3 Tips For Working With A Designer

If you’re on the fence about hiring an interior designer for your next home improvement project, not sure whether it will be worth the money or a good fit for your needs, here are some tips on ways to maximize that investment, and what to expect.

1.        ALLOW TIME

I know, but you’re in a rush, right? Over 15 years in this business I’ve discovered that homeowners have zero idea how long it takes to get quality anything. While the COVID home improvement boom has pushed the industry to incorporate more in stock furnishings and fixtures, the truth is that the very best quality product takes a LONG time to get. And no, I don’t mean the most expensive product. I mean the best quality product. Homeowners get all worked up over needing to have their place presentable for their mother-in-law, and then they get all worked up when the quality of the furniture is crap. Mass production of “affordable” in stock product ultimately does not lead to the type of furniture that can take a beating. Many end up purchasing two or three of the same type of furniture piece before resigning themselves to the idea that perhaps things just aren’t made well anymore. That is largely true, but designers have the intel on where to find high quality product—not necessarily high cost, but high quality. The type that you never ever need to replace unless your house burns down. I can say with authority that to get high quality product, whether it be furniture, plumbing fixtures, linens, or draperies,  you need to be willing to wait, and wait and wait. We are talking 4-6 months.

If you need your place finished for Christmas, and it’s already November, you’re kinda stuck. But if you’re in a position to allow extra time both for developing a solid design plan and the obscenely long lead times, do yourself a favor, and WAIT. It will be worth it. The good news is that if you’re doing an average home renovation, the lead time will likely be 4-6 months overall anyway. So if you play your cards right, and have your designer draw up plans first, you can order everything at one time, and then have your furniture be ready approximately when construction is completed. It takes a good designer-project manager to coordinate this perfectly, and experienced designers typically have receivers that will hold the furniture in a secure facility until your home is dust free and ready for install. The most impressive pieces in the most successful projects where those for which we decided to wait.

I want to stress one thing that is commonly misconstrued. These high-quality furnishings I am referring to typically cost no more than the price point of RH merchandise, and sometimes cost noticeably less, but are noticeably higher quality. Sometimes clients get put off by the idea of “custom designer furniture” thinking they are paying triple purely for a designer label. Not accurate. My company only recommends the best quality construction, which always takes longer. It has nothing to do with price, or designer labels, simply solid craftsmanship and the ability to order the exact right size and finish for a client’s unique space and needs.

2.        LET IT GO

Every project comes with a piece or two that clients have already that they would like integrated into the final design. These pieces fall into two categories typically: Heirlooms and Pieces-Already-Purchased. Heirlooms can typically be incorporated without issue, whereas the pieces-already-purchased will be those which were acquired before the decision was made to hire a designer.

Here’s the thing, and this may sting a bit:

Your designer is not responsible for your poor decisions and lack of planning.

When I walk into a new client’s home and they spring it on me that they would like to incorporate their beaten up (but only six months old) Pottery Barn sofa into the design, I inwardly cringe in the knowledge that this room will not be completed in a professional manner, and usually pass on the project, because from the beginning my hands are being tied. I am being asked to work with a piece that was ill selected, and sadly as the largest piece in the room is impossible to ignore. The homeowner understandably doesn’t want to throw away something they recently spent thousands of dollars on. I get that. But still, that decision was made without the guidance of a professional designer, based upon the need for something available quickly, that they saw in a store (and looked great in the store after staging by visual merchandising professionals) and thought they’d take a chance.

The most beautiful spaces are not built around furniture mistakes. I work regularly with architectural challenges, and there’s usually a way to distract from goof-ball builder errors, but the sofa that was selected in haste (fit right within what you thought a sofa should cost, and arrived in time for your cousin coming to visit) will be more expensive to work around with less impressive results in the end.

Check out my recent post: “Why the stuff you buy never works”

3.         TALK FIRST, THEN LISTEN

Designers have a sad reputation it seems for doing all the talking and none of the listening, which is a sad testament to an issue that plagues all industries—a minority of “professionals” who didn’t know how to do their jobs properly. A designer’s first job is to LISTEN. All good designers know this. They also know how to ask the right questions to decipher details the client cannot easily communicate. You cannot schedule a designer for a one hour consultation, have them walk in for two minutes, and expect feedback, and definitely not results.

A legit “interior designer” will set aside a minimum of an hour just to listen, absorb, and formulate in their mind what is necessary. Translating that vision into a format that clients can understand, visualize, and agree upon often takes several hours of development, drawings, and planning. In order to have a design proposal that is spot on, you need to be prepared to communicate upfront what you need, what is on your wish list, and how you live, so that your designer can best guide you toward success.

*To learn more about how to maximize your designer investment check out my article How To Get Your Money's Worth With An Interior Designer.

For those wanting to invest in the full service experience, as close to an HGTV experience as you can get, click here to learn about the Less Stress Package.

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