Susan Mackenzie Interiors

Susan recently helped me redo my older home that had been a rental for years. I had a limited budget and a short period of time to finish the project. The house needed a complete facelift and then staging prior to going on the market. I have been a real estate agent in CA and OR and have worked with many wonderful designers over the last 15 years, and Susan is one of the best I have ever had the joy to work with! She has superb design and communication skills, and an amazing ability to find lower cost options and put everything together to make every detail in each room look gorgeous. Inside and out, from the front porch to the back yard entertainment area, Susan helped me plan and choose paint, flooring, recessed lighting, fixtures, etc. and then helped me shop in person and online for the furniture and countless accessories, art for the walls, area rugs, etc. for the entire project. Susan was also an invaluable resource for multiple projects such as painting an outdated stone fireplace and adding a fireplace mantle. She referred me to expert resources in her network when I needed help, and she gave me support to do things I could do myself. Susan saved me thousands of dollars and the home turned out better than I could have ever imagined. The end-result was so much nicer than expected. I was actually able to list the home at a higher price. I highly recommend Susan’s services whether you have a small or large project. She is an immensely talented decorator and always a pleasure to work with.

I hired Susan to help us with our office space in Medford, Oregon. We moved into this new office space a couple years ago and it has never felt "done." The final finishing touches had never been done, so it looked barren, the walls were empty, and it didn't feel warm and inviting. Susan was great to work with and came to visit several times. She has excellent Feng Shui knowledge and shared her ideas freely with us. She wrote out an extensive evaluation of our office and had lots of suggestions to improve. She also did a presentation for our office staff on how to bring Feng Shui into our homes, which was very informative. She is an engaging speaker and fun to work with. The final results were transformative for everyone in our office! Our front foyer is now very warm and inviting and has beautiful artwork. Our kitchen is so much more enjoyable to be in with all the clutter removed and beautiful art on the walls. We now have a water feature which adds peaceful sounds of flowing water. We can't thank Susan enough for her help with this project.

Susan is great to work with. We purchased Graber cellular shades from her for a room that we were renovating. It is an older home with quite a few challenges for making the shades work properly. We wanted to keep the original woodwork around the windows and some inward swinging windows with handles that created issues. Susan was able to come up with solutions that worked out great. We really enjoy the shades and have noticed a difference with controlling temperatures in the room that we didn't have prior to installing the shades. Thank you Susan.

Susan did a great job for us. We were limited on space but had big plans. Susan help get through the process with very detailed ideas and suggestions. In the end our office and master bedroom remodel came out better than expected. Good job Susan!,,,,

When we moved to Southern Oregon from Southern California, we also moved from desert to forest and had no stylistically compatible furniture to bring for several rooms in our new home. The previous owner had left an old phone directory and I was fortunate in which I was fortunate to find Susan's Interior Design ad. The biggest challenge was the great room which has a high ceiling and is dominated by a massive stone fireplace. Figuring out how much furniture to have and how to arrange it in this huge open space was going to be an issue; also, I wanted feminine but not fussy or frilly furnishings that could soften yet complement the heavy lodge style of the space. I had some pictures of styles of sofas and chairs that appealed to me - Susan found some gorgeous fabrics and working with a local upholsterer had two sofas, two club chairs, and two small wing back chairs custom built. These pieces were then used to define different seating/use areas within the great room. She also found a very handsome and unusual "sofa table" - we purchased two and did not pair them with the sofas, but placed them under the windows that flank the fireplace where they call attention to the beautifully landscaped back yard. The final challenge was a piece of art work to place above the mantel...we looked and looked for a painting or sculpture or wall hanging that would do justice to the space; finally Susan connected me with muralist Janet Gogue who created a beautiful visual ode to the Rogue River and the flora and fauna it supports. Everything Susan promised was done well and in a timely fashion.

When we relocated our office we asked Susan to help with the interior decoration. We wanted a warm and welcoming space for our employees and our clients. Each employee had an opportunity to decorate their own work space. They loved how Susan made it easy. They enjoyed meeting with clients in their offices. Her interior decorating skills are exceptional. We turned a dark office space into an inviting place.

I moved back to the Rogue Valley after living in Arizona for many years and rented a house in Grants Pass. I wanted to make the rental feel more like my home. I feel like I am color challenged and wanted some help personalizing the space. I hired an interior designer who suggested painting all the white walls with a complicated color scheme and wanted me to do involved window treatments on all the windows. Not only were her design services expensive, but her suggestions would have been very costly to implement. Then Susan was referred to me by my clothing alterations seamstress. Susan agreed with me that those ideas were impractical for a house I was only renting, and helped me find other ways to express my design sensibilities. One thing Susan noticed was that I needed new cushions for my dining room set and she found the perfect fabric that tied in with the rest of my decor and had them fabricated for me. The chair seats are an unusual shape and we had a few problems with the fit, but Susan stayed on the fabricator until they were perfect. She also helped me find several area rugs that energized the bland flooring. The best part is that we have had a lot of fun doing all those things and we've become good friends.

I just wanted to let you know how happy we are with the Graber cellular shades you helped us with! They are doing just what we wanted, they bring softness and warmth to the rooms they are in and help keep out the harsh sun. I really like that we were able to get the top down/bottom up functionality at no additional cost, we use that feature quite a bit when we want light but still want some privacy. Also your ideas about light filtering/privacy in the master bedroom were just right. The "bay" alcove with windows and french doors would have created lots of problems if we'd tried to do individual window/door covers. The proposal to just create a single large curtain over the entire alcove worked perfectly. We were able to get the privacy and shading from the neighbor's yard light as well as introducing some lovely fabric to soften the overall appearance of the room. I appreciate the time you spent with us on figuring out what would work with our lifestyle and our house and helping us decide how the shades could complement what we already have. They are perfect!

Susan was referred to me by my upholsterer when I was looking for someone to slipcover my custom made sofa I hadn't yet found the fabric for the sofa, but I ha some unusual textiles that Susan made into throw pillows for me. Then I wanted to faux paint my bedroom walls and asked Susan if she could do that...she said yes, but only if I worked with her (faux painting not being part of her normal interior design repertoire). In the process we became friends and had so much fun we decided to form an Interior Design business together. We worked together for 4 years having a great time beautifying other people's homes...and yes, I did get my gorgeous slipcover, but only after we formed our business and had access to many designer fabric lines where I finally found the perfect fabric. Susan is a true artist. She sees color and pattern differently than most people do. Seventeen years after our initial meeting, we are still good friends. My life has gone through many changes since my retirement from our business, and I recently sold my home and downsized to a smaller living space. My style has completely changed from very formal with subdued colors to colorful, light, and lively. Of course Susan is the person who helped me create my new look. I was going to sell my slip-covered sofa since is is too big for my new living room, but agonized over letting it go...I finally decided to turn my new guest room into the TV room and place the sofa there – it's big enough and comfortable enough to sleep one guest...this decision makes both Susan and me happy.

Susan, I am so glad I took your advice to paint my great room in a warm color rather than the cool colors I was thinking of. The grayish tones would have been gloomy during the winter and, now the it is summer, the warm tones fairly glow. My husband, John, even commented that the wall color looks nicer than before...actually it was more like “huhnn? brighter…snort…grunt…better than white...ok.” I think that means he approves. :)