Making Your Own Product Selections

In the past, we have had clients ask if they could make their own selections, and for the most part, we have obliged. Unfortunately, we have also learned that these projects and choices are not the cost-savers that were hoped for, and we end up with frustrations on both the side of the client and the servicer.

We understand that your home is yours and you have a style you want to maintain. It is our hope that we can work together through this process, allowing you to feel that you have made the selections with our support, knowledge, and guidance.

We select the highest quality materials that are appropriate for your space.

Product Quality

It is our assumption that by hiring us, you want a designer home. This means that the product quality from our trade resources are designer vetted products (while you may find some of this retail, they may be a lesser grade and will not come with the same warranties - more on that later).

If you are reading this and saying “Nah, I don’t need anything fancy”, go ahead and give us a call. We are happy to help you find the right partner for you in your design-build journey!

Damaged Rep Relationship

This, unfortunately, happens when we’re midway through a project, the rep has begun assisting with preliminary selections, then the homeowner decides to move forward independently. If this happens to a designer often, the rep may see their projects as a waste of time and the designer as untrustworthy.

Further, without those reps, we cannot ensure the proper parts are ordered. Oftentimes these reps have access to products and know-how that our clients do not. Do you need a diverter? Which valve? Is a drain included with the faucet? These are all items we rely on the extensive expertise of our reps for because we are not plumbing specialists.

Purchasing Challenges

A part of our procurement process includes following up with manufacturers, tracking, and watching those orders so that we are fully prepared to begin construction with everything available. The average homeowner might not think to purchase transition strips, the forms for niches, etc. and it becomes confusing as to who is purchasing what, as well as how to track those items.

The mail carrier uses special codes to locate your home, just like we use special codes to tell our trades which packages are for their use and the placement of those items.

Tracking Challenges

When we procure products, we have them shipped to our office, inspected for quality, labeled for your project utilizing the code found on drawings and in our product specifications, and stored in our climate-control storage unit until they are ready for use.

We document when each item arrives in our tracking software and monitor this list regularly to ensure that everything arrives safe and sound. When items arrive damaged, we handle the damage claim and manage replacement.

When homeowners purchase, we find that the products are stored in garages and the most frequent issue is that the items go missing when it is time to do the installation (buried under something else, moved by the homeowner, etc.). We may also find that the item was damaged in transit or the wrong item arrived. By the time this discovery is made, we need to put the project on hold to rectify the situation. Simply stated, you’re materials are safe with us.

Safety Challenges/Liability

Did you know that a designer is trained in ensuring that your floor is appropriately slip-rated? That your light fixtures are safe for the level of moisture they are exposed to? That the quality construction of your cabinetry can handle the moisture of the space, and so much more?

If products are not properly rated, our sub-contractors will not even touch them. That can be a hard discovery when we’re waiting for installation before the project can move forward! Trust in the knowledge that the skilled labor that you are hiring is watching out for your safety and keeping your new space up-to-code.

Improper Documentation

When we select products for our clients, we gather all the information our trades will need to do the installation. This includes safety information, installation sheets, parts sheets, and proper documentation to coordinate the selection with the drawing.

If a homeowner makes and purchases their own product, we may run into more labor hours as the trades try to interpret installation instructions and product placement.

When homeowners work with us and provide the product information in advance, it can be very helpful, but we find that a lot of time is spent on back-and-forth to ensure that we have all the proper documentation. Sometimes retail items do not provide the proper documentation, and are meant more for DIY users.

Product Selection and Design are Not Separate Elements.

We trust that you have fantastic taste and can find wonderful items, however, design is more than having good taste. It is an art and that art involves color, balance, harmony, texture, etc. Each element depends on the other for that balance and harmony.

When we select a light fixture for example, we look at the overall aesthetic of the space, pulling in the details mentioned above, and we also look at the rating, the lumen output, the durability, the color rendering you will get from that light output, compatibility with your dimming switches, and much more. There are many considerations with every product selected, down to the paint we use on your walls!

If you make these selections, it is pertinent that we review each selection to ensure that they will work. There could be a lot of unknowns that may compromise the overall design and final project.

Furthermore, the selections often influence the design and vice versa. For instance, tile placement will be influenced by niche location in a shower indicating the required size of tile to achieve the aesthetic.

There are times we are happy to take suggestions for materials/design from clients, but it is certainly nice for us to know what we’re getting into before we’ve started dipping our paintbrush into the palette. It is also worth considering working with a less experienced designer if you are wanting to participate in the creation of the work.

If we are not meeting your aesthetic, we’re happy to collaborate, bring some inspiration to us! Show us what you ARE looking for. We are happy to ensure that we get you what you want!

Budget Management

When we develop a design, it may come in over budget initially, but knowing each product allows us to make adjustments and coordinate that budget to meet needs. A project that takes procurement out of our hands also creates quite a bit of unknowns in terms of budgeting. If you’re looking to maintain a budget, be secure in knowing the products we choose, we believe in. We hate to see clients waste their time and money buying materials they thought could work, but didn’t quite end up working.

Security

Products purchased through our product representatives come with the absolute best in terms of warranties, quality, and support if something were to go wrong. Rest assured.

Sustainability

As a sustainable design firm, we have done our research and know that greenwashing is beyond prevalent right now. One cork does not equal another cork. We have sustainability minimums that we set our standards by to protect you, your interior air quality, and our environment. We lose the control to stand by our promise to do this if we are not making selections.

Whether sustainability is important to the homeowner or not, we are a sustainable design firm, and we work with sustainable products as a rule. Again, if you are looking for something different, we are always happy to guide you in that direction!

It is important that we give every project the time and energy it deserves. When project delays occur, it often seems they all pick back up at the same time. Avoid the stall, and keep your project moving by trusting in our timelines including having all materials ready on time.

Schedule Interference

We take on as many projects as we can handle at one time, and we do this because we have several more anxiously waiting. It is important that we stay on schedule and maintain focus. When a homeowner wants to do their own selections, we find that there are large holds while research and shopping is done, then they come back ready to go, but we are overloaded with all the others who happened to come back from their shopping at precisely the same time (lol, yes, it always seems to work out that way!).

When a project moves out of the anticipated schedule, we are unable to guarantee a time that we can restart.

Increased Time Spent

It seems as though we’d be saving time, but in reality, we spend so much time educating our clients on “how to be a designer” that the time hoped to be saved is actually exponentially increased.

We usually use reps in several areas. We can’t possibly know everything about every product, so we lean heavily on the expertise of our product representatives to fill in the blanks. When a homeowner makes their own selections, we can no longer answer these questions and spend considerable time researching each product presented to ensure that it will work for the space. With retail products, we run into dead ends and a lack of information.

The products selected are not approved by us due to safety issues, consistency concerns, lack of durability, among many other concerns, and the process starts over again… and again.

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We want you to have fun with your home design, and we love working with you to make product selections. Ultimately, we will manage the selection process, but in the end, the decision is yours.

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