By: Natalie Weinstein, ALLIED ASID
It looks so easy – right? After all, on TV, a project gets completed in a half hour. As head of a busy design firm for over 4 decades, I can tell you, that’s entertainment! Perhaps if people understood how designers actually work for their clients it would demystify the process for do-it yourselfers, as well. It might also help anyone thinking about, or getting ready to embark on a design project, in making good choices to ensure its success.
In a professional design firm, there is a process for every project. It is established to provide a learning journey for the client while helping the designer move forward creatively, efficiently, and cost effectively (yes designers are cost conscious!). Most design projects go through 4 phases – design, specification, procurement, and installation. But even before designers get to design, they have to get the job! That means they have to get you – the potential client – understand you and your needs, build confidence in the designer’s creativity and ability to respect your time and money and most of all – listen, as well as advise. This step is eliminated if you’re doing the project on your own – or is it? I find that many homeowners have general ideas about their wants and needs, but are at a loss to button down the specifics, don’t address their wants and needs, and don’t always make the best choices on where and how to spend their money.
Many of our clients are folks who call us after the fact – and after they’ve made costly mistakes, both in the renovation and the decoration process. “Know thyself” is a proverb – understanding how that translates into a home that reflects you, answers your family’s needs, is welcoming for friends and loved ones, is appropriate for your space, home location, and budget, while standing the test of time, is not easy to accomplish.
Years of training in the history of furniture styles, color, space planning, window treatment product usage, kitchen and bath planning, renovation skills, as well as providing professional sources to accomplish the job are what designers bring to the table.
It is always interesting to me that most people would never think of going before a judge in a court case without an attorney representing them, or sit in a meeting with the IRS without their accountant, or invest a sizeable amount of money without a financial advisor. They embark, however, on a costly bath or kitchen redo, or expensive interior renovation or redecoration without professional help. (Professional help – not the store sales person who appears to be an expert, but only has one goal in mind.)
The designer you choose has to convince you they will be there from start to finish, be your personal expert, your advocate and safety net, with the credentials and expertise to understand you and accomplish your project on time and in budget. They should be someone who you enjoy working with, planning with, laughing with and learning with. After all, the process of doing something wonderful for you and your home should not feel like having a tooth pulled!
In a day when the internet has become the information highway in all things, and the media simplifies and often distorts, “real” people have often become undervalued. Smart people, not rich people, hire real people and respect their worth, their intentions and their hard work on your behalf. Next time you’ll see why.
It looks so easy – right? After all, on TV, a project gets completed in a half hour. As head of a busy design firm for over 4 decades, I can tell you, that’s entertainment! Perhaps if people understood how designers actually work for their clients it would demystify the process for do-it yourselfers, as well. It might also help anyone thinking about, or getting ready to embark on a design project, in making good choices to ensure its success.
In a professional design firm, there is a process for every project. It is established to provide a learning journey for the client while helping the designer move forward creatively, efficiently, and cost effectively (yes designers are cost conscious!). Most design projects go through 4 phases – design, specification, procurement, and installation. But even before designers get to design, they have to get the job! That means they have to get you – the potential client – understand you and your needs, build confidence in the designer’s creativity and ability to respect your time and money and most of all – listen, as well as advise. This step is eliminated if you’re doing the project on your own – or is it? I find that many homeowners have general ideas about their wants and needs, but are at a loss to button down the specifics, don’t address their wants and needs, and don’t always make the best choices on where and how to spend their money.
Many of our clients are folks who call us after the fact – and after they’ve made costly mistakes, both in the renovation and the decoration process. “Know thyself” is a proverb – understanding how that translates into a home that reflects you, answers your family’s needs, is welcoming for friends and loved ones, is appropriate for your space, home location, and budget, while standing the test of time, is not easy to accomplish.
Years of training in the history of furniture styles, color, space planning, window treatment product usage, kitchen and bath planning, renovation skills, as well as providing professional sources to accomplish the job are what designers bring to the table.
It is always interesting to me that most people would never think of going before a judge in a court case without an attorney representing them, or sit in a meeting with the IRS without their accountant, or invest a sizeable amount of money without a financial advisor. They embark, however, on a costly bath or kitchen redo, or expensive interior renovation or redecoration without professional help. (Professional help – not the store sales person who appears to be an expert, but only has one goal in mind.)
The designer you choose has to convince you they will be there from start to finish, be your personal expert, your advocate and safety net, with the credentials and expertise to understand you and accomplish your project on time and in budget. They should be someone who you enjoy working with, planning with, laughing with and learning with. After all, the process of doing something wonderful for you and your home should not feel like having a tooth pulled!
In a day when the internet has become the information highway in all things, and the media simplifies and often distorts, “real” people have often become undervalued. Smart people, not rich people, hire real people and respect their worth, their intentions and their hard work on your behalf. Next time you’ll see why.