Many Brits consider talking about money to be uncouth, but outlining your project budget to your interior designer is not only the best way to get an end result that works for you, it will undoubtedly give you the biggest return on investment.
To understand why it’s beneficial (I’d go so far as to say essential) to share your budget it’s worth considering the two basic costs of any design project:
- Fees – these pay for the time that the design team spend on your project.
- Product purchasing – this is for the physical purchasing of all the materials that go into taking your project from a design concept to reality.
By setting your designer a budget they will get a clear picture, from the start, with regards the price band of products that you should be considering and how much time they should be spending on your project.
There is no point in presenting top of the range upholstery fabrics, for instance, if that is not appropriate for your budget.
In the world of interiors there is a vast range of products vying for each and every design decision, and that is within one price band alone. Across the price brands the sea of products is staggering and so it’s important, from an efficiency aspect alone, to know which price band we should be looking to source from.
Having an open season approach incurs unnecessary design and consultation time, thereby racking up unnecessary deign fees that aren’t going to go anywhere. Not a great start point for an efficient and effective project.
It will give you greater flexibility. With having a clear steer on budgets it’s easier to mix and match. You may decide, for instance, that the De la Cuona’s embossed gold linen at £ 300 per metre is central to the scheme and you cannot live without it. With having your budget in place you know that you can steel from Peter in order to pay Paul and so the imminent and intended artwork purchase goes on hold, or you find an alternative supplier for the dining room chairs in order to see your embossed gold linen safely installed.
Another important benefit of sharing your budget with your designer is that this will give them a clear indication of how much design and consultation time your budget allows for. The designer can therefore be very clear as to what kind of service level you can expect to receive.
Expectations can be appropriately managed and any shortfalls discussed and addressed at the onset.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, no-one likes a project that goes over budget. Without a project budget the designer has absolutely no steer in terms of sourcing and time allocation, and so you can almost guarantee that your privately held expectations will not be met – a frustrating situation for all involved and one to be avoided at all costs.
This all brings me quite neatly back to the beginning. The best piece of advice that I can give you is that before embarking on a journey of any sorts with a designer of any sorts (as the principles set out above remain the same), the first thing to establish is trust. Make sure you trust implicitly your designer of choice. The journey is a long and winding one. Be sure you are in good hands.
Please take a moment to see what our clients have had to say about their respective journeys with us to know that trust is central to our delivery.
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