The Adamko Ambiance Audit™

A Private Evaluation of Your Home by Steve Adamko

Your home may be beautiful. It may contain exceptional furnishings, fine materials, beautiful architecture and carefully selected artwork. You may have invested considerably in creating an environment that reflects your taste and your lifestyle. Yet even a beautiful home can sometimes feel as though something is missing. The rooms may not flow as naturally as you would like. The furnishings may be individually beautiful but somehow lack harmony when viewed together. The lighting may not create the atmosphere you envisioned. Or you may simply have the feeling that your home could be considerably better, without being able to identify exactly why.

That is where The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ begins.

The purpose of the audit is to give you something that is difficult to obtain: the opportunity to have your home personally evaluated by someone who has spent more than four decades learning to see the relationships among architecture, space, furnishings, lighting, materials, proportion, color and the way people actually experience a home.

This Is Time With Steve Adamko

The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is not a consultation conducted by a junior designer, associate or member of a design team. I personally conduct every audit. When you engage me, you are engaging my experience, judgment and trained eye, developed through more than forty years of professional work in interior design, residential construction, furniture design, lighting design and remodeling.

I have been NCIDQ-certified since 1996 and am a Michigan Licensed Builder. My experience in both design and construction allows me to look at a home from more than one perspective. I can consider not only how a room looks, but how its architecture, construction, furnishings, lighting and materials relate to one another and contribute to the experience of the entire home.

My professional work has also extended beyond individual residential projects. A master bedroom I designed and furnished with Baker furniture was photographed and featured on page 15 of the 1994 Baker Furniture Co. McMillen Collection catalog. That room represents an important part of my design philosophy: exceptional interiors are created through the thoughtful relationship of individual elements rather than through the accumulation of expensive objects.

I am also the creator and voice of The Interior Design Beat podcast, where I explore the ideas, principles and issues that shape the interior-design profession. I believe that continuing to think about design, question assumptions and communicate those ideas is an important part of remaining a thoughtful and effective practitioner.

What Is The Adamko Ambiance Audit™?

The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is a private, professional evaluation of your home’s ambiance, flow, design and overall experience. I examine the residence as an integrated environment rather than simply looking at individual rooms in isolation. My objective is to understand what you are experiencing, what you want your home to become and what I see as the opportunities, inconsistencies or obstacles that may be preventing it from achieving that vision.

Every home is different, so there is no rigid checklist that I apply mechanically. Depending upon the size, architecture, furnishings and circumstances of your residence, I may examine spatial flow and circulation, furniture placement and proportion, scale and balance, lighting and illumination, color relationships, architectural elements, materials and textures, sight-lines, focal points, continuity between rooms and the relationship between furnishings and architecture. I am also looking at something less tangible but equally important: the emotional experience created when all of these elements work together.

What I See May Be Different From What You See

You live in your home. You see the same rooms every day. You remember why particular decisions were made and have naturally become accustomed to the things around you. That familiarity can make it very difficult to recognize what may be limiting the potential of your home.

When I enter a residence, I bring a different perspective. I am able to look at the home without the familiarity that comes from living there. I can see the proportions, relationships, transitions, sight-lines, lighting, furnishings and architectural elements with fresh eyes. More importantly, I can draw upon decades of experience to determine which observations are significant and which are simply matters of personal preference.

Sometimes the solution to a problem is surprisingly simple. Sometimes an issue in one room is actually being created by something in another. Sometimes the thing you believe needs to be changed is not the real problem at all. And sometimes I may tell you that something you have been considering changing should be left alone. The value of an experienced eye is not simply identifying things to change. It is knowing what deserves attention and what does not.

I Look at the Home as a Whole

A home is not a collection of unrelated rooms. The experience of one space affects the experience of the next. What you see when you enter establishes expectations for what follows. The relationship between a foyer and a living area, a hallway and a bedroom, a kitchen and an adjoining gathering space can influence how the entire residence feels.

I look at those relationships. I consider how furniture relates to architecture, whether the scale and proportion of furnishings support the space, whether lighting enhances or diminishes the architecture, whether materials and colors establish meaningful relationships, and whether the individual rooms contribute to a coherent experience. I also look for visual distractions, interruptions and competing focal points that may prevent the home from feeling as cohesive and intentional as it could.

This is why I use the word “ambiance.” Ambiance is not a decorating style. It is not a particular color palette or a collection of furnishings. It is the cumulative experience created by many individual elements working together. When those elements are properly considered and orchestrated, the result can be felt even when it is difficult to explain.

This Is Not About Selling You More Things

The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is not an exercise in finding more products for you to purchase. In fact, one of the most valuable things I may tell you is that you do not need to buy anything at all.

Your home may need a different furniture arrangement. It may need better lighting. It may need greater continuity between rooms. It may need the removal of something that is competing with the architecture. It may need a change in proportion, scale or placement. Or it may require a more substantial design intervention.

My responsibility is to tell you what I see and explain why I believe it matters. I will help you distinguish between changes that could have a meaningful effect on your home and changes that may not justify the time, disruption or expense involved.

The Audit Is Designed Around Your Home

There is no standard amount of time required for an Adamko Ambiance Audit™ because there is no standard home. A modest residence with a clearly defined concern requires a different level of examination than a large, architecturally complex residence with multiple spaces and extensive furnishings.

Before the audit, I will speak with you personally about your home, your concerns and what you would like me to examine. Based upon that conversation and the nature of the residence, I will determine the amount of time that I believe is appropriate.

The audit is a professional engagement, not a casual walk-through. I want sufficient time to observe, think, ask questions and provide you with meaningful professional judgment rather than rushing through your home simply to fit an arbitrary appointment length.

The Investment

The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is a private engagement with Steve Adamko. My professional rate is $1,500 per hour, with a minimum engagement of $3,000. The total investment beyond the minimum depends upon the size, complexity and scope of the residence and the amount of time required for the evaluation.

I believe there is value in making my time available in this way because an experienced professional perspective can be particularly valuable before substantial decisions are made. If you are considering a major renovation, building a custom home, furnishing a significant residence or simply trying to understand why an existing interior does not feel the way you want it to, the cost of obtaining informed perspective can be small compared with the cost of making the wrong decisions.

The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is also valuable on its own. You do not have to commit to a larger interior-design project with me in order to benefit from the audit. I will provide my observations and professional judgment based upon what I see, regardless of whether you ultimately decide to engage me for additional work.

Who Is The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ For?

The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is intended for homeowners who care deeply about the quality of their surroundings and who recognize that creating an exceptional home requires more than simply purchasing beautiful things. It may be particularly valuable if you have invested substantially in your home but still feel that something is missing, if you have recently completed a renovation and are not completely satisfied with the result, or if you have accumulated beautiful furnishings over many years but no longer feel that they work together as a cohesive whole.

It can also be particularly valuable before a major investment. If you are planning a significant renovation or building a custom home, an experienced perspective before decisions become permanent can help you think more carefully about the relationship between architecture, interiors, furnishings, lighting and the way you intend to live in the finished home.

You may also simply want to know what I see. Perhaps your home is already very good and you are wondering what could make it exceptional. Perhaps you have a room that has never quite felt right. Perhaps you are considering an expensive change and would like an experienced opinion before proceeding. There does not have to be something dramatically wrong with your home for an Adamko Ambiance Audit™ to be worthwhile.

Why Have Me Look at Your Home?

After more than four decades in the profession, I have learned that design expertise is not simply a matter of knowing what is fashionable. It is the accumulated ability to observe, understand, question, evaluate and make informed decisions.

My NCIDQ certification, which I have maintained since 1996, represents a longstanding professional commitment to the field of interior design. My Michigan Builder license provides an additional understanding of construction and the realities of creating and modifying residential environments. My experience in furniture and lighting design allows me to consider the individual elements that make up an interior at a deeper level. My work has included a master bedroom featured in the Baker Furniture McMillen Collection catalog, and my ongoing work through The Interior Design Beat allows me to continue examining and discussing the principles behind the profession.

All of those experiences contribute to the way I look at a home.

Your Home Is an Experience

Your home communicates something before anyone says a word. It communicates through its architecture, proportions, furnishings, lighting, colors, textures, materials, views and the relationships among all of those elements. The experience begins when you approach the home and continues as you enter, move through the rooms and settle into the spaces where you live your life.

When those elements work together, something happens that is difficult to describe but easy to feel. The home becomes comfortable, intentional and cohesive. Nothing seems to be competing unnecessarily for attention. The architecture, furnishings, lighting, color, texture and space appear to belong together. The home has a sense of identity.

That is what I mean by Ambiance.

And creating that kind of ambiance is not accidental. It is the result of thoughtful observation, informed decisions and the orchestration of many individual elements into a unified experience.

See What You May Have Been Unable to See

The purpose of The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is to give you the benefit of an experienced set of eyes on your home before you make another major decision. I will personally examine your residence, listen to what you want to achieve, share what I see and explain why I believe certain things matter. You may agree with every observation, or you may not. The purpose is not for me to tell you what you must do. The purpose is to give you information, perspective and professional judgment so that you can make better decisions about your home.

If you believe your home has more potential than you are currently experiencing, I invite you to inquire about The Adamko Ambiance Audit™. We can discuss your residence, what you would like me to examine and the amount of time I believe will be appropriate. The audit is conducted personally by me, Steve Adamko, at a professional rate of $1,500 per hour, with a minimum engagement of $3,000.

A Final Thought From Steve Adamko

I have spent much of my professional life learning to look beyond what is immediately visible. The most successful interiors are not necessarily the ones with the most expensive furnishings or the most impressive finishes. They are the ones where everything seems to belong, where architecture, furnishings, lighting, color, texture and space work together, and where you walk through the door and experience something that is difficult to put into words.

That is what I mean by ambiance. It is the quality that turns a collection of rooms into a home and a beautiful interior into an experience. The Adamko Ambiance Audit™ is an opportunity for me to look at your home through that lens and help you discover what may be keeping it from becoming everything you believe it can be.

— Steve Adamko
Founder & Owner
Spectrum Interiors
Portage, Michigan