Ruth was our architect for the renovation of our 4 bedroom detached house in north London. She was wonderful to work with – she listened to our brief, and helped us transform our house. She enabled us to accentuate the best features of our home, creating a large open plan living area and reconfiguring our garden and patio to allow us to achieve our dream of outdoor / indoor living, as well as creating two new spacious ensuite bathrooms upstairs. She presented us with several thoughtful and different ideas and was never fazed regardless of how many changes and tweaks we wanted to make, no detail was too small for her to help with. Ruth also managed the planning application, structural engineers, tender process and building contractor on our behalf.

From our experience working with Ruth we can testify to her expertise, professionalism, ingenuity and kindness. We can’t recommend her highly enough!

We are extremely grateful to Ruth for designing and project managing a complex re-working of our Edwardian house. She has transformed the way we live to give us ensuite bathrooms, a luxurious master bedroom and bathroom suite, double glazed windows throughout (whilst keeping all the period features), and redesigned living space for our grown up family.

Ruth listened to us and understood exactly what we wanted to achieve, and worked brilliantly with the excellent building team to deliver the project on time, on budget, and with everybody more than delighted with the result.

She is endlessly patient and never seems to be fazed by anything! It was an absolute pleasure working with Ruth from start to finish and we recommend her wholeheartedly, we love our new home!

I just wanted to say a big thank you, James, for all your work on our house. It was stress-free and very helpful to liaise with you and I appreciated your availability, diligence and efficiency. We are happy with the results and use every inch of our space, which has got to be a benchmark for success in the cramped London environment.

Not that we’re planning anything in the near future, but should we launch into any further works in future we would certainly seek your services again.

It’s hard to talk about Ruth’s contribution to our building project without descending into clichés.  However, it is undoubtedly the case that that Ruth “changed our life”.

The original brief was to find a way to give us an extra bathroom (we had a large Victorian house with five large bedrooms but just one bathroom and didn’t want to simply carve up a bedroom and end up with a space which felt odd or mean). We ended up taking the roof off the house and effectively adding an entire new floor, giving us two extra bathrooms and a glorious master suite with incredible City views (we knew that view was there somewhere and Ruth’s clever planning helped us to liberate it).  Ruth very shrewdly spotted at the outset that our roof was about a foot and a half lower than next door’s (to which we are attached) and this meant we could create an attic room which feels nothing like an attic room, because of the additional height.  Ruth’s clever planning also meant we retained lots of storage space as well as space for space’s sake – the result is that our “new” home is both practical and luxurious.

I am sure we weren’t the easiest of clients.  We had lots of strong ideas about the look and feel of our interiors and, as lawyers, a tendency to focus on all the detail.  However, Ruth was always extremely patient and professional, and simply fantastic with the builders.  No falling out, and pretty much on time and on budget thanks to her meticulous planning.

We are very happy customers.

We were particularly pleased with the way the height of kitchen was in proportion to the original Victorian room, with the ceiling and original coving still visible and balanced with the sash windows.

Creating bedroom cupboards from the space above a new lobby ceiling solved all future storage problems. The cumulative effect of all the attention to design detail; the materials selected, coordinated fixtures and fittings, the low radiator that fitted beneath the window, lighting design etc etc continues to delight us

Schamroth + Harriss worked with us to come up value engineering solutions and source material and fixtures at the most competitive prices, but pushed back when our suggestions compromised the quality of the conversion. We are really pleased that we took their advice, the quality exceeded our aspirations but was delivered for the lowest practical cost. We were consulted throughout and felt effortlessly in control of budget.

The conversion was for our daughter in London, I work abroad, and my wife is Wales. Schamroth + Harriss had to triangulate between mother’s, father’s and daughter’s preferences on a regular basis. All three of us feel we were listened too, and the solutions reflect the attention we were given.

I have not seen a better use of space in a Victorian conversion than their design.

Schamroth + Harriss produced a tender list of several builders that they had worked with and recommended. The builder we selected was excellent, the quality of their work was exceptional, completed ahead of schedule and they were all friendly and helpful. Schamroth + Harriss’ knowledge of the supply chain eliminated my most fundamental concern. They undertook the day to day management of the work and we were always consulted about potential variations.

Schamroth and Harriss were architects for the recent complete refurbishment of our penthouse flat in Highgate.

Ruth Schamroth was the principal architect and we cannot speak too highly of her. Ruth was very sensitive to our life style and planned the flat accordingly.

She ran the contract within budget throughout. Her communication skills were excellent.

She attended every meeting on time and circulated minutes of each meeting within a few days.

When our building contractors went into liquidation she skilfully negotiated the complicated financial issues and successfully arranged for us to employ a former sub contractor as the principal provider; no mean feat!

The work has been an outstanding success, much appreciated by all our friends.

It was a great pleasure working with Jim. His extensive experience of listed buildings was very valuable: it ensured a smooth process through planning and helped inform the design. More than that, his oversight of the project was very reassuring and constructive. A calming influence in what can be stressful times, Jim’s building knowledge gave us the support we needed when discussing issues with the builder – and he was always able to suggest solutions.

Ruth Schamroth designed and managed our kitchen extension in 2012.

Ruth’s design made the most of the space available to us and she worked with us to ensure everything we required was included and gave us plenty of ideas we had not thought of ourselves.

Ruth worked with us to keep the build within budget, keeping us aware of any changes and was able to ensure that costs did not spiral. She managed the builders throughout which was invaluable and was on site for a weekly meeting as well as being on site at each new stage of the build. Ruth was approachable and always contactable throughout which made the process stress-free.

We were thrilled with the end result and Ruth ran the whole process fantastically – we would highly recommend Schamroth & Harriss.

We have worked with James Harriss of Schamroth + Harriss on a number of projects, and have been delighted with his work – thoughtful design, excellent service, clear communication, and projects completed on time and on budget.

When we wanted to extend our flat Ruth immediately grasped that what we wanted was not only more space but also more light. Her ideas as to how to achieve this were far beyond what we could have thought of ourselves, and ten years later, as I walk into the space she designed, I am reminded daily of how much we owe to her for creating such a practical, substantial and light living space complete with a wonderful glass “wall” that makes it feel as though the garden beyond is part of our home. It was a challenge – a dark lounge, a pokey galley kitchen, and grim alley way, upstairs neighbours, party wall neighbours, the local authority planning department and building inspectors… transformed into a marvellous open plan large lounge area, a streamlined modern kitchen with a dining area leading out onto a patio to the garden.

Not only were her ideas excellent, but she recommended good conscientious workmen to put them into effect, and project managed the work for us, her daily attendances keeping everything moving smoothly to completion.

It’s never easy having your home turned upside down whilst it is extended especially if you are still living there, but it was a far less traumatic experience than it might otherwise have been.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Schamroth + Harriss, and indeed have already done so.

Nigel and I are delighted to be able to add a few words about our experience of using the services of Schamroth + Harriss!

As Thanksgiving rolls around again, we are so grateful to you for our beautiful kitchen. You made the whole process work smoothly and we maintained a strong ‘triangle’ of communication between architect, builder and client throughout the process.

Two years on, I continue to appreciate a lot of the small design suggestions which, although I could not see as crucial at the time (e.g., an extra light in the alcove by the phone, etc. ) I now really appreciate! You also thought to ‘future – proof’ the over – the – counter lighting with extra wiring embedded and clearly marked on the drawings, so we can add more lights if desired without major disruption.

Thanks to your oversight as project manager, we completed on time, on budget and to a high standard. You were patient with our queries and an effective and diplomatic liaison with neighbours, builders and Haringey building control. This removed much of the stress from an otherwise daunting undertaking. Our kitchen is now our favourite room in the house!

Wishing you well for the next 15 years,
All best wishes,