Welcome to Part 2 of our series! If you haven’t checked out Part 1 yet, “Essential Questions to Ask Your Designer BEFORE Your Renovation,” make sure to catch up here first!
In our last post, we covered the top 4 questions and WHY they matter. It’s all about ensuring that the Interior Designer you choose is the right fit for your project. With full-service design projects spanning months, or even years, it’s important that every meeting leaves you feeling excited and informed.
Today, we’re diving into questions that are particularly important if you’re entrusting your Interior Designer with sourcing, ordering, managing, and coordinating product (furniture, decor, window coverings etc). If you’re new to this, you might not realize how much time custom furniture orders can take. Planning ahead is key. And beyond efficiency, you want a design team that truly listens to you. Design should be a collaborative and enjoyable process, not something daunting you have to tackle alone.
Let’s explore the questions that will help you find the perfect design team for your project.
How will we communicate throughout the project? How frequently will I hear from you?
You don’t want to feel left in the dark at any time during your project: why isn’t my interior designer calling me? Is anything happening? Are they even working on my project?
These thoughts can be very anxiety-provoking and in my experience with our clients, it’s more often that “no news is good news”. But, you’ll want to make sure you understand the interior designer’s process and key milestones so you aren’t worried if you don’t hear from them during a certain phase. Once you know their process, you’ll have a full understanding of all the things they’re doing behind the scenes to keep your project on track.
Another important thing to be aware of is your preferred communication style and your designer’s. If you prefer texts but email is how your interior designer and their team communicate best, you may need to adjust your expectations OR find a designer who’s communication style aligns with yours (yup Align Interior Design was named for a reason, aligning your budget, expectations and team/resources… but I digress).
At Align Interior Design, we pride ourselves on our proactive communication and documentation. For that reason, we mainly communicate via email or in-person/ virtual meetings. We pre-schedule every milestone meeting and providing recap emails after every meeting that includes; homework items, next steps and what we will be working on behind the scenes. This communication style allows our clients always to know what to expect and we are able to minimize surprises and delays.
Is there anything else I’ll need to pay for throughout the process?
Hopefully the interior designer’s fees are well understood right from the start. But you don’t want any surprises down the road. Make sure you have a full understanding of all costs that will be associated with your project.
Will there be shipping and delivery charges? Fees to store furniture items before install day? A re-selection fee if you change your mind at the eleventh hour? Don’t be shy about asking these questions!
At Align Interior Design, we believe in transparency and have established project minimums for both design fees and budgets for furnishing or construction projects. Our design services are a fixed fee based on a very clearly defined scope of work and target budget that we establish together during your initial consultation. Then when we are ready to order product, we quote everything and once we receive your approval, full payment is due prior to orders being placed. You can read more about how we charge for renovation project design fees here.
Separate Charges to Note
Shipping/warehousing: During our budgeting process and during our product quoting process we will estimate your shipping/ warehousing fees and provide you with an approximation prior to placing orders (our estimates are always pretty darn accurate but there are some variables, that’s why we don’t fix fee this number). The shipping payment will be due 1 week prior to your scheduled installation. When you order through us we will coordinate white glove installation where the delivery team brings it into your appropriate space, unwraps it, sets it up and removes/ recycles all debris for you. – This might not seem like a big deal but trust me when you order a lift desk and realize it comes in 1000x pieces and takes 4 hours to build, you’ll thank us.
Installation: Outside of your custom furniture installation, if you require things like mirrors or art to be hung we can coordinate the installation of those finishing touch details for you.
Styling/ decor: Typically, as part of our furniture/ decor packages we include a decor sourcing allowance within our proposal, however some local clients opt for a decor shopping day with us! And while, this does cost a little more, it is such a fun experience for both of us to have together while you are finally getting to see your whole home come together.
Photography: Most interior designers will want to photograph a fully furnished space, at Align Interior Design we do not charge anything for the photoshoot day and we provide you with a copy of the photos at the end as a thank you for allowing us to take over your home for 1-2 days.
If you’re interested in working together? Submit a Project Inquiry Form and we’ll schedule a free 15 min alignment call and share in depth information about our services and pricing so you know what to expect.
That said, we know that you aren’t always looking for a full-service investment, so that’s why we have created our small project Design Immersion Day Experience. Click here to read more info, or sign up for our Home Edit newsletter where we share home design resources and first access to our upcoming online self-paced products!
Ok I’ll be honest, I really want you to join our newsletter because we give away a ton of valuable, non-fluff content that I know will help you, but let’s get back into the questions.
What if I don’t like the design you come up with?
The reality is that experienced interior designers are very well-versed in collecting all the right information from you to help ensure the design concept will be perfectly aligned with what you are hoping for (and, maybe exceed what you are expecting!). We know the right questions to ask, how to spot patterns among your inspiration images, and how to distill everything you tell them into a design that is custom-suited to your needs and wants. We even help you navigate each of the decisions with your partner.
But there may be instances when a designer misses the mark just a bit. And you want what you want, right?! So make sure to understand your designer’s process for revising the design concept, or making re-selections of items that just don’t resonate with you. There should be a workable and efficient process in place if you are not 100% happy with what your designer proposes.
At Align Interior Design, we want you to love your design and that’s why we spend time during the onboarding phase of each project to truly understand each client’s style. Then, once they’ve seen the design at presentation, there will be a dedicated revision period specific to the service booked. During the revision phase, our clients are able to request changes so we can make new selections that work with the other design elements. Our welcome guide that is sent to you prior to our first meeting together outlines exactly what to expect and how to request revisions and how to keep on track if you don’t want your design fee to increase.
What happens if there are issues during the process — like something gets delayed?
Or if something goes wrong with an item, or a piece of furniture I purchased through you?
You’ll want to understand how your designer handles issues and reacts when something goes wrong. Ask about both their approach to handling issues and concerns, as well as their timing to do so.
It would be great if there were no hiccups throughout your project, but it is good to know how things will be resolved if and when they do happen. After all, we won’t lie there will always be at least one hiccup that comes up, it’s not a matter of finding a perfect designer (because we are human after all) but it’s about finding a designer who clearly communicates and you can trust will help find the best solution, efficiently.
At Align Interior Design, if we are ordering custom furniture for you, we work with trusted trade partners that we know will help if/when a problem arises. To be honest, there are certain retailers that we will not order through on your behalf (and ask you to order direct if you truly want it) because we have had terrible customer service experiences and it’s not worth our time or energy to order through that retailer.
We really work on building relationships with our preferred trade resources for exactly that reason- we know they will help and resolve issues quickly if we need them to.
What about the end of the project — during construction or installation? Will I hear from you or see you once construction starts?
How often will you come by to check on things? And, what if there are changes or questions we need to figure out quickly?
Hopefully, your interior designer won’t ghost you in the thick of things, but, to make sure you know what to expect, ask about the process of bringing all the finishing parts together. And, be sure to understand their design services include. Many designers provide project management and construction administration services, but some don’t.
At Align Interior Design, if you work with us in a full-service capacity for a renovation or new-build and you are local (anywhere in the Fraser Valley, Lower Mainland Vancouver, Whistler BC or on the islands) we will create a comprehensive design package for you, hand it off to your hired contractor and work along side you/ them through to the completion of your project.
One caveat, not all build teams are the same, the ones that we work best with are ones who want the designer to be involved and value us being onsite at certain stages. Some do prefer to just dive in and we don’t receive a phone call and in that case we truly don’t have any way to help you navigate your progress. We have a list of local builders that we highly recommend and collaborate well with, we are more than happy to share those referrals with you if you need them. In our contract depending on your scope of work we outline our estimated amount of site trips needed so you can anticipate the investment in advance. (You can read more about how our fee structure works for renovation projects here.)
For furniture/decor projects, one of our team members will be onsite for the install day(s) for quality control.
Who handles all the final details, like hanging artwork, placing accessories, buying light bulbs, removing packaging material and shipping boxes?
I briefly touched on this earlier, but I think it’s worth giving it’s own section.
It will be helpful for you to understand what you’ll be responsible for when all the finishing pieces are brought into your home. The term “white glove delivery” means all items are assembled and packaging materials are removed and disposed of. Some designers automatically include white-glove and some prefer you accept the orders from the delivery drivers. If this is the case, you will need to be home for a couple hour window and depending on the delivery type your designer opted for either tell the driver where to bring the item, then unpack it and set it up yourself, or in some cases some retail companies might just “drop-ship” where it will be left by your front door and it’s your responsibility to bring it it. Take it from me, white-glove does not usually cost that much more, but it is worth it!
You’ll also want to understand if and when your designer will put items in place (hanging artwork, placing accessories). This is called “styling” and you’ll want to know when this will happen, whether you need to be out of your home, if there are additional fees for it, and what specific last-minute responsibilities you will have to get everything to 100% completion.
At Align Interior Design, we offer installation and styling services for our clients that order furniture through us in a full-service capacity. The styling at the end is truly the magic touch that pulls everything together!
Phew, you’re still with me!
That must be a sign that you’re either interested in working with an Interior Designer and you are gathering info, or you’re an Industry colleague (hey! 👋), either way I’d love to connect.
💡For my design friends: We can chat on Instagram: @aligninteriordesign
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