Merrill Michael Design Studio

Our new 3 bedroom — 2 bath condo in the Mission District of San Francisco was a perfect fit for us. This beautiful 115 year old building had been completely renovated by the developer with hardwood floors, professional-​grade appliances, and beautiful finishes. It is without a doubt, the most beautiful building in the neighborhood. There wasn’t thing to do except to move in. We realized, however, that some of the spaces would need to be re-​purposed for our needs. We were speaking with some friends about this and they recommended Michael Merrill’s services.
Michael’s initial visit was to determine what my partner and i needed in our living space: Using storage areas optimally, what was to go in those places, and the type of furniture that would fit in our home beautifully.
First order of business: The closets. Michael repurposed a coat closet into a mini workshop that was a catchall for tools, cleaning supplies, and space for the vacuum with plenty of room for over-​sized Costco items. As he advised, this would leave the closets in the two spare bedrooms free for linens and seasonal clothing (and my partner’s tennis gear).
Next project: The furniture. This is an area where people make huge and costly mistakes by purchasing furniture that’s nice but doesn’t fit into their space (think Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn). Michael created detailed drawings of our dinning and living areas complete with overhead light and electrical outlet placement. He presented us with several floor plans for furniture placement and the dimensions of the pieces that would best fit in those spaces. We were able to take these plans with us when selecting our furniture and there were no surprises when the pieces were delivered. They were a perfect, beautiful fit!
Although we didn’t take advantage of the full scope of Michael’s design services, we saved hours of work and a lot of money otherwise wasted on wrong furniture purchases.

I was referred to Michael through a professional acquaintance, and boy am I glad I didn’t come to Unilocal first! My experience with Michael was thoroughly positive, and I am completely pleased with my place.
Our first discussion was about budget, and he was more than happy to work with my recently-​a-​student budget. Over the course of our preliminary discussions, he helped me identify exactly what «look» I was going for, how to identify furniture that would fit with the unusual space I was looking to fill (while being flexible enough to work in other spaces in the future), and how to make my new apartment feel like home.
He helped me secure unique items at prices I would never have been able to get on my own (or at the very least not without significant time expenditure on my part), and he helped me integrate a few pieces of furniture I already had (even one or two IKEA pieces).
He was a pleasure to work with and was very patient with my constantly changing taste.
Having stated up-​front a maximum, non-​negotiable budget, thanks to Michael I ended up with a beautiful home when all I paid for was the furniture.

Working with Michael Merrill is like an education in the subtleties of refined taste with your own personal guru.
Michael’s talent is more than mere color and furniture selection & placement.
He is capable of creating a mood (or concept) working with space, materials, color, form, texture, and light which is unparalleled in its completeness.
If some spaces need to be structurally reshaped, or resized, he’s capable of designing out the entire project to maximum benefit
Your ideas will be elevated to a level of wholeness and discrete integration not before imagined.
The end product is a blended result that never appears contrived or artificial.
This is not «Plug & Play» furnishing, but uniquely individualized design; never repetitive, but never outrageous; appealing while discerning.
Fit, finish, fabrics, materials could all stand up to the closest inspection, but without ever calling the eye.
While definitely in the highest range, at every turn you will understand how and why you are getting «value» not available otherwise.
This is an «education» you will revel in living with.
The pride he takes in his work will be transferred to you in the pride you’ll have in your new environment.

I live in a studio apartment with high ceilings and an inviting atmosphere. However, I was hindered in my ability to efficiently function due to clutter, non optimal space utilization, lighting issues, and uncoordinated furnishings. That all changed after I met Michael. Michael listened to my issues and needs, assessed the apartment layout, constraints and assets, and developed an interior plan which transformed my critical living space (walk-​in closet, sleeping, dining, and office areas). Michael dealt with complex interior design challenges and demonstrated a broad knowledge of alternatives in furnishings and lighting. He expertly responded to my taste and budget guidelines.
Michael is a visionary designer and is able in a short time to assimilate a multiplicity of complex factors and present an innovative and practical design. His implementation was flawless with each detail executed to top perfection. He respectfully responded to my every concern and requirement, no matter how small.

Wow, I see some things never change or at least it sounds like the way Michael Merrill runs his business hasn’t. I wish there was a rating less than 1 star. This guy deserves it. I think he could teach professional con artists a few things. I hired him for a very simple project which he kept turning into a bigger and bigger project with some very good sounding ideas. The problem is the ideas never became actual work product in my home. He was good, however, at generating absurd, detailed bills for time he spent on ideas and discussing them with his staff and then sending very detailed invoices (as other reviewers have written he often sent it on very nice paper).)After several months of trying working with him and receiving over $ 10,000 in billing charges he had done NOTHING in my home except have a painter come in and paint 1 wall (in a color I told him I didn’t want). I too hired a lawyer to take legal action that wound up in an ugly legal dispute.
If you hire him I would definitely follow the suggestions by Rosemary to protect yourself — oh and be prepared to pay out the nose for padded bills and hidden costs you can’t even imagine.

This was a big waste of money and time and it’s still on going because I have to sue him. I didn’t get what I wanted and I got a charged a lot. MMD has disrespected me and my hard earned money and now I have filed a complaint in superior court for the balance due on my account.
I hired this man because I thought he was experienced. I’m a very busy physician and I didn’t have time to look for samples for flooring, fabrics and window treatments. All easy projects.
He didn’t really listen to the style I was going for and brought me all kinds of fabrics, colors and samples I didn’t like. For example, I got charged for a 4 hour phone call to FRANCE to order fabric for pillow covers! They were ridiculously expensive and not at all what I wanted. He hardly gave me any options and charged me for a ridiculous amount of time.
He should have given me a proposal and should have given it to me in WRITING. He should have told me in the proposal he would charge me 10 hours of his time AND his assistants time to get pillows!
In addition I got redundant charges for when his assistants would come along or if they helped him pick some fabrics out or when they talked about what they were going to show me. When we discussed a project he would come one day to talk about = charge, one day to measure = another charge, look into options = another charge, he would talk to me about the options = another charge, he would bring by samples = another charge. If is assistants helped him with anything or came along add the additional charges. And this was the inefficiency that went into everything. Just framing and hanging ordinary pictures cost me 5k.
He was very inefficient and this way he did his best to squeeze the most money out for doing very little.
PLEASE never give him a deposit if you want to see your money again.
Needless to say, I terminated his services. Now he owes me a return on my deposit because he deposited the check the next day, even before any work was done. I even agreed to pay him for the time he took to show me all the stuff I didn’t like and was too costly. He still owes me a few thousand dollars after I have terminated is work for over a YEAR NOW. Now he WONT RETURN MY CALLS, EMAILS or My MONEY.
He does a great job of sending you his bills and depositing your money then next day. He sends bills on the finest, embossed paper. You are paying for that paper and when the time comes, he will not give you your money back that he owes you, so be very careful with him!!!
I have filed a complaint with ASCID in Washington DC. Now I have to go to court to get him to pay my deposit. I have filed in superior court of SF and just got a judgement in my favor.
Please don’t patronize this designer. Call GREEN COUGH INSTEAD!
Now I have to prepare for my court date and further waste more of my time and money. I think he has serious financial problems. His professional practices are so bad as you can see by the other reviews. There is very little regulation of this industry.
HIRE GREEN COUCH DESIGN they are the best group of designers. They are fresh, cool, modern and classic, and the style is exactly what I wanted. I got my entire project done in half the time Michael took to do one part and I got even more than I wanted with them. I got all new furniture, great pillows, flooring, windows, bedding — all in my budget. They gave me a wonderful binder with a proposal that was given to me before any deposit. They never even cashed my deposit until the project was over. I told them how much I was willing to spend and they told me exactly how much the entire project would cost before we even started and THEY DELIVERED. The place look amazing. My friends and family rave about how beautiful it looks and I can’t stop enjoying what they have done.
I can’t say enough good things about the work they did. It was exactly the style I wanted, with great quality pieces, and the most organized business.
I LOVE them.
Please don’t hire MMD unless you like to burn your cash.

I hired Michael Merrill based on one very good and one reasonable reference from some others in my condo building. While I think that Michael’s work can be asthetically very good, be warned that he does not run his business in a way that complies with California laws.
Michael Merrill is licensed as an Interior designer only, however he frequently acts in the capacity of general contractor (which he did in my circumstance) and this requires a separate license in CA. In addition there are specific rules which must be followed regarding the handling of money between the client the contractor and the subs. I found out that although he was billing me for the work of the subs, he was not remitting the payment to them as the law requires, but was keeping the money for weeks and in some cases months. Some subs waited 6 months to get their final payment from him even though he had received the payment from me when it was billed. And according to the subs who had worked with him in the past his practice of making late payments was pretty standard.
Furthermore when he billed me for materials such as wallpaper or lighting, he was unable in numerous instances to produce the actual vendor bill as proof of his cost. He says he does not charge a markup on subcontractor services but I found that in some cases he had done so. Whether this was because of sloppiness or dishonesty I cannot say.
In any case, when I found out this stuff was going on I fired him and lost my retainer. One of the unpaid subs (the painter) put a lien on my condo due to non-​payment. So I hired a lawyer to try to get Michael Merrill to pay the sub, which is how I found out that he was acting as a general contractor without a license. Unfortunately for me and the subs, Michael no longer had the money.
If you do hire him make sure you contract with and pay any subs directly and get receipts for all materials before you pay the bills.