Live Interior

This designer has both the magic touch and the vision to help you complete any project. With her guidance, you will be able to achieve a cohesive result which not only honors your preferences (and dreams) but also pays homage to the time period and feel of your home. She walks her talk - "Your home should tell a story, your story".

I’m a bachelor with a busy life and I needed help! I had made a major investment in a new home. My old furnishings just did not fit the space. New home, tired, flat looking furnishings. Not a great combo. Michelle of Live Interior was referred to me. We talked and quickly figured out that her design passions and my ambitions for my space were well aligned and we agreed to move forward. Michelle went through a process of offering options, listening to me, coaching me where I needed to be coached and adapting to my feedback. The fact that she was listening to me and not selling me stuff was so important because it helped me to trust her when I was on the fence on something. I really appreciated that. It took more time up front, but the time investment led to better choices, better decisions. It was so worth it. Michelle laid out her vision for the space in an image that allowed us both to work from the same view, see how things would and wouldn’t fit together. She challenged me to do some things I was not going to do, but they were the right things to do. Never did I feel like I was being sold things I did not want or need. Michelle’s eye for detail and filling in the gaps with those little things made a huge difference. The space looks fantastic. It’s warm, masculine and welcoming. It’s a great space to have friends or family over or to spend a Sunday watching football games.

Michelle worked with my wife and I to upgrade our 1600sf 1938 brick "bungalow" in Roseville. This was not a simple task as most of the house was original to 1938 requiring a healthy dose of patience along with a combination of the right contractor and Michelle's scrupulous eye for design. In all we replaced the electrical and plumbing, re designed the kitchen including appliances, entryway, and laundry room all with custom cabinetry. Painted, re finished existing original hardwood flooring, and introduced tile floors and whole wall tile backsplashes. All lighting and ceiling fans were changed. Construction time was 9 weeks. Michelle worked with us well in advance of construction to ensure we had the entire project taken care of and appropriately timed. Michelle clearly communicated beautiful design ideas along with artist quality conceptual visualizations suiting our tastes with the goal of increasing our homes functionality and retaining the original charm all with constant vigilance of the budget. She proved to be an artistic designer and project manager. I found working with Michelle on all aspects of this project to be a wonderful and rewarding experience. There is no substitute for well-conceived design. I will never look at lighting, paint, colors, handles, faucets, cabinet hardware the same again. My review alone will not capture how dramatic and life altering this project has been to my family, check out the before and after pictures for the full effect. Michelle helped transform our house into a home and in doing so helped transform how we live. Thank you for everything Michelle! Let’s do it again.

Michelle is delightful to work with. She is warm, honest, and has a good eye. We did not experience any of the stuffy designer attitude that I've seen with other decorators. She helped us create a living space for our family that was functional and bright. We wanted to utilize the bigger pieces of furniture we already owned and she was able to help us incorporate them into the design. Her suggestions for paint, curtains, lighting and accent pieces have been great.

Michelle is extremely professional and knowledgeable in every aspect of design. She pays attention to the smallest of details. She worked on the design of our interior and our backyard. We went from a household who rarely used our backyard to entertaining quite often. The fire pit keeps us cozy and provides the perfect atmosphere for conversing with our friends, neighbors and family. We provided her a budget and she stuck to it. This project would never have made it off the ground if it weren't for Michelle.

Very thankful to have found Michelle for our kitchen remodel! I had been referring to the project as a "face-lift" because it was not a complete tear-out and rebuild. However, with Michelle's expertise and attention to detail it looks like an entirely new space. Michelle worked with us to stay on track and on budget as well as work with some existing things that were not changing. She helped us select just he right finishes - paint, furnishings, lighting, details - to give us the look we want and get the most bang for our design buck! The old space was heavy, dark and dated. The new space is light, bright and airy. We love our new kitchen and it is now such a creative, inspiring and functional space for our busy family!

I recently consulted with Michelle on interior paint colors, furniture placement, and lighting in my new Chicago home. I have always had an interest in design and yet have met very few designers who I felt confident really understood my design aesthetic and could help guide me in making these kind of decisions. I was very intimidated at the prospect of choosing paint colors for an entire home, but Michelle helped me choose a palette that represented the feel we were going for in our new house and also complemented our furniture choices. She has an excellent eye as far as how to orient furniture and what types of pieces should be added/subtracted from a particular room. In addition, she also understands how to use lighting to create mood and ambience in the house. I plan to continue to work with Michelle as I move to other stages of home decorating.

As a successful realtor in a competitive market, I work closely with sellers to showcase their homes in the best way possible to get top dollar! To make this happen, my first choice was always Michelle Baime at Live Interior. Michelle would help homeowners rearrange, refresh and update their living spaces. Sometimes it was a simple tweak, other times it was a much more involved project. And, most clients were so pleased with Michelle's work that she wound up designing their new homes, as well. Michelle is s great listener and always keeps her eye on the end result. Michelle has worked with my clients across a wide budget range and communicates well to keep the clients happy during the process. I would recommend Michelle and Live Interiors for anything from a one-room makeover to an entire house overhaul.

Michelle worked with us on converting a bed room into an office with built-in desk & closets. She also worked with us on redecorating our main living area including the 1st floor powder room and repainting the entire house interior. Michelle did the original drawing for the built in desk / cabinets for the entire wall of the room. She chose the wood stain and worked with us and her carpenter on the final design. Michelle also helped us pick out the new colors , after living with off white walls for 20 yrs ,for the house interior. The biggest challenge was picking out a bath color to match a dark blue tile floor and finding a new vanity sink and mirror as well for the powder room and her choices were spot on. She also convinced us to change the kitchen floor to oak and we should have done it years ago. At the end She gave us suggestions on reframing art and restaging some items. It was easy to work with her as she was able to bring a few good choices and not overwhelm.

Michelle has a tremendous eye for style and design and had great and creative ideas for us to improve and transform the most used rooms of our house. She was very easy to work with and always kept our budget constraints in mind and, most importantly, we love the results! We would use her again in a heartbeat!