Core Interior Design & Boutique LLC — Local services in Downers Grove

I’m so grateful to have connected with Gretchen. It was a random set of Instagram follows that led me to Gretchen and it is one of the few times, I am thankful for that Meta algorithm. She is someone I can imagine on an HDTV show…or she is someone I imagine rejecting an HDTV show. She’s that cool!

My partner and I recently purchased a townhouse in the South Loop and though we were excited about the purchase, we got some design challenges with our new home and really wanted an expert to help solve the problems.

Though I got a bunch of recommendations from friends, none of their portfolios or personal sites really connected with me. I found Gretchen’s Instagram after following a NW Indiana vintage store that a friend recommended. I loved her photos because everything she posted from her home itself was so eclectic and she had some of my spirit animals posted. Vibrant, colorful, electric! So I reached out to Gretchen and made the connection.

Gretchen is the real deal, an authentic presence, and simply, a talented creator. I would highly recommend her to anyone who would love to enhance their space or just learn more about design, period. Hiring her is like getting a professor of design with you. She’s a highly trained and skilled interior designer, with a background in building, art, and textile. In our initial consult, she got down right away and started moving furniture, measuring things, and recommended some purchases of beautiful new and vintage furniture that would fit in with our decor. She helped us set our design priorities. All the while, she was folding little mini-lessons about design which I really appreciated. We came away with inspired and armed with practical recommendations. We felt after this just far more energized and calm about this new home stuff! We have only had one consultation with Gretchen but I hope to schedule more when we’ve actually done some of the work. Thank...

The entire Core Interior Designs team is incredible - and exactly the support we needed! Gretchen and her construction and execution team delivered top notch quality work products, pleasant to have in our home, excellent communication, and consistently did exactly what they committed to do exactly when they planned on it (if not earlier!). We’ve moved and remodeled a number of times and have never had a process go as smoothly as it did with Gretchen at the helm.

A little backdrop, we bought a newer home that is not our style and therefore didn’t need updates, but we wanted to make a few meaningful changes to make it our own. The house is modern farmhouse and we are more contemporary/scandinavian, and we were completely stuck at how to bring those together into something that both looks cohesive and makes us happy. Gretchen ‘got it’, supported some of the ideas/supplies we’d already committed to, and augmented around it with ideas, specialty resources (e.g., custom window treatments, stone, wallpaper), and the BEST CONSTRUCTION team we could have imagined.

Gretchen’s style is direct and genuine, and her ability to execute is second to none. It is clear she runs her business efficiently and balanced with her...

Gretchen is the best - I couldn't recommend her more highly. Gretchen helped with a quick color and design inspiration consult for a restaurant I was opening almost five years ago (which was super helpful), and then we just worked with her this past fall on practically a full remodel of our new house - full kitchen remodel, two bathroom remodels, master bedroom remodel, blinds/drapery/paint/floors throughout the whole house, etc. Sounds super cliche, but Gretchen helped turned our house into a home that we love. She is super flexible, allowing you to bring your own design intuition to the process if you like, or taking things and running with it as needed. She has lots of great design ideas to offer and options to consider. It was a pleasure working with her and her team - she GCd the whole project and everyone she brought into our home to do the work was super professional and better than we could have imagined - they did great work. I also think working with Gretchen was a great value and I think we got the job done more quickly than we could have with just about anyone else. Last but not least, Gretchen set us up with some awesome pieces from her shop that...