I’ve had so much lovely feedback on my lovely new therapy room. Every client has commented on the lovely colour and how calm and soothing the space is.
We are very pleased with the service Clara Bee provided – from the initial planning stages, to helping us find a builder in budget, to designing the new kitchen, and – crucially – to project-managing the work. It was the biggest building project we had done – and Trevor’s steady hand overseeing everything was hugely reassuring throughout. As is the case with all projects, not everything went to plan – but Trevor was brilliant at keeping everything on track (and budget!). The project was finished in time for us to move back home for Christmas.
We are delighted with our new kitchen – it’s modern, bright and very useable. Clara Bee helped us to ensure everything we wanted in our new kitchen is there – lots of hidden cupboard space, a beautiful worktop and a greatly admired turquoise splashback. We now have plenty of room for cooking, entertaining and for our toddler to run around in – exactly what we were hoping for.
Clara Bee project managed it all and recommended all the suppliers thereby removing stress and hassle for me. The end result is stunning.
The house was rented out almost immediately for 2.5 times what it had previously rented for.
I can’t recommend Clara Bee more highly, definitely a job well done.
It has been a real pleasure to have Claire and Trevor manage the works in our house. They have made the whole process incredibly smooth and stress-free, which was particularly welcomed as our family with young children lived in the house during the works. Always on top of things, they made sure that we were aware of all the possible options at hand and went an extra mile to guarantee a perfect end-result.
We are thrilled with our refurbished home and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Clara Bee to anyone wishing to conduct works without the chore of coordinating different trades, timing, snagging issues etc. Thanks!
Rachel’s tight project management left us safe in the knowledge that everything was being looked after and nothing fell through the cracks. We will certainly use Clara Bee in the future.
Forever grateful…
I have recently finished an extensive, 18 month, project with Clara Bee involving the full refurbishment (and extension) of the ground floor, exterior and garden of my house. I knew from early on that I wanted to work with Trevor and Claire – i’d spoken to Trevor previously about a smaller project, and while they weren’t involved in that, i knew that they were the right people for the bigger piece of work further down the road. The two most important things for me, particularly for such a lengthy project where you spend a lot of time together… you can’t help but get on with them, and you genuinely feel that they are as personally invested as you are in making your project as successful as possible.
On the project management side, Trevor’s support throughout was absolutely priceless. His attention to detail and understanding of all aspects of the design and build process are exemplary. He sees and understands things that the ‘layman’ client would have no chance of spotting. This saves enormous amounts of time, and therefore money. They have a number of recommended contractors and suppliers that they have previously used, but also link in with new ones that you may bring onto a project separately. I was rarely around for much of the project, and Trevor’s ability to coordinate across upto ten different contractors working on various different aspects of the project all at the same time was invaluable. I genuinely dread to think how much longer and how much more costly it would have been without that support and expertise.
For the interior design, more than anything Claire helped me make sense of my own ideas. I was relatively hands on, but somewhat of a novice and she helped me both experiment and make sensible decisions. Again, the attention to detail was terrific, and Claire is wonderfully tolerant of being dragged round various shops, looking at endless samples.
I couldn’t be happier with the end result, and that couldn’t have happened without Claire and Trevor’s support and expertise. They’re terrific fun to work with (very important over that length of time!), and are more than worth the investment. I would highly recommend Clara Bee.
I chose Clara Bee as one of my friends had used them for their house refurb and I really liked the results. Both Claire and Caroline came to the first consultation and they were both friendly and professional, giving me lots of ideas upfront of what we could jointly achieve together. I was keen to make sure that we did not go overboard budget-wise but Caroline reassured me as to a rough estimate of how much the entire work would cost and was happy to share how many hours she thought the project would take, and therefore cost.
I was very pleased with the overall finish of what we achieved and the process used to get there. Pinterest boards were new to me, and I am now a convert, and I loved the collaborative way of choosing fabrics, wallpaper and paint colour. I also liked the fact that you don’t need to use the workmen recommended by Clara Bee. If you want to use your own painter or carpenter, that’s also fine, although their carpenter was execllent.
In the end, we had three rooms completely transformed in the house. The old nursery was converted into a study, the kids’ bedroom into a den/guest room and the attic, into a fantastic boy’s bedroom. This makes a big difference to the way that we use the space in the house as each room is now fully utilised to the maximum. Thank you Clara Bee!
It’s been a very positive and productive experience working with Claire and Caroline. Our home was in need of refreshing so the brief was to re-paint and re-carpet throughout, declutter spaces and re-upholster furniture in the main reception rooms. Claire is a master of colour and led me gently out of my comfort zone into a more imaginative pallet than I’d have dared venture into on my own. She listens to what the client needs and runs with that, keeping to the brief but throwing out fresh and imaginative ideas. They are persuasive but not pushy, know when to challenge and when to reassure. They are efficient and demand exacting standards from their excellent network of trades. Ever- attentive to detail, Claire noticed a pile of children’s drawings lurking in an upstairs room and encouraged me to get them framed. They now hang magisterially in the study – I wouldn’t have thought to do that without her. Caroline produced a budget at our second meeting and kept to it; the business-side of the project was handled efficiently and professionally. As a team, they’re communicative so you always feel supported and are extremely good at project management and client handling (including daughters and pet rabbits)! A daunting interior design exercise turned into a fun, upbeat and hugely enjoyable experience with wonderful results.
Thank you Clara Bee!
“My flat certainly feels like a real home now. I’ve gone from not wanting to spend any time there to not wanting to leave”