What to Tell Your Interior Designer Before Your Consultation
When you're thinking about working with an interior designer, it's a good idea to share as much info as you can. This helps both of you get a better sense of whether you're a great match. All designers have a specific level of expertise, different design processes, and specialties. These factors influence if the designer your talking to is the right fit for your project. If you’re working on a major renovation project, you’ll be working with your interior designer for at least a few months so you want to make sure that you provide enough information so that they can work as efficiently as possible and you can get the most return on your investment.
Why You Want to Renovate
For any interior designer to do their job well, they need to know your top reasons for wanting to update the space. Designers won’t know how to design the space specifically for your needs if they don’t know your top priorities.
Big Picture
Think about what you ultimately want to achieve on a larger scale. Are there a number of spaces that are completely outdated? Do you want the spaces to flow better (better space planning)? This determines the overall scope of the project. A designer may approach a project differently depending on if their designing one room at a time or the entire first floor at the same time.
Next think about how you currently use each space and how you want your home or work space to improve. Do you need more storage in the kitchen? Would you like more natural light in your foyer? We need to lay the groundwork before we get into selecting fixtures, furniture, materials and finishes.
Wishlist Items
Once we figure out solutions for your big picture goals we need to layer in which elements would take each space to the next level. Would a built-in breakfast nook be your absolute favorite feature in a renovated kitchen? Is your dream to have a freestanding tub in front of a big window in the Primary Bathroom?
Interior designers study their client’s needs and then develop specific solutions to meet the end goals of the project. Context allows designers to ask the right questions in order to develop your project profile. For example, if you have all white seating and a large wine fridge on your wishlist, I’m probably going to ask if you tend to drink red or white wine, because that’s going to influence the seating upholstery types that I propose.
What General Style Appeals to You
We believe that your home or workspace should be reflective of your personal style or brand, not ours. Part of what makes interior design interesting for us is that every project is different. But, we do need a starting point to work from. We want to respect and celebrate your style, while also showing you some interesting design opportunities.
The best way to describe what you like is through imagery. That’s why we request that any inspiration images (from Pinterest, Instagram, books, or magazines) be sent to us before any consultations so that I can study those images ahead of time and find commonalities among all the photographs. This ensures that we can make the most efficient use of our time during a consultation.
It’s the homeowner’s responsibility to clearly communicate what they like and don’t like–we’re not mind-readers. It might seem like interior designers are mind-readers, but most of us are actually just really observant in combination with drawing conclusions from the information that’s provided to us by the client. We take inspiration images and responses to questions and break them down to get to the crux of why a client likes what they like. Otherwise an interior designer is guessing what you want or doing whatever they want without taking your vision or goals into consideration—neither are ideal.
If you’re not sure what your style is called, that’s fine! That’s why imagery is the clearest way to communicate your style, especially if you like a combination of styles. In addition, many homeowners actually get style terms confused—imagery helps identify this problem early on. If you share inspiration photos along with a wishlist we can flesh out your personal style by asking clarifying questions, establishing a clear design direction.
Collecting inspiration ahead of time is also helpful if there is more than one decision-maker. If both parties have their own set of inspiration imagery an interior designer’s job is to find some common ground and talk through what compromises each party is willing to make in order to create a thoughtful, unified design that both people are happy with.
Your Timeline
If you need your kitchen renovation completed by the holidays, we absolutely need to know that. In this particular case, I can tell you that in order to have a kitchen completed by Thanksgiving, construction needs to start by September. Taking on a project with an unrealistic completion date is a recipe for disaster.
Interior design is creative, but much of our job is planning–we’re always reviewing construction schedules and creating a lot of spreadsheets. We understand timelines because it’s what our design schedules revolve around. We can’t work to a deadline if we don’t know that the deadline exists. More importantly, we need to be provided with the opportunity to tell you whether or not a projected timeline is realistic.
In my experience, homeowners are overly optimistic about how long a renovation takes to complete. The only clients that seem to have realistic timelines in mind are those that have been through some major renovations before. Our expertise includes helping to communicate and manage those timelines. Scheduling influences not only construction, but also which cabinetry, fixtures and furniture we propose due to lead times. If we are on a tighter deadline, we only show items that are in stock and we don’t look at custom items at all, because we know the likelihood of project delays. On the flipside, longer timelines allow for more options when it comes to furniture, fixtures, materials and finishes.
Hard deadlines also influence which contractors you’ll be able to work with. Most good contractors are booked out at least 8 weeks, but some contractors are booked out for a year or more. The more flexible you are with your timeline, the bigger the pool of contractors you’ll be able to pick from. If you find a contractor that’s the perfect fit for your project I recommend waiting for them if possible.
Don’t forget that the design process also takes time as well. Those 7 minute long design sessions you see on “reality” TV shows before a commercial are not real. A thoughtful, comprehensive, design process takes at least 8-12 weeks to complete. We need a finalized design before we place any orders and certainly before the contractor starts their work. Our projects from consultation to construction completion usually take at least 6 months. However, if you’re planning on renovating an entire home, the process from design to construction will take longer.
Project timeline conversations allow us to help you manage expectations. There are times when a prospective client calls and tells us that they want their kitchen renovation completed (design and construction) in two months and I quickly tell them that’s not feasible for the level of work we provide. I’d rather tell a homeowner the truth up front and not get the job, than get the job and disappoint the homeowner later.
Your Budget
Most people go into a project having no idea what things cost and are making assumptions based on a TV show or what someone else paid without the necessary context. That’s okay—the most important part is that we open an early conversation into budget.
There’s the misconception that if an interior designer knows how much money you have access to that they’ll always try to blow out the budget. I can’t speak for all designers, but that’s not the case with us. I’m not interested in spending all my client’s money just because I can. Instead, I’m interested in communicating to a client what it costs to get what they want. Then I let our client have the autonomy to revisit their priorities and decide where they’d like to save versus invest. Keep in mind that we can’t purchase any product without approval and payment—we can’t force you to spend money.
Be aware that what you want to spend vs. what the wishlist costs are likely to be two very different figures. Looking at the developed design against the budget is part of our process so that clients can make well informed decisions and changes. However, there are some clients that do have a hard number for their budget from the beginning—if so, that’s always helpful to share.
Final Thoughts
Your job is to communicate the end goals of the project–our job is to tell you the best way to get there. You want to do everything you can to set up any professionals you’re working with for success. The more clear that you are about your priorities, style, timeline, and budget the better. We are a partner in providing you with the guidance required to bring your vision to reality. The better the vision is communicated to us, the more successful your project will be.
If you have any questions about what you should know before calling an interior designer, I’m sure other people have similar inquiries! Register for my next ‘Ask the Designer’ free, live Zoom to ask your questions. If you get stage fright, don’t worry, you can ask your question anonymously.
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