Emily Cathcart Designs

I delayed my bathroom remodel for a long time because I knew I would need the help of a designer and I dreaded the thought of going through the process of finding one after having done so for my kitchen with just OK results. My dread evaporated after talking with Emily. Even with checking references and viewing portfolios, selecting an interior designer involves a leap of faith, much more so than choosing a skilled trade contractor. With those, I pretty much know what my desired outcome is and can see and read about their work that matches my needs. But there's still an element of risk hiring a creative as I, myself may not know what I want and it takes someone with the skills to transform my nebulous feelings into a result that I could never get to on my own. I am, in effect, commissioning an artist. To that end, Emily possesses a combination of natural talent wedded with practical building methods and proven design principles tempered with the practicalities of cost and time. I trusted her to create an outcome that by myself can't articulate nor have the talent to do so. My bet paid off. Like a diamond cutter, Emily took my rough idea and turned it into a high end, tasteful yet practical room. Her expertise goes beyond colors and styles into the feeling and utility of the room. Emily's knowledge of architecture, framing, plumbing, lighting and construction techniques informs the entire product. The phrase "detail oriented" is casually thrown about but Emily takes that to a frightening level. Specifically, - She took my basic color idea and created a "mood board": a palette of complimentary colors, finishes and textures for the floors, walls and cabinets. - Prototyped the initial design with software that allowed me to visualize my finished space with the new elements. - Produced detailed drawings for each wall and plane for hand-off to my contractor. - I took advantage of her representation of a cabinet maker to fabricate the vanity. She coordinated the entire process of its design, manufacture, delivery and installation at no extra cost. This was a tremendous value add and relieved me of the anxiety and complexity of that part of the remodel. - Plus she is a disciplined manager, setting clear goals, expectations, timelines and boundaries and demands the same from all the parties involved in my project (including me). - She illustrated this discipline and professionalism by even delaying meeting with me until she was able to install and learn new design software. A career in interior design was not an afterthought or a choice for Emily. It chose her. Like tile whose color is incorporated throughout instead of on the surface, Emily's native talent is of a designer, going back to her childhood. Much like a natural prodigy, academic and professional training only enhanced her natural skills of interior design. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to be able to take advantage of this combination.

I hired Emily Cathcart Designs to help me coordinate selections for a new build. She worked with me on every aspect of the selection process, from layout design for individual rooms, electrical layout, flooring, cabinetry, cabinetry hardware, lighting, lighting layout, door hardware, paint selections, trim work, plumbing fixtures, and external stone, stucco, and paint selections. Emily is a consummate professional and a gifted interior designer. These services facilitated meeting time-sensitive deadlines, while keeping the project within budget. Emily's keen eye for detail and creativity brought together the continuity of design throughout the home for a beautiful finish. Her services were invaluable and cost-effective! I highly recommend Emily Cathcart Designs for small or large projects.

We recently purchased our dream home after retiring to Fort Collins, CO—a home with gorgeous mountain views, but with an outdated kitchen that did not encompass the beautiful scenery from the outside. We interviewed several kitchen designers to find someone up for the task and chose Emily based on her equal appreciation for design and functionality. She did not disappoint us. Her design plan took advantage of every inch of the space and we ended up with not only the home of our dreams but the kitchen of our dreams—it is now the centerpiece of the house. Emily worked with us on our ideas but she also firmly called on her experience to prevent us from making bad decisions. She has amazing vision—there are so many stunning elements, like an island with a raised bar top to enjoy the mountain view or watch TV from the great room, and an eating area with an 8’ oval table and a wall-to-wall built-in bench situated underneath a side window—it is all stunning and very functional. Emily also has a great sense of where to invest and where to save on budget. For example, she recommended a custom hood over the stove and it is a piece of art! At the same time, she found gorgeous granite slabs for less than what we budgeted. In all, she went above and beyond to find the right elements to make the whole thing come together at a reasonable cost. To boot, Emily is well connected in our local community and in the Denver area. She sticks to deadlines and is an excellent communicator. With all the stress and unexpected glitches that come with a renovation, Emily was our anchor. We made a great decision in choosing her and it paid off tenfold. I highly recommend her!

We worked with Emily on our kitchen renovation and while we knew basically what we wanted to do, we realized we needed a kitchen designer to configure our island and eating area. We found ECD through Houzz. Her style and great reviews caught my eye and she was able to meet with us within a couple weeks. Emily took into consideration our ideas, budget and style and came up with great suggestions and designs. We really enjoyed working with her and have recommended ECD to others. We would definitely work with Emily again on future projects.

Emily Cathcart Designs (ECD) transformed the cavernous, bland, impersonal space we lived in into a welcoming and inviting home that we love being in. From lighting to hardware to tile to colors to fabrics Emily's expertise has shown through in our home and given a non-custom home a custom feel. Her professionalism and dedication have been unparalleled. Selecting Emily Carhcart Designs resulted in an end product far beyond what we could have done on our own, and our main living space all ties together and we didn't waste money on poor, short sighted choices that didn't fit in with other purchases we'd made. I would highly recommend ECD!

Emily was the designer for our complete kitchen renovation --she was assigned to us by the cabinet makers that we selected. I'm not sure how the whole process worked but Emily took the time to listen to our needs and wants, allowed us to make decisions that were important to us, but made excellent suggestions and had ideas when we had none. The results of her knowledge and talents are in an amazingly beautiful and functional kitchen. I really enjoyed working with Emily and would definitely use her again for future projects. She was very easy to get along with and enjoyable to work with.

Emily Cathcart Designs designed our award winning kitchen. After meeting with contractors and reviewing plans it became clear that we needed a true kitchen designer. Emily's ideas were completely unique to any other. She exceeded all our expectations. Emily is able to envision the best use of space to transform any room. Emily takes pride in her work and creates a space you can take pride in too . She is delightful to work with.