Leave it too late and you project could be left with irreversible or costly mistakes!
If your at the stage where you need furniture and accessories and only then look at hiring an Interior Designer.....we'll let you know you're really far too late.
At Magpye Creative Interiors as well as full service design and finishing touches we help our clients from the VERY beginning with renovations and new builds. We know that renovating or building a new home without the help of an interior designer can be a huge mistake!
We find that this essential help is often overlooked when a potential client is in the throes of researching and onboarding the team they need to build or renovate their home. People who've no experience working with a designer tend to think that their builder, general contractor, and architect can take care of all the design work and execution of the build or renovation, and a designer only plays a role in the furnishings after construction. Sure they might show you some decent stuff and some sensible solutions, however these professionals are NOT designers and they won't have the design know how, product knowledge or attention to details to pull together both the best practical and aesthetic solutions. So ultimately you'll be missing out on the best possible outcome.
THE BUILDER & GENERAL CONTRACTOR
The builder's and general contractor's role includes assembling and managing all the trades people responsible for building or renovating your home, creating the schedule, quote the materials quantity required for any installation products, manage the materials, interpreting and executing the plan exactly as drawn, communicate with you the client, manage the construction budget and manage job site.
You shouldn't leave designing your home to the builder or contractor. They will often have opinions, but they are NOT designers. They may select what makes the job easier, whats the status quo or what products they are most familiar with. Instead you need a plan that's carefully documented on paper.
THE ARCHITECT
The architect's role, includes predominately the style of the architecture and exterior design, this is their main focus, however they're also responsible for the layout of the interior with all the necessary rooms and traffic patterns in mind. But in essence, plans by an architect can be very general and a loose interpretation of what the home will be like finished. They are for the most part, based on industry standards and aren't necessarily customised.
Disclaimer; this isn't always the case, there're architects who have the eye of an interior designer, or have interior designers on staff. This is not to say that the plans aren't going to be great, we just always look for opportunities to improve the space to make it the best it can be for you and your family's lifestyle and needs. But this blog is all about opening your eyes to the realities, so you'll understand the differences and be able to ask the right questions.
THE GLUE
The interior designer is the glue that holds this group of professionals and the final outcome together. While an architect may have drawn up the plans, we can review those plans to make sure they work the best for your lifestyle. This is after deep diving and analysing how you will use the home, your lifestyle and routines, your hobbies and your overall needs. We're here to make sure nothing is left to chance and that the contractors have plans to follow and don't just make it up as they go along loosing the finer details that make the design feel flawless.
Check out our examples of interior architecture and floor plan suggestions on a variety of projects:
At Magpye Creative Interiors we start every project focused on layout, lifestyle and practicalities. We believe that if we don't focus on these from the start we're setting up a project to not fulfil the clients needs. We want to maximise the space and cater for the clients specific lifestyle. In essence we create a 'shopping list' of wants and needs.
EXAMPLES
During out initial conversations we discover you like to cook a lot of Indian food with heavy fragrance's. We'd suggest having a separate kitchen to your living area.
You like to entertain and have large parties with lots of people, yet there's only 1 downstairs loo and all the rest are upstair ensuite's only accessible through bedrooms which you'd like to keep private. So let's add another downstairs.
Something a bit simpler could be your dining room lighting plan. You may have expressed to us that you love entertaining and throwing great dinner parties. This means to us that you'd need to have a large enough dining room to accommodate several people, and a sideboard or bar type cabinet from where drinks could be served. This would affect the placement of the ceiling fixtures and the type of switches used.
We find out that your kids all play sports, you have 2 large dogs who love the outdoors, and your husband likes to ride his bike on the weekends, yet when we review the plans by your architect, we discover that there's only a tiny laundry room on the second level. Of course your architect has planned for doing laundry, but your family life means that you may want to have a larger laundry room and a mudroom near the garage where you would enter the home after these activities. This may even mean a couple different washing machines, a laundry sink to support these functions and a large doggie shower for the dogs.
You have young kids and yet only one large living space. Future-proof the property by adding a playroom to contain the mess, this can then be changed in the future into a teenage snug where all their friends can hang and you can retain your living room without hearing video games all evening!
This is something that as a designer who knows your needs and how you live would be able to "redline" on the plans to have the architect rework. It is all about the way you want to live in your home and what makes life easier.
At Magpye Creative Interiors we'll ask lots of questions to try and discover and understand you as a client, however we're still just getting to know you and we won't know all your idiosyncrasies. To make the most out of those initial meetings understand how to brief your designer. Read our blog post on the subject:
COMMON MISTAKES:
- Not enough lighting options which are essential for creating ambiance in your home.
- Oddly placed light fixtures and electric hardware.
- Clients having the walls plastered before considering electrics. Then not wanting to redo the work which impacts the overall design and finish.
- Standard electric and handle hardware which looks cheap and doesn't match the potential house scheme. There are so many fabulous options out there.
- Floor plug placement which needs to be planned really well as it's dependent on where the furniture will be placed in a room.
- Awkwardly placed radiators which mean you can't place a piece of furniture its place.
- Ugly radiators which are distracting and don't go with the style or decor of the home.
- Naff coving and skirtings which don't go with the stye of the home or add any design value.
- Coving and skirting which restricts adding panelling and needs to be ripped back off anyway.
- Awkwardly placed windows, or unnecessary windows that would interrupt the symmetry of a wall. Or, missing windows which aren't making the most of a view or adding light or design value to a space.
- Terrible door selection that either don't go with the style of the home or style of the space you're trying to achieve. This can be so pricy to rectify or it will dominate your look.
- Standard flooring and staircase flooring selection when there are so many beautiful alternatives which would elevate the value of your home.
- Boring staircase banister selection. This should be a wow feature as you enter the home and often it's just so standard.
- Floor plans which just don't make sense!! Not utalising the space logically or for the lifestyle of the client. Sometimes we need to move walls, add rooms or add doors to maximise the spaces potential.
- Internal window colours which don't match the decor.
- Odd arches, angles and niches.
- Bog standard staircase and banister selection.
- Double sinks in a master bathroom where there isn't enough room, or where it's not needed.
- Master bathrooms that are too large and not enough wardrobe space.
- Plumbing layouts.
- Cabinets that don't go all the way to the ceiling where you loose essential storage space, leave a gap to collect dust and allow lines to break up what would could have been a more seamless design.
- Kitchen islands that are loo large or small.
- Furniture which is too large, too small or just not right....and is un-returnable, then this dominates the design from the start. Such a waste of money.
- Non-existent custom joinery work where it would maximise storage and really 'look the business'.
- Not thinking about cleaver design hacks which will make the clients life easier, such as adding a laundry shoot.
- Clients not having the knowledge of products or design potential which will elevate their home and add both aesthetic and actually property value.
WHEN
The interior designer should be brought on as soon as you start thinking about a project. We're great sounding boards to bounce ideas off of to help get you to your dream. We can educate you throughout the process, assist you to onboard other professionals if you don't already have them, review plans and materials selection, through to furnishing your home into your dream space.
An interior designer can then work alongside you and your architect so that we can ensure that you are maximising both the exterior AND the interior. Prior to meeting the architect we can have a discovery meeting to help you delve deep and understand what you really want for the interior lifestyle of the property. You can then brief your architect with more confidence and clarity to essentially make their job easier.
Once the architect presents their design we can then review plans and make our suggestions prior to foundations being laid.
And don't expect to bring on a designer last minute and then expect and pressure them into providing accurate plans for you contractors to work to when the design hasn't even been completed. Thats a sure fire way to set up things to go wrong. Work needs to be scheduled in and good design takes time; let the designer lead the schedule. Let them complete the work, lets analysis it together, and ONLY then get the contractors involved when products have been signed off and are onsite.
We have a role to play from the very start; Making it up as you go along will lead to mistakes, missed opportunities and a compromised finish. We can do this in stages. Start with the layout, lifestyle and practicalities, with interior architecture considered. Then a 'home concept' from the feeling, materials, finishes, hardware, flooring, coving, cornicing, etc, consideration of panelling and features such as staircases and doors, plus initial lighting plans. Then at a later date move onto specific room designs with the aforementioned work as the canvas.
Onboarding a designer themselves may take weeks to months depending on their project schedule. Designers can have a degree of flexibility on their projects as different projects will all be a different stages; they could have several on the go but some stages are much more time consuming than others as they're either working towards a deadline or waiting for the next phase in which they will be more heavily involved. So you could be lucky or may have to be patient.
Don't expect that a room design will be completed in a couple of weeks and the furniture to be delivered next day. That's just not reality; good design takes time too and good products even longer. Co-ordinating meetings, concept, research, ordering samples, waiting for quotes, then inevitable changes as the design develops. There isn't a formula or set time when you can be your most creative or inspired. Also, staring at a project non stop can unproductive in achieving the best results, sometimes I'll set a project aside for a week and come back to it with fresh eyes. The design work itself will be time consuming and timelines for products could be very long so plan to start specific room designs well ahead of your renovations being completed or planning to move in....you won't have anything to sit on otherwise!
SIGNING UP
Stating the obvious, however in experience...it's actually necessary. You may be speaking with your designer months prior to hiring them, but don't let this skew your interpretation of how long you've been working with them or their availablity. They will only be scheduling your work on signing the T&C's and receiving payment of invoice/deposit and they won't be reserving space for you in their diary until then; think of it as a live 'open book' until you do. Unless you've secured their time they may then be unavailable to commence work on your project for some time, then you also need to factor in how long the design work itself will take ( as per the above). You can secure your designer months prior to you wanting the work to start, however you may not be able to secure them the week before, and your project will be delayed. So sign up and talk realistic dates.
MATERIALS
Selecting the right materials will help your new home look its best even when completely empty adding exponential value to your home. As designers, we have access to a lot of unique materials and suppliers and we know how to bring it all together for you. From the flooring, mouldings, cabinetry, panelling, countertops, tiles, carpet, paint colour and even grout colour.
FIXTURES
The 'jewellery of the home'; light fixtures, lighting hardware, radiators, handle hardware, doors, staircases, banisters, appliances, plumbing fixtures. We know many interesting and good quality brands thats you'll never have hear of, (depending on your budget) we can access these desirable and exclusive products.
We'll meet with you to review the curated selection of samples of all the materials and fixtures and explain how they all flow together, with layouts and elevations where needed, so you can understand the selection process, see it all together and where they will be applied. You'll be provided detailed drawings, elevations and layouts for your builder or general contractor to review, We're not plumbers, tilers, or electricians so we complete these to the best of our ability but we'd need them to raise any concerns and discuss these with us to find the best solution. We can amend plans when required and ultimately we'll know we're working form the same 'hymn sheet' and they know what materials and fixtures go where and how materials transition. We know that there are many industry standards that are generally accepted by trades people that we as designers know are not the best, so we make sure that nothing is left to chance or their interpretation.
We curate every single detail of every room to make sure it all flows without each room looking exactly the same. Your builder or general contractor will often recommend some of the more cliche and mainstream materials and fixtures (they perhaps even just find at the local merchants), and that can be impersonal, unimpressive, boring or actually devalue the home. If you're going through the trouble of building or renovating, you need a designer who can bring you something unique that will also remain timeless. They can look like luxury without breaking the bank. We'll also value engineer your project recommending luxury materials and fixtures mixed with the more affordable for a great result. We know where to apply what for the best results.
These are some of the little details that we as designers will consider because we understand how they affect the overall quality of your project.
If you're waiting for a new build home, and you have to make all your choices from their design centre or showroom partner, we can still help you. Their material choices tend to be very narrow, but we can meet with you for your design meeting and help you make the best selections for your home.
We also make site visits or hold digital meetings during construction to verify materials and make sure that the design is being carried out according to plan. With the plans to follow, decent contractors and communication those tiny details that can make or break your design should be carried out well; tile transitions, curb heights, electrical placements, trim details, tile layouts and so on.
Many people make the mistake of putting all their time, effort and money into the building and renovation process, and end up with a space the just misses the mark in so many ways. Long after the builder or general contractor hands you the keys, you now have to live with the house. As beautiful as the four walls and hard surfaces may be, it is not a finished and comfortable home without the furnishings layer, and when everything is planned from the start, it makes for an amazing home that you will enjoy for a very long time.
If you take nothing else from this post, take this one thought - The best case scenario is to bring on a designer as early as possible. We don't just help with furnishings, we want to make sure your entire home looks and functions at its best.
With Magpye Creative Interiors as your designer, everything, including furniture, window dressings, accents, accessories, rugs, wall finishes, comfortable bedding, plush towels, wardrobes, organised kitchens and laundry rooms, bathrooms, a homework area, office space, a place for the dogs are all planned for even before construction starts.
Once construction is over, you'll have your finishing touches ready to install; all the wonderful furnishings that makes your house a home. With no time lost you get to fully enjoy your home right away! Isn't that why you even did this to begin with?
At Magpye Creative Interiors we create unique space for unique clients. To enquire about working with us to create your dream interior please get in touch.
Katie
Katie Longshaw-Pye
Creative Director | Magpye Creative Interiors
Ribble Valley
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