Terms to Understand Before Hiring a Home Designer
Before we get to the important terms, I am so excited to share this month's news... but honestly I started to write it out and was rambling horrifically. So instead, how about a photo album of the month's activities?! Follow me on Instagram to see pics like these as they happen!
Key Terms to Understand Before Beginning a Home Design Project
Home Design is a very complex process requiring involvement from multiple trades for success. Being transparent and educating our clients is truly important to us. At times that I have wished for a "working with designers" instructional booklet!
Until that booklet is available, I'll keep writing these monthly newsletters knowing that you will be my most informed client!
Turnkey vs. Consulting Services
One of the first questions we ask is, "how involved would you like to be in your project?" Sometimes a direction is all that is needed to run with. Sometimes, measurements and plans are needed, then sourcing is done independently. Then, there's the "turnkey" project, meaning that we handle the design work from start to finish. This is the type of project designers are formally trained to do, and the type of design that is typically most successful as an end product. In a turnkey project, a complete design is provided. Any other service is an incomplete design- a consulting service. While consulting can help and truly create some amazing spaces, there just is nothing quite like a turnkey design.
Retail vs. Design-to-the-Trade
There are many ways to purchase goods for the home with retail and trade items being just two in the mix. While we're all familiar with antiques, flea-market, consignment, and retail, many people are not aware that there is another avenue entirely. Have you ever seen a website like... this: http://www.randolphhein.com/? Where are the prices? Why can't you add it to your cart? Because these items are available to the trade only. These are highly customized pieces where specifications are created by a designer for the manufacturer to build each piece as it's ordered. Yes, we've all been to a retail location where they offer multiple fabric choices. However, these companies are typically a higher quality, any fabric may be selected on upholstered goods, the type of cushion is specified, whether or not there is nailhead trim, and if so, what color. The finish of the wood is custom, sometimes even the seat height and depth. The process to ordering a piece like this includes ordering swatches of the fabric from the actual batch to be utilized.
Thanks so much, happy building, remodeling, and redecorating!
