Welcome to
Design Q&A!
Paul founded Design Q&A in 2005 and has been pleasing clients and winning service awards ever since.

Who is Design Q&A?
Design Q&A is the only independent home remodeling design biz of its kind. It’s a one man operation founded, owned, and operated by me, Paul Livdahl. (Collaborations with builders, design contractors, tech assistants, my wife, kids, dog, and cat are where the ‘we’ comes from) My big idea for Design Q&A was to make remodeling design accessible to everyone. I’d seen too many expensive home improvement projects fall flat or even fail from lack of imagination. Design Q&A combines my design ability, building experience, problem solving, and communication skills to bridge the design gap in home improvement: contractors are best at building, interior designers furnish, and architects are overkill.
Principles important at Design Q&A:
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We’re independent from builders and suppliers so you have freedom to do what you want with our designs.
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We don’t charge a percentage of the overall building cost like is typical so we have no incentive to get you to exceed your budget.
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Speaking of budgets we try to find the least expensive way to achieve your goals but also won’t forget that the project needs to function and look great.
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We ask questions and listen to our clients before coming up with ideas and provide a lot of opportunity for feedback.
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Likewise our goal is good design and good design comes in many different styles. If you don’t have a favored style we’ll help you find one.
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We avoid gimmicks and aim for classic design that won’t go out of style in a week.
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We’re not afraid of difficult design problems, in fact we thrive on them.
We like people and would be honored to speak with you to see how we can help you achieve the best possible outcome to your home improvement project.
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Thank you for reading this far! Paul Livdahl
More Background
We hope our portfolio speak for itself but know background can be helpful. Paul earned his way through college working for museums and restoring homes. The building background helped Paul understand how homes are built but the designer was born in the process. More of a designer than a builder, Paul moved to Chicago, worked for more museums, and began a career designing home furnishings. His designs have sold at Crate and Barrel, Target, JC Penney, and even see them on movie sets and copied by the likes of Ikea. Later Paul moved to Minneapolis where went to work for Room & Board.
Paul earned his MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with the intention of teaching furniture design. However he hatched the idea of starting Design Q&A and has now been doing it ever for over 20 years.