Walter E. Smithe Furniture & Design

What a wonderful experience we had here with our designer, Emily Allard! Emily directed us to what we were looking for, providing expert advice on style, design and color! Not to be overlooked is Emily’s kind and easy-going personality that enhanced the entire buying process for us. We trusted Emily’s advice and style techniques because she listened to us, asked questions about our tastes and even asked to see photos of our home space to get a better feel for what we were looking for. We highly recommend Emily Allard and Walter E. Smith should take pride in having an employee of her caliber!

We received a mailer with a couple of business cards for home designers. We called upon WS designer Emily Allard to help us design our new home furniture and furnishings. Emily was truly a joy to work with and a terrific professional who went above and beyond her call of duty. Her designs were thoughtful, very homely and high on function and form - a good combination. After a few weeks of an exhausting process for me, but a joyful one for my wife, we decided to go with another company based on availability and quality of products versus those at Smithe. We would give Emily 7-stars out of 5 anytime -- and a hands-down strong referral to work with us in future and with anyone else that likes to use designer services. Thanks Emily!

Last December, my husband Claude and I closed on our dream home in Lake Bluff, Illinois. The home is much larger than the home we moved from so we were feeling a little overwhelmed with what to do furniture and design wise in order to make it feel modern, yet still “homey.” We went to a few furniture stores but did not really feel like it was our style. In addition, we knew we needed help in making lots of decisions and needed a professional to guide us. My husband happened to browse the Walter E. Smithe website and came across Loria Hartman’s profile at the Naperville location. He really loved her experience and the modern feel of some of the past design projects she did. He told me about it and we decided to contact her to ask for her help. She responded right away that she would be happy to help us and was excited about the project. That was one of the best decisions we made concerning our new home.

Loria went above and beyond to understand what we wanted and always offered a variety of options for us to choose from. My husband pointed out to me that he loved the fact that Loria would sometimes nudge us to get out of the box we were in order to adventure a bit more with the design project and we were never disappointed. Her expertise and sense of humor was a gift and she helped us to truly create the home of our dreams with all of the furniture, blinds, accessories, tile choices, and some paint colors.

Loria drove over an hour away each time she came to our home, countless times, to help us or guide the deliveries that came to make sure everything was perfect. We are so grateful to her each and every day because we get to wake up in our dream home that turned out better than we could have ever imagined because of her passion for design and expertise. Not only did Loria nail it, but her communication and friendliness throughout the whole project was done with excellence. We get so many compliments from people on how much they love the furniture and entire design in every room and we owe our thanks to her for this. Not only is Loria an amazing designer, but she has become our friend. We highly recommend her if you want to create the home of your dreams.

We were greeted right away by, Anna. She was able to help up with our decision and made my family very comfortable with our future purchases. We already have a piece from them and we love it.

A little pricy but you don't have to buy everything from here. I like to visit to see what they have on sale. Green dots are floor models that are for sale and then you gotta love their clearance events! Maureen is always super nice when I go there and is super helpful.