Marianne Ashley Designs

Marianne was fantastic to work with! She has such a passion for what she does. Her creativity and personality made for a great fit for a remodel that was pretty major for me due to a burst bathroom pipe in my 2nd floor bathroom that caused horrible damage to my kitchen and family room. She made the process so easy with design ideas & worked within my budget. I love my new space!

Marianne is a wonderful designer! We could not have accomplished what we wanted in our MBR suite without her. She listened to us and understood the style we liked. She brought us ideas we would not have thought of, but once we saw them we loved them. We are so enjoying the rich colors and the dramatic effects of the floor to ceiling drapes surrounding our “peacock”. There were so many detailed decisions that had to be made to ensure everything complimented each other, i.e. fixtures, flooring, wallpaper, paint colors, etc. Marianne helped us sort through and think through it all in a way that was not overwhelming, which it would have been without her help and expertise. It was also nice not to have to deal with the vendors when the inevitable snafus occurred. Marianne took care of everything to our satisfaction. Our guess is that the vendors want to retain her ongoing business, so they are more inclined to keep her satisfied, than if we were the ones working directly with them as a one-time customer. Plus she is able to get discounts we could not have gotten as a one-time customer. It was a joy working with Marianne and I hope we’ll be working together on more projects in the future.

We have been living in our gorgeous new kitchen for about 8 months now, and it still makes me smile every day. I am happy to recommend Marianne to designer your next project. She helped us transform a very dated and basic kitchen into something truly unique. She has a great eye for space and is a very talented designer incorporating both beauty and function into your home. Our kitchen space feels almost twice the size and makes our entire first floor feel like a completely different space. It’s open and contemporary while still feeling warm and inviting. Marianne really understood our style and our need for functionality. She has great ideas, great style and really knows the business. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and everyone in our family cooks. Our countertops were cluttered with appliances since we didn’t have enough storage. Marianne’s design added a lot of storage space and she even added “hidden” spaces for the appliance we use daily. We can still be messy, but we no longer have cluttered countertops which I’m thrilled about. Probably one of the things that keeps me smiling. She also incorporated so many unique and beautiful elements like a walnut floating bar on our island and floating shelves which really added the necessary warmth to the dark blue and cream cabinets. Marianne managed the whole project from start to finish and worked quickly to resolve any problems that came up. I also have to say she works with some amazing and very professional contractors who did a great job. We are very pleased with our kitchen renovation and will love it for many years to come.

Marianne did a phenomenal job and I highly recommend her for any bathroom or kitchen design projects. We used her help with our master bathroom remodel and her design ideas far surpassed what I could imagine. Marianne was full of ideas, flexible, easy to talk to and very knowledgeable it truly shows that she loves what she is doing. Thank you so very much!

We renovated a hallway last year. Any renovation Post Covid seems to be extra challenging. Marianne was there any step of the way to help us through. She was involved in a previous bathroom renovation , and there was no hesitation to ask for her help again. From helping with decoration choices (She is up to date with latest but lasting trends)to coordinating contractors (while the renovation was not extensive, there were a lot of people invoved which made logistics challenging). Without her help, we would probably still be hesitating about wallpaper. Marianne listens deeply, and always found solutions specific to our (old) home. She coached us trough many decisions. She helped us with a fixture choice, that we loved , but seemed complicated. It was complicated, but it was done and it has become the center piece. We love our finished hallway, and would definitely contact her again for new projects.

I am happy to recommend the work of Marianne Clifford for several reasons. Her well-rounded background in the field of design and remodeling prompted my husband and I to engage her services, and we were able to experience what that background brought to our own remodeling project. Her design work displays an outstanding combination of aesthetic sense and functionality. She is an artist, and our kitchen and half bath were her canvas. She knew how to increase the ease of use of our kitchen space while incorporating combinations of materials, appliances, and fixtures that transformed the space into a serene, beautiful place where we now like to spend the majority of our time connecting, cooking, working, and relaxing. I no longer have that “get me out of the kitchen as soon as possible” feeling. Now, it is a place where my husband and I spend time cooking, eating, and planning together. Marianne demonstrates high attention to detail and precision in her work. When I happened to open the microwave drawer in the island and the dishwasher door opposite, I was amazed at how I could easily do that with an inch or so clearance space. I knew that Marianne had been very precise in her measurements when she planned out the space. Her technical expertise afforded us a waterfall kitchen island with a butcher block eating space extending from the island with no legs supporting it, but rather hidden steel supports within. The look is clean and comfortable. Marianne’s industry contacts turned out to be tremendously valuable to us on this project--from sources for high-quality materials to finding a contractor with an amazing attention to detail and expert craftmanship whom we could trust implicitly to work in our home without us being present. Marianne guided us expertly through the process of selecting materials, considering the look that we wanted as well as the quality, durability, and ease of use of various products. Marianne managed the entire process, from ordering materials and appliances to scheduling contractors handing any issues that arose. Any remodeling job comes with its share of stresses, but Marianne was there to mitigate all of them. She listened to our goals for the project, which was to have a beautiful, state-of-the-art space to enjoy for several years before selling the home upon retirement. She designed and space with that goal in mind to make it fresh yet classic. My husband and I were so pleased with her work that we have engaged her services to remodel our upstairs bathrooms and master bedroom closet. Joanne M.

Marianne provided design and project management services to me and my husband in the finishing of our basement which included a very high-end bathroom, a laundry room and exercise room. Throughout the project, she really listened to and understood what my husband and I wanted and, also, anticipated needs we had not even thought of. Her suggestions reflected our tastes and made the design uniquely ours. She helped coach us through the many, many decisions that we would have never anticipated had we tried to do this project on our own. She helped us find wonderful contractors who we could trust and who did excellent work. She mediated and resolved issues with vendors which invariably arise with any large project, and my husband and I didn't even have to get involved or be stressed out. She stayed on top of all the construction and made sure the contractors understood everything. Marianne is very outgoing and easy to work with. We are extremely pleased with our results!!

Marianne was a pleasure to work with on our first (and definitely not last) home renovation project. She spent more than enough time getting to know my style, preferences and budget, and helped me make design and product decisions with confidence. We went shopping together one afternoon looking for additional paint options, but having asked my future needs in advance, she saved me time and money on my next project by having us look at flooring for when I’m ready. The contractor she found was fantastic, trustworthy, and sensitive of my time and schedule. The project came out beautifully! Marianne made sure to check in regularly to make sure I was pleased with his quality and timing, and we were able to make tweaks along the way without slowing things down thanks to her attentiveness. I highly recommend Marianne and look forward to our next project together!

Having lived in a few (mostly) older homes, we are no strangers to renovations. While most of them ended with satisfactory results, the process could be very stressful. So when we started to think about updating two small, outdated bathrooms in our current house, I wasn’t too anxious to get that process started. Marianne made the process very smooth. She is very personable and professional. She has all the tools and contacts needed. She is also a very organized and creative thinker, who is very respectful of her client's budget. She gave us enough time to make decisions but also nudged us gently in the right direction. As soon as we decided on a layout, she navigated us through the endless possibilities when choosing tiles, faucets, toilets, mirrors, and so on. There is an overwhelming amount of choices out there which can be daunting. We went shopping for materials and supplies with her and she always steered us in the right direction. The renovation itself had to be delayed a few months and took a little longer than anticipated because of Covid. She was available during the renovation process and communicated well with our contractor. This is probably the smoothest renovation that we have ever had, and are thrilled with the results. We highly recommend Marianne. Without her, the whole process would have been definitely more complicated and stressful. I wish I had known her earlier, but we will definitely contact her again as soon as we are ready to tackle our next project

Terri Sullivan I highly recommend Marianne to help in designing any construction project you might thinking about doing. She is insightful and is able to look at your space/ project and make recommendations. We were putting in new windows and doors. It is amazing how well it turned out and updated our house.

Last year, I flipped a house. And of course I decided to "go big or go home" and I took on a 3700 square foot $565,000 monster house. Long story - short: I completed the project and successfully sold it to a happy buyer. (Several of the profile pictures you see up there are from this house.) But I took a loss, and I probably have some PTSD from the experience. I probably should have started with a smaller house. One thing I do NOT regret is trusting Marianne with the design work. This was a huge project that I wasn't really ready for, and I couldn't have brought it over the finish line without Marianne's help. I knew there would be surprises. I knew there would be aspects of this project that were highly customized that I couldn't possibly anticipate. I was expecting to figure out the questions as we went along. Marianne had most of the answers ready for me before I realized the question needed asking. Her eye is impeccable, her budgeting-sense is razor sharp, and her consultative approach to the project kept me out of many pitfalls. In a very real sense, she acted almost as a Project Manager by proxy. If you have a renovation in mind, your first call should be to Marianne.

Marianne is fantastic! She's a master at her craft, easy to work with, and very professional. I can't recommend her highly enough and will definitely hire her again!