Renaissance Design Consultations -

Marney Craig

I've now hired Sam Jernigan to assist me in remodeling and redecorating three different homes of mine; my residence as well as my two vacation rentals. The first was in 2012 for my newly-purchased Victorian cottage in downtown Nevada City in setting that up as a vacation rental. Having no experience with that era I needed help and Sam provided much more than that. She was amazing. And the house turned out completely charming and beautiful. So, when I was redoing the home I had just purchased in Marin Co. after living there for 8 years as a renter, I called Sam again. And once again, she was really wonderful. She is hugely talented, has a wonderful sense of color and design, comes up with great ideas and suggestions based on the space, the structure, your personal style, and has just an intuitive sense of what will work. I used virtually all of her ideas in finally making my longtime residence truly feel like "my home" and can only say that everything she suggested worked so well that I feel like I am living in a completely new house, yet without major remodeling. The house was completely transformed by her strong sense of color and design.

A very helpful resource used for that project was her cool way of digitally altering photos of my own house so I could test drive different exterior ideas, various multi-color paint schemes, a French door I wanted to add & different sorts of courtyard materials. This allowed me to effectively see how ideas she was suggesting would actually look in the most realistic way possible. These photo renderings of hers really put my mind at ease as I weighed my options, streamlined the whole process exponentially, and also gave me the confidence I needed to implement my decisions. Her ideas creatively brought to life the more European feeling I was going for, what a magical makeover!

So when it came time to invest in the painting of my multi-story vacation rental in Hawaii I turned to Sam once more. She again used this skill of hers in altering pics of that house to "show" me various color scheme options, just as she had for my Marin house. Once more, her input and ideas were such an asset, and the results were once again beautiful in creating what now feels like a "new house" there too. I simply would have not known where to start if having to figure out how to address the painting of that home's complicated architecture on my own.

Over this multi-year span, Sam has also been such a pleasure to work with. And she takes the time to explain her suggestions from a professional design perspective in such a way that they make perfect sense. I highly recommend her for any project.

Maria Paintner

From one professional to another, I would highly recommend Sam Jernigan with Renaissance Design Consultations for any of your design needs. She is professional, helpful, knowledgeable, and has a great eye for design. She will make sure that the whole process is a wonderful experience from beginning to end. I can always get a hold of her, or she responds in a timely manner. She is a joy to work with and I have enjoyed helping her clients. Maria Paintner Account Manager with ProSource Wholesale.

Colleen DeVere

I would stay clear from Renaissance Design. I hired her for a home remodel. She was as nice as can be in the beginning. Don't be fooled. My experience is she sent long, long emails that took a huge amount of time to wade through (she charged me for every one of those emails). I asked her to shorten her emails to no avail. Three weeks into buying the house and working with her I secured a tiler and needed ideas for at least one of the bathrooms so I could put the tiler to work and not loose him to another job. I asked her on Friday for at least two design ideas by Monday. She agreed. On Monday she told me (in a long email) that I was rushing things. She did not send a design as promised or any remodeling ideas. In the meantime, I went to a tile store and within one hour had a bathroom design and tile picked out. Turns out the design help was complimentary. Because she did not perform, I terminated her services. She billed me for all those long emails, with no progress on the remodel and then refused to refund the remaining retainer. I had to take her to small claims. I prevailed and to date she has not paid the judgment. To add insult to injury, I asked her for the measurements she took of the master bathroom (I paid a $90 travel fee and hourly rate to come out to measure and design). She sent me, literarily, a sheet of paper with the width and length. Something a six grader could have done. She is a con artist in my opinion.

Sam Jernigan responded to this review by disparaging me, her customer. Imagine that! Additionally, I took her to small claims and prevailed. She did not show up. She did arrange for another hearing, however, I did not prevail because she did not show up to the hearing, I prevailed because the Court agreed with my argument that she should have returned the remaining retainer amount after I terminated her services. After Court, I posted a poor review because I told her that I would 1. take her to small claims and 2. write a poor review if she did not return the money that was owed to me. I don't typically write reviews but I am a person of my word. If you don't believe my review then check out her reviews on yelp. Same problem as I had.