Frequently Asked Questions . . .

HKWS is based in Los Alamitos and serves Long Beach, Seal Beach, Cypress, Lakewood, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, and the surrounding Orange County and South Bay communities.

If you're just outside that range, ask anyway. Some projects are worth the drive, and we’d rather tell you honestly than have you assume.

A decorator works with what's already there — paint, furniture, textiles, styling. An interior designer works with the structure itself: layout, circulation, plumbing and electrical locations, cabinetry, lighting plans, and construction drawings. Decorators change how a space looks. Designers change how it functions. HKWS does both.

We lead with layout, because that's the order the work has to happen in. A kitchen with a beautiful backsplash and a bad work triangle is still a bad kitchen. But furnishing isn't something we hand off at the end — it's a full service on its own, and plenty of clients hire me for only that. A living room start to finish. A house full of empty rooms after a move.

Most people come to me somewhere between "something isn't working" and "no idea where to start." Either one is a fine place to begin. The process runs in clear stages, so you always know what comes next and what it costs before you're committed to it.

1. Discovery call. A brief Zoom, just to talk. You tell me what you're hoping to do, I ask some questions, and we both get a feel for whether this is a good match. No design discussion yet — this one is about the project and the people, not paint colors. If I'm not the right designer for what you're after, this is where we find that out, and I'd genuinely rather say so than take on work that isn't a fit for either of us.

2. In-person consultation. $375, invoiced in advance to hold the time. This is the first real working session, and where most of the momentum comes from.

We walk the house together, room by room. I want to see how the light moves, where the traffic actually flows, how you cook, where everyone lands at the end of the day — including the things you've stopped noticing because you've lived with them too long. Most homes have a problem the owners have quietly organized their whole routine around.

You'll leave with a much clearer picture of what's possible, and I'll have what I need to build an accurate bid. Photos only tell me so much.

3. Floor plans. Layout options, with the reasoning behind each one laid out so you can weigh them properly. This is the stage that determines whether the finished space actually functions, and it's the one worth slowing down for. You'll see more than one direction, and we'll talk through the trade-offs together — what each version gains you, what it costs, and what it rules out.

4. Elevations. The detailed drawings: cabinetry, tile layouts, lighting placement, dimensions. This is the set your contractor builds from, and it's where the expensive on-site surprises get prevented — every decision made deliberately, in advance, instead of at eight in the morning with a crew standing there waiting on an answer.

5. Full service. Finish and furnishing specification, ordering, delivery coordination, and project management straight through installation. At this point I'm holding all the moving pieces so you aren't tracking eleven vendors, a delivery calendar, and three backordered fixtures on top of your actual job.

Yes, and the two roles aren't interchangeable. A contractor builds what's in front of them. A designer decides what should be built — layout, dimensions, finish specifications, lighting and electrical placement — and puts it into drawings your contractor can price accurately and execute without guesswork.

Without that, the decisions still get made; they just get made on the fly, on site, by whoever's standing there. That's where change orders come from.

I work alongside contractors constantly — several are close referral partners — and the projects run better for everyone. Your contractor gets a complete drawing set instead of a moving target. You get one point of accountability for design decisions instead of fielding questions you were never meant to answer.

Fit comes down to three things: whether your budget and your scope are actually aligned, whether the people making decisions are aligned with each other, and whether you like how the designer thinks. Portfolio matters less than most people assume — style is learnable, judgment isn't.

That's exactly what the discovery call is for. A brief chat on Zoom, no design discussion, no pitch. I'm finding out whether I'm the right person for this project, and you're finding out the same thing about me. Sometimes the answer is no, and that's a good outcome for both of us.

If it's a yes, we schedule the in-person consultation from there.

Yes. Alongside full service, I offer Designer Consultant work in 15-hour blocks at $3,750, purchased up front. You set the scope and I handle the parts you want handled — a layout problem, a finish plan, a single room, a second opinion before you commit to something expensive.

Clients who are hands-on and resourceful usually land in the 3–5 block range. Clients who want to lean on a professional more heavily — a new build, say — run higher.

The difference from full service is who's driving. Designer Consultant is client-driven; full service is team-driven.

Full service means I handle the project end to end: floor plans, elevations, every finish and fixture specification, all furnishing selections, ordering and tracking, delivery coordination, and project management through installation. I act as the retailer for everything specified, so the purchasing runs through my accounts rather than yours.

That last part matters more than it sounds. It means one person is responsible when a vanity shows up damaged or a fabric backorders — tracking it, replacing it, and adjusting the schedule. You're not managing eleven vendor relationships and a spreadsheet.

It also means I can source from trade-only lines you can't access directly, plus custom pieces made by local Southern California makers.

HKWS renovation design engagements typically begin at $15,000 in design fees, with kitchens being the largest investment. Smaller-scope work — single-room furnishing, or Designer Consultant hours for clients driving their own project — starts lower. Fees are priced by project, not by the hour, so you know the investment before the work begins.

What that fee covers on a renovation: layout and floor plans, elevations and the dimensioned drawings your contractor builds from, every finish and fixture specification, and coordination through construction. Furnishing is priced separately and covers furniture plans, all selections, custom pieces, ordering, delivery coordination, and styling on install day. Project management is monthly, and where it lands depends on how often I'm on site.

Worth keeping in perspective: design fees are a modest share of what a renovation actually costs. The construction and furnishing budget is where the bulk of the spend sits — and getting the design right is what protects it. A layout decision made on the fly, mid-construction, costs considerably more to undo than it would have cost to plan.

Every service tier is broken down with real numbers in our Investment Guide — Here.

Those are starting points, not quotes. The actual number comes out of the in-person consultation, where I walk the space, understand what you're really solving for, and build a bid around it.

Once construction starts, a full kitchen remodel typically runs two plus months.

We also account for additional time to procuring finishes — cabinetry, tile, countertops, and fixtures all have lead times.

Plan on designing before demolition. Our team can effectively plan a kitchen in 8-10 weeks. Drawings, specification, and ordering take longer than most people expect, and starting construction before that work is finished is the single most common way a project goes sideways — you end up making expensive decisions on site, under pressure, with a crew waiting.

Your total project budget has three parts: design fees, construction, and finishes and furnishings. Design fees are based on square footage and the scope of the project.

Most kitchens seen in our portfolio are approximately $150,000+ and bathrooms are $30,000+ depending on the size of the space.

However, we work across a multitude of price ranges. I'd rather help you set a realistic number early than watch you fall in love with a scope that doesn't match it. That's a real part of the consultation.