Prospective clients often contact me saying they love my
portfolio. Sometimes they call attention to one or two photographs, saying they
want a similar feel for their living room, bedroom, or whatever their space may
be.
During my initial phone call with prospective clients like
these, I ask lots of questions to understand their needs. Some of those include:
what kind of help are you looking for? Are you looking for a designer to
develop a full design plan, soup to nuts, or are you just looking for some specific
feedback on one part of the design?
Many clients don’t know the answer to these questions because
they don’t know what is involved in a full design project versus a
consultation. They know they love the spaces in my portfolio and sometimes they
assume that we can achieve that same level of quality and attention to detail by
working together at just a couple of meetings. The reality is, we typically can’t.
The projects shown in my portfolio are full design projects that
showcase how I approach a space from initial vision to final completion. Full
design projects are different from consultations in many ways. Below, I touch
on some of the key differences.
Full Design Projects
A full design project is one in which I work closely with my
clients to design their space from scratch. This doesn’t mean that I make design
decisions for them. It means that I partner with them to create the space they
truly want and need.
And while many of my full design projects include all new
furniture and products, for some of them, my clients want to use one or more
existing pieces in our new design. Perhaps they just bought a new sofa and they
love it, or maybe they have a great piece of art from their wedding. These are all
situations that I’m used to dealing with.
A big question that comes up over and over is one of
duration—how long do I think their project will take? The reality is that every
project differs depending upon the variables involved and the client’s personality
and decision making style.
For example, some clients want to see every possible option,
they don’t know what they like until they see it. Other clients get overloaded
with too many options and need to only see the top two choices I’ve narrowed
down for them. Each of these types of clients requires a different amount of
time.
With clients where there are multiple stakeholders – such as
a husband and wife team or partners – I often use a different approach to
understand each of their goals, and develop solutions that work for everyone. Ultimately,
as my client’s (or clients’) partner, it’s my job to learn about the involved
parties and figure out how best to work with them.
The scope of the project – and or type of space we’re
working on– can also vary the length of the project. For example, complete
remodels and new construction projects take a lot of time because we need to
select every item from scratch – often things like built-in lighting, trim
styles, doors, hardware, flooring, fireplace inserts and surrounds, and much
more.
Compare that to a project where the structure of the space
(flooring, trim, etc.) stays as-is and we’re just changing the paint colors and
adding furniture, window treatments, area rugs, art, accessories, etc. Still a lot
to decide, but less decisions overall.
Regardless of the scope of a project or client personality
though, a full design project typically includes the following activities:
- A kickoff meeting
- Floor plan development
- Aesthetic/style/vision exploration
- Design concept development including color palette creation
- Identification/specifications of all products for the space
- Product purchasing
- Oversight of trades specialists and contractors
- Final installation and finishing touches
This is a broad overview of what goes into a full design
project. In future blog posts, I plan to explain some of these activities in
greater detail and why they’re important.
Consultations
Consultations are a very different ballgame. They are much
shorter in duration than full design projects and they work best when we’re
tackling one or two specific things.
In general,
consultations work well for clients who want to do their design project on
their own, but they need a few ideas to get started, or maybe they need a
second opinion on some of their ideas. For example, a
consultation could help a client who has moved to a new house and needs help
figuring out how to use their existing living room furniture in their new
family room.
In this type of consultation, I would come over and ask my
client lots of questions about how they’d like to use the space. From there,
we’d likely roll up our sleeves and start moving furniture around – experimenting
with different layouts to reach my client’s goals. (Note: in a full design project,
I do this on the computer. For a consultation such as this however, it makes
sense to do it in person manually).
From there, it might become apparent that my client needs a
smaller coffee table or maybe a new chair. During the consultation, I can suggest
sizes and styles of coffee tables or chairs that they can find on their own.
Another example of a consultation type project is one where
a client wants to keep all of their existing furniture but they want a new wall
color and they aren’t sure what color might work. In a case like this, I can
come over and look at the base color palette they already have (through their existing
furniture and accessories) and then propose wall colors that will complement
their space.
There are many different ways a consultation can work. It
really comes down to understanding what my client needs and talking about how
to make that happen.
