Take 2 Design Management

We are so pleased we chose Take 2 Design Management for our bathroom renovations this spring. The help, advice, understanding and efficiency made it so comfortable for us to work with their team. Our project was on time, on budget, and a great job! They took such a big load off our shoulders! Leah was professional on all accounts, and meticulous on her care to detail.
We highly recommend the services of Take 2 Design Management .

Bev and Randy Desaulniers

Christine and her team were absolutely amazing to work with. In short, they were professional, fun, responsive, flexible and creative. We always felt like they had our back.

Our renovation involved an addition to a century-old home, and we left some of the existing character, so we needed help with blending old and new into a cohesive design. Christine and Jan had a major impact from their first visit, where they saw us for just a short time living and working in the existing house, and gently suggested some design changes to the architectural drawings we'd had done previously. This ending up creating a whole office space that we hadn't initially planned for with no change to the footprint. They demonstrated their functional and creative design skill on a macro level in this way, and also their detailed design skills throughout the project on all the many finishes and fixtures they helped select and order. Christine presented ideas, but also listened to ours and quickly got a sense of our preferred style choices, while offering constructive honest feedback. We are back in the house now and love the results.

Beyond design, Christine was essential in helping us work with our contractor and trades. It was our first reno, and we quickly learned that it is a chaotic process with the need for clear communication among several parties, all while being organized yet flexible when challenges arose. Christine was vital in bringing this to our project. She somehow walked a line of calm and energy, and was a sounding board whenever we needed it most. She explained the basics, advocated on our behalf and alleviated stress.

I can't recommend Take2 Design enough.

We worked with Christine, Janet and the Take 2 Design Management team to undertake a renovation in our home. We wanted to add a bedroom to the upper level of our home by creating two smaller bedrooms out of one large room. My family and I couldn't be happier! Christine and Janet were patient, helpful and extremely knowledgeable about the entire process. They provided us with a set of reasonable design options, lined us up with excellent contractors to obtain quotes and were exceptionally prompt in responding to my texts, emails and telephone calls. I highly recommend Take 2 for all of your design needs and I look forward to working with them again.

Christine and the Take 2 Design team led the renovation of our new home over the six weeks prior to our move in date. They told us that they could accomplish expanding our kitchen, replacing cabinetry, building a butler's pantry, replacing the hardware flooring and more within the six weeks - and they truly delivered! It sounded impossible but they got it done on time and budget. Christine was fantastic to work with in terms of her communication and her ability to manage a large team of tradespeople. When something didn't go as planned, Christine went above and beyond to fix it for us, ensuring that we didn't bear the cost. We would highly recommend her to anyone looking to do upgrades to their home!

We recently connected with Christine and her team at Take 2 when we were completing an interior gut renovation of our house (to the studs).

We chose Christine after speaking to a number of designers. For us, Christine's down-to-earth personality (she did not have any ego), her focus on finding the right design choices for us (as opposed to for her portfolio), and her ability to find alternatives when budgets became tighter toward the end of a project (when they inevitably do) made the process of designing our house virtually stress-free.

Working with Christine and her team (Janet, others) felt like working with a partner who truly wanted what was best for us and our renovation. Take 2 had established relationships with suppliers that worked with our tastes and budgets which helped us create a beautiful home.

When our house was completed, friends and family commented positively on the taste of the decor, and that it closely reflected our personalities/likes - we feel that this is what distinguishes an excellent design team from a run of the mill one.

We are incredibly grateful to Christine, Janet, and the other team members who worked hard to design our dream home and would recommend them to anyone looking for a true design partner.

Christine was referred to us through close friends and upon our first meeting with Christine it was clear she would be able to add incredible value and assist us to recreate our living space.

Christine introduced fabrics, furniture, colours and ideas which we could not have come up with on our own. In addition, the contractors she recommended were terrific, timely and remained on budget.

We highly recommend Christine and her team to anyone considering a renovation project as they are an absolute pleasure to work with!

To say Christine and her whole team are amazing is not saying enough. We could not have made it through our complete gut reno without her - she was the MPV of the entire project and we are so thankful that we found her. A shout out to her team Jan and Leah they are also amazing!

At the design stage, Christine listened carefully to our vision for our home and translated that into beautifully selected finishing options, while being cognizant and respectful of our budget. She provided an extremely accurate finishings budget at an early stage - we had no clue what things cost but she did. She helped to keep us on track throughout by guiding us to splurge items versus things we could safely save money on, all while being conscious of her own time.

Once construction began, Christine kicked it into high gear. She is so much more than a designer, she is a project manager who continuously advocated for us with our contractor, subtrades and vendors throughout. Christine is always asking how can I help? and she means it. She is not afraid to advocate on her clients behalf which took a lot of pressure off us in many stressful situations. Our project had numerous unforeseen issues and setbacks, and Christine was invariably the one keeping us calm, coming up with solutions, making calls and just keeping things moving in the right direction.

Christine's motto is if its not right, its wrong and she truly means it. We had an issue with our wallpaper installation and Christine knew it could be better and had it removed and re-done. When our new fridge was damaged during delivery, Christine jumped into action and was on the phone with the manufacturer before I even knew what was happening, getting a solution in place which included a rental fridge for when we moved in. She is calm in stressful situations and knows how to motivate people to do their best work.

From a construction perspective, Christine also provided much needed help with our HVAC and ceiling light layout, and provided renderings for built ins that helped us see our vison come to life. She understands how the day-to-day construction works and when we were coming up against tight timelines at the end, she made a list of all outstanding tasks and helped organize trades to ensure that we could move home on time.

It is so clear that Christine cares about every project - she makes you feel like a friend, not simply a client, while also ensuring that the end result is exactly what it should be. She has found her calling in this business and I couldnt recommend her more.

Alex & Joel

I own a residential construction company and work with many different Interior Designers, Take 2 is my Favorite! These girls will advocate for their clients and make sure that the design isn't compromised during construction. Also their projects look amazing. I'm always excited to find out when Take 2 is going to be on the project!

Take 2 Design Management, and specifically Christine led us through the most stressful decisions involved in completely gutting and designing our new home. Not only did she design what we wanted, she designed what she knew we needed. Each room was carefully curated with each of our family members in mind. Christine also advocated for us, in her dealings with vendors, subcontractors and trades. The home renovation process is not an easy one but Christine made it much simpler and even borderline fun for us. We wouldn't have been able to get through it with our sanity intact, without Take 2 Design Management - and specifically Christine.

- Kim & Greg, Beaches Area, Toronto

I met Christine through a referral, and it was love at first meet. I had already interviewed several designers, but the gut feeling I got from Christine was different, and I loved the ideas she proposed after hearing our dreams. And then I saw some of her previous work, and I knew that Take2 Design Management was the best choice for our project!

So why did we choose Take2 Design? It was a mixture of gut feeling, seeing examples of her creative work, and her ability to capture our dream and make it visual for us.

Christine made our dreams and our vision become our reality!
I am a very visual person, but someone who could never pull together the materials need for a bathroom, or a den.
Christine created boards for us and made the changes we requested, in order to really put together our dream home! She truly listened to our needs and our wants.

Christine managed our project like a superstar!
A lot of communication with our contractor was done via Christine. I knew she understood our dream, and having her problem-solve with the contractor and trades directly allowed us to enjoy the renovation process more. Christine also advocated on our behalf when something wasnt going quite the way we wanted it to with certain trades! Shes not afraid to get for her clients what they want and deserve!

Christine spiced things up too!
She pulled me out of my design comfort zone when choosing finishes, and made suggestions that added a little design flare to our home that I never would have thought of, or probably wanted, without Christines touch and encouragement.

Christine was very easy to talk to - she listens! She truly cares about her clients and the transformations of their homes that they have put in her hands!

My only regret is not bringing her on sooner - before our architectural drawings were complete! I am sure that she could have and would have suggest other thoughtful design ideas for our home!

Our home will continue to need changes over the next few years, and we plan to have Christine help us with all of them.

We have developed such a beautiful a relationship with Christine, one that did not end when the contractors hung up their tool belts!