schemes & spaces

When we decided to go ahead with a full house renovation we weren't sure where to start. At first we thought engaging an interior designer wasn't for the 'ordinary' person or would be overkill though decided to go ahead and learn about the process. We met a few and after meeting Maria instantly felt at ease and have never looked back. The saying 'you don't know what you don't know' is true. The process was smooth and everything was seamless because Maria was expertly guiding us through each stage. The end result is a wonderful balance between style and function with a beautiful understated elegance. We LOVE what Maria has created and we LOVED working with Maria. This was our best decision and investment of the entire renovation.

I am so glad I found Maria to help us with the interior design of our house. We had finished renovating our house, but needed help with the interiors to turn our house into our 'home'. I had never worked with an interior designer before and I was nervous how it would go. I did not need to worry - we are beyond happy with both the process and the result. Maria genuinely listened and understood how we wanted to use our home and our style. She was able to push me beyond my comfort zone and found innovative solutions that are functional and look amazing, and fit within our budget. Maria was patient and gave us time to consider options, while ensuring we kept moving when I found it difficult to make decisions. I would highly recommend Maria and her team.

I was so impressed with a friend’s fabulous renovation I knew I had to use her designer, Maria from Schemes and Spaces. We needed to renovate 2 dated bathrooms and a dressing room. From start to finish Maria offered us excellent advice, with creative and exciting ideas. She really listened to our brief and supplied us with detailed plans and costings. The result was a finished product that exceeded our expectations. I love my new bathrooms and dressing room, they are luxurious, contemporary, stylish and functional. Maria was knowledgeable, creative, and responsive. She was an absolute pleasure to work with and is a true professional.

Needing to create some additional space in our apartment for working from home and growing family needs I was recommended by a friend who had recently used her for her recent home renovation. What Maria created was a beautiful mix of being functional and stylish and I could not be happier with the end result. She really took the stress out of it all. Not only that, she was a pleasure to deal with and went above and beyond to make sure the job was of the highest standard. I have already recommended her to others.

Maria has a brilliant eye with spaces and wonderful style in interiors. We wouldn't have been able to achieve the amazing results in our full house renovation without her, she goes above and beyond to ensure the best result. Maria has created timeless, beautiful and stylish spaces for us to enjoy. She's also a pleasure to work with.

Maria has helped me completely transform my humble townhouse to a luxury sanctuary. She has an impeccable design sense with colour, texture and space. Most importantly, she is able to accurately interpret the client's needs and translate that into a vision beyond even the client's own expectation. She is an effective communicator and works tireless behind the scenes with trades and suppliers to ensure no details are missed and the process is as smooth and enjoyable as possible. I unreservedly recommend Maria and thank her endlessly for a dream home come true.

We recently embarked on building a new home and required an Interior Designer to assist with the entire process. We met Maria and immediately felt a connection and decided to engage her expertise. Being a large home including outdoor spaces, Maria helped review everything from sanitary selections, floor-plans, lighting, appliances, colours, art, joinery and even all our furniture/decorative pieces to fill the home. Maria was extremely helpful, thorough, dedicated and even challenged us along the way. She has a fantastic eye for detail and shows through her passion for all things design! Her recommendations and selections were always spot on to our design brief and tastes. Maria was an absolute pleasure to work with and we would highly recommend her services to anyone looking to build, renovate or even redecorate, no matter how big or small the project. Her design flair, commitment and dedication to clients are among many of her strengths! We are extremely happy with our new home and Maria has made our house a home that is our sanctuary as well as being a stunning place to come home to. We will no doubt keep in touch and work with again on future projects. Thank you again Maria, an amazing job well done! :)

We have a small one bedroom flat in inner Sydney that we wanted to renovate. We loved the basic layout of the place but we needed more storage and a total revamp of the kitchen, lounge, bedroom and bathroom. But organising house renovations must be one of the most fraught processes in the world . It's not like buying a house or a car where you know (pretty well) what you will get for your money. So you have to put a lot of faith in a designer to understand what you want and deliver it. Maria certainly did this for us. From the first phone and email contact we felt a growing confidence that she understood what we liked. When she presented her final plans and mood boards to us we were equally impressed with the professionalism, the design and the choice of materials. When the renovations started she was patient with our occasional phone calls and emails to check things out or make minor changes. She used an excellent joiner, builder and plumber who did some great work. We are very happy with the final result. Maria and her team have managed to turn a small and shabby inner city flat into something that makes our jaws drop every time we walk through the door. We are very happy to recommend her.

Maria came recommended to us through a number of people, and we connected immediately. She is an excellent listener and in equal measure, interpreter of briefs! She also has fantastic ideas and isn’t afraid to put them out there. We engaged Maria to work on an internal renovation, of our 5 bedroom, somewhat dated 1970s home. Maria worked with us on the overall floor plan, including drawings and design - kitchen and bathroom(s) design, WIR, flooring and entrance/staircase. We’re very pleased with the outcome. Maria was extremely generous with her time and no request was too onerous. Her positivity was so highly valued through this renovation process. I would love to work with Maria again & highly recommend her!

I hired Maria at Schemes and Spaces to help me bring a tricky renovation project together. We have multiple small spaces over three levels that needed to work flexibly for a family of four. Even though we had renovated previously, I felt I needed some expert advice and creative assistance in order to bring my ideas together and having Maria on board certainly achieved that. Maria is so easy to work with and really listened to what we wanted. She delivered on our budget and brief and was flexible adapting to our ideas and choices along the way. Her extensive industry knowledge and great interior design flair meant we were exposed to concepts we never would have thought of, and connected to experienced professionals we wouldn't have known about otherwise. Maria has made such a wonderful difference to our project, the "WOW" factor of our completed home, ensured it works with our lifestyle and is a true reflection of us as a family.

Maria is an absolute pleasure to work with. Not only is is just a lovely person to be around, as a designer, she is thorough, meticulous and has a sharp eye for detail. I've worked with her on a few projects now and her commitment and dedication to her clients is second to none. She is creative with great ideas and has a wonderful eye for colour, putting together some beautiful and unusual colour palettes. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her!

I loved working with Maria, from the first time we spoke to set up initial meeting, right through the almost 20 months to completion. Believe it or not, I found Schemes and Spaces on Houzz. We had just committed to our renovation and started browsing in Houzz. We loved a job she did in Leichhardt and we made contact. We hadn't even finalised plans when Maria and I got started. She was incredibly helpful at reviewing plans and layouts and when it came to the interiors, she understood the design vs practicality of family living that my husband and I both sought. We completely renovated and restored a Victorian terrace and we could not have done it without her.