Lauren is definitely a talented individual, with a great vision for design. However, she sold us on buying "custom" furniture, because you "don't want to have the same furniture as your neighbor down the street". We didn't really care about that, but we agreed.. after all, she's the professional! I told her we wanted something chic, but comfortable, as this was for our main living area. Fast forward a few weeks, and we received all of our custom-made furniture. The sofa was not comfortable AT ALL! The material was so hard and scratchy. We found ourselves choosing other pieces of furniture to sit on just so we didn't have to sit on the uncomfortable couch! I told her that we didn't really care for the couch. She told me that I couldn't return it because it was a custom piece!! We had also ordered a coffee table from her as well. I told her the first time I saw it that I thought it was too small for our space. She told me we didn't want anything much larger, and to give it more time. So... I did. And we still hated it. I told her again that we really didn't care for the table, and would like to get something a little bigger. Her reply was that I had waited too long, and the return period had expired! The ONLY reason I had waited at all was at her recommendation that I give it some more time to see if it grew on us! Lastly, we ordered a set of chairs that are beautiful.. however, also the same uncomfortable material. I didn't make a stink about those because the pattern was just so cute! We get compliments on them all the time. However, I just received the Ballard Designs catalog in the mail today, and wouldn't you know it.. our exact chair pattern is on the front page. So much for "not having the same furniture as my neighbor"... and much less costly had I ordered from Ballard. When all was said & done, we learned a hard lesson. We'd rather have the same furniture as someone else.. than have furniture we paid thousands of dollars for that we cannot return (or try before we buy!). I did reach out to Lauren shortly after all this happened, and she replied that she would try to think of a solution and get back to me. I never heard anything from her again.