Testimonials
It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the client’s ideas and the decorator’s vision for a home. However, our experience with Mandil’s thoughtful and collaborative team could not have been more satisfying. Sean, Eric and their colleagues brought new life to our historic home–masterfully mixing modern and traditional elements in a way that exceeded our expectations. Mandil brings years of experience to their work and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the home they helped us create for our family.
Stephen Hentschel made the experience of building a home enjoyable and interesting, getting right down to the core of who we are as people—how we live, how we entertain and how we envision our life for the next 20 years. With an amazing eye for interior design, he makes recommendations on wall colors, the look and feel of a room, ceiling treatments and how everything works together overall. Very early in the process he considers how the furniture will layout, where the lights should be placed, and much more. And he gets deeply involved in the minutia, like the lantern that hangs over our front door, which he selected and restored, and the tiny flowers he personally painted on our wrought iron staircase. The result was exactly what we had hoped for. Today, a decade after our project was completed, we still work with Stephen and consider him our friend.
Stephen Hentschel is a master of the details—he understands the dozen things you need to make the exterior look authentic, and then on the inside as well. He is a gifted architect and a highly talented artist, as well as someone who has incredible integrity and is honest as the day is long. While his designs are well grounded in architecture, they have extraordinary heart and a flair because he a truly gifted artist. He can literally bring a home to life on a napkin you could frame.
I have worked with Stephen Hentschel for more than 15 years in Colorado and Hawaii and have never worked with anyone like him. He’s so much more creative in terms of style and sophistication than other high-end designers—he just takes things to a whole other level. Stephen’s personality isn’t what one often encounters with most architects or designers. He takes constructive criticism and is always open to input from others; he’s very focused on the needs of the client and works hard to understand and produce what they want. Although he’s very confident in his abilities, he doesn’t have airs.
We tried working with a number of other architects before but were always frustrated because they merely parroted our ideas and didn’t add any value. After years of frustration we were finally referred to Stephen Hentschel by a neighbor. Our experience with him was completely different. After our first meeting, he came back with some amazing concepts that went way beyond anything we’d ever seen before. He had a clear vision for us and effortlessly translated what we wanted into some super-creative ideas overnight. All we could say is ‘wow’!
Having lived in our home for 15 years, our renovation was an emotional journey. We didn’t want to make our home feel like a new one, but we did need to freshen it up after having raised three kids. Not only did they truly listen to my wants and needs, but Eric and Sean could seemingly read my mind, knowing exactly what might be too much or too little. Several years after the renovation was complete, there is not one thing I would change. The architectural details, the colors, the fabrics – everything they did made our home a better version of itself.