Design Images

Design Images did a wonderful job with our kitchen counters. Cindi was extremely helpful with granite selection, and Mike came up with some great design solutions for some of our unique issues (with new stove). We have had granite installed in three houses previously, and this was one of the best experiences. The fabrication/​install was fantastic, with book matched seams. The whole team was professional and polite. We look forward to finishing the rest of our house with them later this year.

We were remodeling our master bath and our contractor suggested we go to Design Images for the marble. I met Cindi and with her guidance I was able to find the exact marble slab I was hoping for. Cindi was so friendly and helpful and knowledgeable, she made the selection process a breeze! 6 weeks after coming out and measuring they were back for installation of my gorgeous marble vanity countertop which was even more beautiful than expected! I absolutely would come back to them for my next project!

I received an email from Unilocal saying that my review was flagged for not meeting their guidelines. Apparently I wasn’t specific enough about my experience here. I went in to match some travertine after calling and being put on hold then dismissed with a «You have to bring it in,» and click, they hung up. A few days later when I went there, someone yelled at me that I couldn’t park where I did. So I moved. Upon entering the store, there was a man on the phone. He ignored me for a few minutes until he was done with his phone call. I showed him my sample. He looked at it and said, «No, can’t get that.» No offer to look it up, no offer to try to match it, no offer to try and come up with an alternative. I got the impression I was bothering and irritating him so I left and went somewhere else where I was treated much more professionally.

Love! Love! Love! Can i just say that this was the best home remodeling experience, yet? When we first visited their shop they were the 4^th place we had been to. Mike and Cindi helped us define what we were looking for and were so incredibly gracious and knowledgeable and not the slightest bit pushy. We walked out of there with my husband and i praying that they were reasonable enough us to use them.
Imagine my joy when they were the lowest bid with the most options! And, our kitchen would only be down for 24 hours! Three weeks later, we have the most amazing kitchen, only 5 hours of demo and install and everything was cleaned up!
A 5 star experience! Thanks again Mike and Cindi!!!

Update: the owner just contacted me and threatened to sue me for leaving a bad review here. I think this says enough about his character.
Poor craftsmanship and extremely poor customer service. Beware.

Mike & Cindi of Design Images have an excellent selection, are fairly priced, and their manufacturing is second to none! I underwent a major remodel and budgets quickly became very important. Myself and my designer took the selected material for each space to three different local granite yards; Mike & Cindi beat all of their prices. Also, the manufacturing/​install of solid surface counter tops should not be overlooked! Craftsmanship is key because a botch job will quickly ruin a beautiful surface. The state of the art technology and manufacturing process really came through when my counters were installed. I have and will continue to HIGHLY recommend Design Images over and over again. Thanks guys!

Let’s get something straight right off the bat: Mike has some great machinery that does excellent CNC work. What that means is that he can take a template from a sink, or whatever other cutout you may need done, and perform it with near perfection. Furthermore, his edge detail is really nice too. The mitered corner edge profile he performs is some of the best I’ve seen in the business.
Here’s what makes me cringe when I hear a client say they found their granite at Design Images: the owner. Mike. While he is talented, and does excellent work — he’s also a condescending jerk. I make it a point to avoid the jobsite when he’s around. He cannot work with other people, he lacks communication skills when critical thinking is required to come up with a solution, and he’ll be happy to tell you you’re wasting his time if you need any advice on something that he doesn’t want to do. My parents had him install some granite on a bathroom remodel they did a few years ago. He told my mom she was an idiot, to her face, in front of my father. Wow.
SLO county doesn’t have too many fabricator/​installers that do the level of quality that Mike will do. But, I’d take ANY other vendor over him just so I don’t have to deal with his rude demeanor. When I do have Mike on one of our jobs, I intentionally schedule him when no other sub-​contractors will be around to prevent any scuffles. It’s a shame that he can’t focus on being a better team player.

Mike did a real nice job on the granite vanity top and tub deck for our master bathroom. He uses state-​of-​the-​art digitizing equipment to take the measurements of your layout as opposed to making templates out of wood slates like some other fabricators do. He uses CNC equipment to fabricate the slabs where others may be fabricating by hand. You can see much greater precision and quality in his work. He also puts more care into preparing and bonding the granite for the double thick edges of the slab so you don’t see the seam nearly as much as with other fabricators we’ve used where you can see the seam a lot. He promptly showed up to do the measure after we signed the contract and installed the granite in a timely fashion. They would have got 5 stars but Design Images has a fairly limited slab inventory so you kind of find yourself settling on something they have in their yard where you might have found something you really like at another yard. Mike expresses reservations about fabricating slabs that come from other yards, which I can understand, since he doen’t know what will be handed to him for fabrication and he would need to assume responsibility for it from that point on.

Great quality granite with wonderful workmanship. We chose our slab and the cut and they took out the old and installed the new in a half day. I would highly recommend them. I would use them again for future projects.

My experience with Design Images was disastrous. Mike is intimidating, rude and dishonest – after he has a contract with you. He does inferior work and will not return calls to finish work – except to threaten you! He installed a broken backsplash hoping I wouldn’t notice. I had to have another company finish his inferior installation! Be prepared for a major headache with your remodel with DL.