3 cats!. Most importantly they transformed our house into our dream home. They were able to maintain the historical architecture and blend in the more modern finishes in the kitchen and baths. We love our house and are never moving!Read More