Salt + Light

The design was inspired. The service was not.

Tanya de Waal from SaltandLight started off exceptionally well. Her design concepts and spatial planning were clever and original, and we were genuinely impressed with the layout she created for our home. Sadly, what was promised as a seamless, end-to-end service, from concept through to final installation, was neither completed nor delivered to the standard she had promised and charged for. While some areas of the house are great, the job was left unfinished. When we raised concerns, we were met with excuses rather than solutions. I understand that design is a collaborative process and didn't expect perfection, there will always be tweaks, adjustments, or small mistakes to resolve. What I did expect was professionalism. Her attitude during this phase was disappointing: sulky, passive aggressive, and immature. This, more than anything else, is the reason I feel it's important to share my experience. Tanya consistently deflected responsibility, attributing installation problems to everyone but herself, including us. Apparently, we hadn't provided enough art for her to work with, and uneven floors/ceilings were to blame for curtains that don't close properly, etc, etc. Throughout the design process, she had spoken at length about the importance of symmetry. It was therefore particularly jarring when the basin, mirror and light fitting in the guest bathroom — installed in a very small, intimate space — were visibly misaligned. When I raised this, her response was to ask what I wanted her to do about it. The basin wasn't centered on the patterned floor tile, the mirror didn't align to the basin, and the light fitting was off-center. This was obvious to the naked eye. She also made a false claim about feedback she'd allegedly received from our builder — a "he said, she said" situation that he categorically denied and was able to disprove. Once a snag list was agreed upon and we made it clear we expected her to supervise the fixes, she was conspicuously absent. She sent her painter and assured us he was sending her daily photos. In the meantime, my husband was the one briefing the workers each morning and identifying problems, because no one was actually overseeing the process. Project managing a job you've paid someone else to manage is not the client's responsibility. The final straw came when I found her painter and a construction worker — in dirty painting overalls — rehanging my +/-R50,000 white silk curtains. When we raised this, she said she'd never had complaints about this approach before. This from someone who had insisted the curtains remain wrapped in plastic until the last possible moment and that all floors and surfaces be covered during installation to prevent damage. I have since spoken to previous clients of hers, who described strikingly similar experiences: blame-shifting, unresolved issues, and projects left incomplete. What also gave me pause was recalling how freely she had spoken disparagingly about those very same clients during our engagement. I should have recognised that as a red flag. I didn't, and I now find myself having to spent a significant amount of money, with an unfinished home and the additional cost and inconvenience of sourcing a new supplier to complete the work. I would not work with Tanya or SaltandLight again under any circumstances, which is genuinely unfortunate, because she is a genuinely talented designer. If mine were an isolated experience, I might question myself. But when multiple clients independently describe the same pattern of behaviour, the common thread becomes difficult to ignore. She's liberal in her disdain, taking pride in how she 'fired that client' or was advised by a lawyer not to respond to legal advances because it isn't worth fighting wealthy clients with unlimited budgets for legal fees. In a city where the community of people who invest in design services at this level is small and well-connected, reputation is everything. My advice to anyone considering SaltandLight: ask for at least three references and speak to those people specifically about their service experience, not just the aesthetics. You are about to spend a lot of money and commit to a long, involved process. That's unavoidable. What is avoidable is working with someone who adds to the stress and is a source of drama, rather than helping to carry it.