ML Interiors Group

Such a hugely disappointing experience and now I can’t even get replies. I hired BID to redo a bath and laundry room within a provided budget. We also included a potential redo of a tiny 4’ x 5’ bath with minimal changes for the future. I was told budget would not be a problem—that they would use junior designers and skip the 3D video to save money (which was disappointing since budget wasn’t that low), but I was willing to move forward. I provided very specific requirements and goals for each room and after waiting almost 3 months, received a simple book with a limited number of pictures and outline drawings of materials and simple design—many pics directly from my Pinterest page) and a few samples. Several requests, included adding space saving option in bath & area for hanging clothes in laundry were completely disregarded. After ordering my own different materials/samples and providing BID other ideas to meet requirements & that fit my warm/natural design requested (vs the black & white design delivered), I again waited a long time for a new simple booklet. Note that with each delay in hearing back from BID, prices are climbing & resources shortages causing likely delays. The booklet also had missed changes and pricing sheet had incorrect photos for materials listed. For this I was charged about $7500. I tried to provide cost saving ideas & some final material changes and was invoiced another $2400 after being told I would receive no charges for the changes being discussed and after stating I did not want any more chargeable work. I wrote to complain and was told in an email that I was invoiced by mistake. On the final changes I’m once again told prices have increased yet again and delays are to be expected. So I decide to cancel since 1. I feel I was originally misled that they could stay within my budget, 2. The unexpected significant price increases and construction delays should have allowed me to cancel as I was receiving a different product than promised, and 3. I could never get a response on multiple requests for options on doing fewer selected items quickly. I was told I could would be free to pick and choose to do whatever I wanted from the quotes. After requesting to cancel, I’m hit with the somewhat expected $1500 cancellation fee, which a better company would have forgiven based on the crazy construction market we’re in and not being able to deliver what was promised. But I’m also charged an additional $2400 in invoices for making material changes that I was told we’re not due earlier. Because b.i.d. demands a significant deposit at the very beginning of the project before ANYTHING is done, they can keep whatever amount of that money they decide they want. Since they have my money they are now ignoring all my emails where I spell out exactly why I feel I should not be charged the final invoices. Now they’re just completely ignoring me so I will be filing a claim with the Better Business Bureau. Please choose another company that does not demand so much before any work is done and actually includes an estimate or budget in the contract that they agree to stick with instead of just “we’ll see what it adds up to later.” $11,500 later (and still haven’t received remainder of deposit) and all I have is a thin booklet of a few pictures & 3 samples they were willing to leave me. The CEO is very visible during the sales pitch and follow up calls to sign sign sign, but has refused to speak to me ever since. That definitely says something! Beware!! —— Update: Many comments from the owner are untrue. I prepared two spreadsheets for them showing my initial request and noting things that were not met. I have not cashed the check & the company is well aware of the additional amount requested so unsure about the mention of a lost check as this is in no way relevant It’s a complete lie that they’re just a call/email away. They stopped responding to my phone calls/emails the minute they canceled my project without ever delivering my design book! Still waiting as of Nov 2022.

RESPONSE BACK TO BEYOND 5/22/23: It is clear that Beyond didn’t truly read what I wrote as they misunderstood multiple points. Firstly, the shower was not affected in our pipe burst. Beyond renovated our bathroom including the shower and they should have properly secured/caulked it and tested it out. Secondly, we did not get an additional $8,000 bill from Beyond, the additional 8k came from necessary work that needed to be done to make up for Beyond’s really poor work. It was a blessing in disguise that our pipe burst because our new contractor had to redo much of Beyond’s work. It would have been a safety issue not to. Lastly, my below review is not defamation nor am I teaming up with anyone to write this. It’s based on my experiences and mine alone, and any tarnishing to Beyond’s reputation is being done by themselves alone for poor work, shady billing, and more. UPDATE AS OF 5/16/23: we finally got into the back house that Beyond had worked on, and turned on the shower to find that the shower was never caulked so the bathroom floods when the shower is on, and the hot/cold plate was installed upside down so hot is cold and cold is hot. 🙃 We chose to work with Beyond on our office renovations after getting to know Juliana in the community. She was personable, kind and supportive, and had seemingly great customer service and processes up front. We saw our project in 3D, got to see and feel materials, and received a complete and thorough break down of budget. If we had only known... A year and a half later, and we are now dealing with issues from the Beyond team. 1. Time: the project took more than double the amount of time, and not for any specific reason except that their team is incredibly slow and requires a lot of micromanagement. In fact, their team is always changing over (tells you all you need to know right there) and is always out of office - seriously, no one is ever working. 2. Over promises: The Beyond team made numerous promises to us in the beginning that they failed to ever care about after the fact. And many times they would straight up lie to us. One example is that we needed separate permits for our back house. They told us that they spent over 40 hours working with the city to get the right permits. We found after the fact, that no one on their team ever filed for permits and we actually didn't even have permission from the city to be renovating yet. 3. Never accepting any wrong doing: There were numerous times that we had to reach out to Juliana to share issues we were having with her team and our account lead, beyond mistakes that we found, and no one ever owned that a mistake was made. Juliana always has an excuse, explanation and way out of a situation where she/her company is in the wrong. One example is that her team selected doors for our back house. We approved them assuming they would have done the correct architectural measurements and math to determine if the doors they were choosing for us fit. Turns out they didn't work and $8K additional in work had to be done to make them open and fit in the space. When we questioned this, they told us it was our fault for having a building that was unique to doors fitting and billed us for the additional work. 4. Fraudulent billing: she took our money up front and did not deliver on the project, while also finding reasons to continue to charge us. We were told we would receive about 5K back after our project ended from unused funds. When we reached out to close our project and receive our refund, we got a bill for a difference of $3,800. We were told that we owed on many unpaid projects (including the time spent pulling permits which never actually was done and the doors as noted above.) 5. Poor work: Our new contractor that we had to hire from a pipe burst is now redoing work that Beyond did. Our contractor went as far as to say "it's the worst work he has ever seen." And now we are out $8k in additional costs needed to repair the bad work! Please do your due diligence before hiring beyond.

7/7/21 Update: Juliana, the owner, did not call me ONCE after the issues began - Even after she she has read all the correspondence on their delays, and writes below that she is available to discuss! The claim they will go "beyond" to please clients is patently false. They couldn't even do their core job. Where do I begin? Short answer: Run, don't walk away from this disaster of a firm. I knew when I first engaged them-"Where there is smoke there is fire". However, having the recommendation from a designer I trusted, and no other options I could find with a reference, I moved forward and I mistakenly used Beyond as a GC,. The owner, clearly into sales over delivery, told me to begin engagement with them, they would do a 2 hour consultation with me - At my expense, to best understand my needs, and help provide ideas to me by the end of that meeting. That 2 hours, which I was charged for, was a 2 hour selling session where she talked about her firm, its services, found upsell opportunities to design -more- areas of the house than what I wanted, and offered 0 ideas towards the project. This is why as soon as they left and their staff sent me a contract to sign, I was appalled! I looked for 4 months to find someone I was willing to commit $ to, but could not find an alternative option that I could trust - So only THEN I moved forward, telling everyone I knew 'I don't want to do this, given how they started this relationship, but I don't know another "reliable" GC.' What a huge mistake! Nearly 4 months later after signing, and almost 2 months after they were supposed to be done, I have an unfinished office, with lots of work still left to be done. They have charged me for hours and hours of absurd PM hours where they had little to no value, and I have to find a way to complete a project Beyond was never competent enough to complete. They have a 'Compliance Manager' (ever heard of a firm this small with such a title? It exists because of their deceptive business model, and so they hide behind this individual), who offers no value except: 1) Sending suspension notices, and 2) Sending reminders to pay invoices 5 hours after she sends the invoice. She literally does not reply to email, nor even forward emails you send her to her fellow colleagues to get actioned. More on the business model - They collect an $8,000 "retainer" BEFORE they start any work or even show you what materials they may use! Yes, yes, it is my fault for even moving forward with them knowing all this, but as I said, I just didn't have a path forward with an alternative vendor who I could 'trust' (woops) with such an involved project. They charge you for PM hours -every- month, even with no timetable or commitment to speak of, they don't respond to emails or calls (don't let them tell you otherwise - I have plenty documented), and they hide behind excuses that are irrelevant to the issue at hand (citing COVID for supply chain, when there is not a product involved but simply scheduling time with one of their subcontractors). And on top of all that, their quote is absolute price gouging - If you knew what margins they were trying to make on the build out of a home office... I thought I would get that back in quality, but we will never know, as they walked away from this project without it being complete, and with no answers as to their continuous delays. Once they were delayed 5 weeks, and would not even provide a timetable to completion or even a date of return for their subcontractors to come back to complete portions of the work, I told them I need a specific timetable. They terminated the contract within minutes and left my home like a construction site. They have no answers for their negligence towards the project. You are a GC, you are overpriced, and you bill garbage time - You are responsible to get the job done, Beyond. You did not. Beyond is an absolute fail at all levels. Stay away, and find someone else.

Back in 2017 we had our living room redone. At that time Juliana and Beyond Interior Design were beginning to build up a client base. Since my wife knew her family, she decided to give her the business to help out. Since our home was built in the 70's it had a lot of wood, paneling and custom molding. We wound up painting all of that, although I was totally against it. After it was all finished, I couldn't believe it. It looked great. It lightened up the room to my surprise. At that time, BID was fairly small so Juliana had time to shop with my wife for colors, furniture, fixtures, pictures, etc. It turned out great. It looked better than I ever thought it would. Everyone loved it. Fast forward 4 years, when it's time to do the kitchen. BID has grown. Juliana has other people working for her and her client base is growing. When it came time to start, we already knew who we were going to call. She came out with her associates to take measurements, photos, and everything else. Using the latest in design technology, they came up with some great renditions of the new kitchen. We decided to go with one of them. The plans were made, the contractors set up, and the work began. Like any big remodeling job, certain situations would arise unexpectedly but they were resolved. Some changes were made along the way that did affect the work schedule, but they were not in the initial plan. We set a target date for completion. There were still a few items not completed by that day, because of supply chain issues, but they would not affect the first use of the kitchen, and were completed soon after. It turned out great. Everyone loved it. It cost us more than we really wanted to pay but we were both ready to retire and figured it's now or never. If we retired first, I don't think it would have ever happened. Would we recommend Beyond Interior Design to someone looking to renovate? Without question we definitely would! --

We are beyond thrilled with the design that Michelle Lynne and her entire team, especially Megan, created for our home. What began as a purchase at my son’s school’s fundraising auction for a few hours of design consultation, for what I hoped would be a recommendation for new kitchen flooring and perhaps some upgraded furniture placement, turned into a full-scale reimagining of our entire main living space — living room, kitchen, dining space, entry hall and main bathroom. As the project and our vision expanded, Michelle and her team listened to me and my husband and redesigned our home to maximize and make more efficient use of our space, honoring the mid-century bones of our house, modernizing and upgrading it to ensure that it would grow with us for the next 10 years as our son finishes school in a neighborhood we adore. They were so creative and thoughtful as they suggested structural and design changes that incorporated our personal style, along with favorite furniture and art, into a clean, open, modern design that was brought to life by contractor Jesus Arrona of Arrona Painting and his team. Every step of the way Michelle and her team were professional, imaginative, detail-oriented, flexible, kind, and fun to work with as we moved through the project — which finished on budget, even getting us into our home before the holidays. Every time I sit down to relax in the living room or cook a meal (something I’m doing a lot more of now!) in the gorgeous new kitchen, and stop to think that this is *our* functional, fabulous, modern, updated home, I’m so happy and I know this feeling will last for years!