“Melanie is an interior designer unlike any other! Fabulously creative and a uniquely gifted ‘Jill-of-all trades’, she has all the talent, creative sensibility, skills and knowledge you could ever hope for in one person while still being savvy about budget and committed to timelines. Melanie can listen to your vision, or help you shape it, and produce beautiful drawings so you are confident with your plan. She is intuitive about colour and fabric, can build or source any furniture you want and because she herself is an artist and carpenter, and painter and sewer, she just knows what is going to work (or not). She is also always ready to push creative boundaries so you end up with a gorgeous space that is uniquely your own.

Melanie was our decorator for both our house and our farm. I can’t say enough about her and I recommend her wholeheartedly! She goes way beyond ensuring you are satisfied as a client. She is also a lovely authentic person so working with Melanie is a joy!”

“Melanie Zanker was absolutely crucial to the success of our kitchen redesign. She brings a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of the rather daunting task, excelling in her skills in designing, planning, research, and product sourcing.

She has a wonderful calm manner that cuts through and ameliorates the often frenetic activities involved in the reconstruction and redesign of a kitchen. In addition, she is flexible and adaptable, and listens carefully to the desires of the client. We couldn’t recommend her more highly.”

“I chose a particularly crazy time in my life to renovate my kitchen, dining room and living room, yet Melanie managed to make the process seamless, even painless.

Right from the start, she was able to suss my needs and sense of style. Then, while I threw myself into my 70- hour work week, she did all the running around, sourcing a variety of tiles, fabric samples and paint colours so that all I had to do was choose.

Melanie even helped me to do this – not by pushing her opinions or taste on me – but by helping me to channel my own inner style guru. She was equally adept at executing the project, not only helping me to find a great contractor but overseeing the entire process from start to finish, making sure that the work not only met, but exceeded both my expectations and hers.

Then instead of promptly leaving me for her next job, she painstakingly helped me with all the finishing touches. She disappeared into her workshop for a day or two then wowed me with curtains, shelves, pillows and Moooi-inspired upholstery for my couch, proving that not only can Melanie design and plan, but she can also make stuff.

Five years later, Melanie’s amazing handiwork has passed the test of time. Every decision we made – big or little – continues to make coming home at the end of the day a joy.”

“Melanie Zanker is the best! When we were looking for a designer to help us with our kitchen renovation, a friend recommended Melanie to us. We interviewed several designers but immediately connected with Melanie, as she listened to what we wanted to do and made fantastic suggestions. And she exceeded our expectations. She absolutely “got” our tastes, our budget and our schedule. She was a pleasure to deal with and worked extremely well with our contractor, who went on to recommend her for other jobs. When doing a renovation there are so many decisions to be made and I am sure, in the long run, we saved money working with Melanie. We now have a kitchen we love. I highly recommend Mazzie Design and could not imagine working with anyone else.”

“I have worked with Melanie on two separate occasions, and both times were an absolute delight. She has great taste and style, delivers on time, and is extremely accessible and approachable. She really listens to her clients and takes the time to understand their needs, adding her unique and creative ideas to the process all the way along, ultimately resulting in a very special and personal outcome. I would not hesitate to use Melanie again!”

“I had held the hands and wiped up the tears of several friends going through kitchen renovations – there were so many decisions to make and snags they hadn’t anticipated – so I was delighted when a good friend suggested Melanie Zanker to me when I decided to finally do my reno. She made those decisions so much easier for me and talked a language with my contractor that was Vulcan to me. She also affirmed my taste, gently guided me away from disastrous ideas and demanded re-dos on inferior work that I would not have even noticed. You’d be lucky to have her.”

“I can’t recommend Melanie enough. We have used her for both big and small projects in our house and have never been disappointed. She has always helped us work within our budget, providing great perspective on where we needed to buy more expensive items and where we could use less expensive solutions. Melanie is also really resourceful, able to come up with creative solutions to problems that arise over the course of a project. She is great to work with and has great connections, any one she has referred us to has been excellent. I know our contractor liked working with her. She is a craftsman herself which gives her the ability to connect with the tradespeople as she understands the jobs they are doing. She is reliable and honest. We’d never use anyone else.”