It's All About the Process

Jun 3

In our latest blog we’re talking about the most important element of our business - process! From information gathering and discovery to the presentation and reveal, every stage of our design process is vital to meeting our client’s goals, every time.

If you’ve been following along over on Instagram you know we’ve been talking a lot about the process. Through our project intros, scheming presentations and reveals, we are always looking for ways to give you a closer look inside how we work through our design projects, both big and small. When our clients have a better understanding of our process and what comes next in a project, they tend to be less anxious because there’s less of the unknown. And as a result, they are more open to the discovery aspect of the project. Which we love! This earned confidence opens the door to trying out new ideas, taking risks and seeing things from a different perspective. It also creates a stronger collaboration from beginning to end.

Here are the 5 key components of our process:

**Getting to Know You**

The first meeting is all about information gathering or the “getting to know you” phase. Here’s where we sit down to ask our client all those important questions around project scope, design preferences, lifestyle needs, budget and timing. We’ll ask clients to share inspiration images so we better understand what resonates with them. Instead of going off of feedback like: “I’m modern,” “I’m traditional,” “I like color,” “I don’t like color,” we find that you can pull out a clearer vision by looking at images. It really cuts down on any gray area and helps us to hone in on their style. During this phase, we also talk about lifestyle needs and how they plan to use the space. We’ll work to build the design around those goals.

The Discovery

A newly added component to our design process, the discovery meeting gives us one more opportunity to ensure we have the design approach right before the presentation. In this phase, we’ll have the furniture floor plan developed so we can go through all the programming and furniture placements making sure they meet all the functional lifestyle needs. We’ll also give the client a sneak peek of the fabrics, wallcoverings, materials and finishes so we can get the most constructive feedback possible. If there’s something they absolutely love we know we’ll include that in the presentation. We find that this gives our client’s a much clearer roadmap of what will be in the design presentation and reduces the number of revisions.

**Presentation Day**

Our next step is the design presentation (aka Christmas morning!) After the important information gathering and discovery stages are complete and both sides are feeling good about the details, we move into developing the design presentation. With our client’s information in hand, we draft floor plans, select surface materials and finishes, scour fabrics and furniture, and design custom pieces. The presentation really helps to show how all the elements come together to create a cohesive home design. We’ll lay all the pieces out on the table to give a birdseye view of the entire design project. Here’s a peek at the setup for presentation day!

Putting the Design in Place

Once the design concept is approved, we’ll get to work on gathering bids from our trusted contractors, vendors and artisans to complete the work with intimated costs for each room. And after an approved budget is received we are onto the bulk of implementing the project. Collaborating with custom workrooms, scheduling all the subcontractor work, ensuring item inspections and on-time delivery, and planning for a seamless installation day. Many transactions take place during this phase so we rely on an online client portal giving our client control and transparency when it comes to the costs and schedule.