Interior Designer Vs Floorcovering Store For New Homes

Posted on Feb 3rd, 2012 by Don

All contractors want what’s best for their clients and work for them to get the greatest value.

Let’s take 2 scenarios. 2 Contractors each building a $360,000 home for their clients, one contractor sends them to a floor covering store with a $15,000 budget. The salesperson jumps right in and does an adequate job trying to put colors and textures together on carpet, tile, granite tops, but the clients got a great deal on there oak hardwood, but it doesn’t go very well with the knotty alder cabinets but nobody says anything because they want to be polite. Oh and nobody mentioned how important it is that the cabinets and the hardwood floor need to compliment each other and have a natural flow. The floor covering store has kept them close to budget which pleases the contractor and the client. But now they have to pick their wall colors on their own and the color they picked is way more golden than expected, and does not work well with the cabinets and the carpet they picked. Now the client and the contractor have a problem to solve with no professional designer to help them through it, and it continues with plumbing, lighting, wood trim selection and stains and so on, you get the picture. At the end of the project the client is frustrated with all the decisions they made and will have to live with and the contractor cant wait to finish the home.

In the second scenario the contractor building the other $360,000 home sends the client into Design Works with the same $15,000 budget. The client meets the Interior Designer that has been doing this successfully for 25 years, the designer has taken the $15,000 budget and has broken it down room by room so they know exactly what they are spending as they finish a room (no surprises). They are not immediately shown product but a lot of time is spent on the feel of the home when completed. What the function of each room is and what do you want each room to feel like on completion. Then a discussion takes place on how we are going to make each room flow together. So the cabinets work with the flooring and the lighting functions for the task at hand and it illuminates the areas of the home you want to have accented. Now we can start selecting flooring. When each room was selected with all the products going into that room lay out before the client. Paint was selected that went with the products selected. Oh by the way, not only did the client get a great deal on the hardwood because Design Works has 30 suppliers of hardwood but it worked with the cabinets. They also got a subway crackle finish tile in the bathroom with in there budget also. The client was shown a lot of products in their budget for the master bath. But they decided to go over budget on this room, due to its importance and constant use. They were told how much extra they were spending as they selected. After seeing how easy colors and textures went together in this home the client was asking the designer on there expertise on lighting and plumbing fixtures. The gold color the designer picked for the living room did look to strong by client and contractor, but when the designer came out to look they were put at ease that colors always look to strong when that is the only color in the room but when all the furniture gets in the room pictures, accessories, and window covering it will give a warm glow. When the home was completed the client was ecstatic and the process was easy and fun. When their family and friends went through the house all they could say was "wow." By the way the builder got another house to build for the co-worker of the husband. Maybe Bob Britton was right when he states in our contractor video (you can see on this website)

"I used to think that hiring a designer was a luxury now I think is the way to go."

You can decide for yourself which client got thebest value.

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