If you are getting ready to hire an Interior Designer for a kitchen design or full home remodeling project, you need to read this post! We've compiled some very important questions you should ask the designers you are interviewing for your kitchen design project. Not all interior designers are the same. There are some key factors that will differentiate one from another and having one that gets you will mean achieving your end goal or coming up short and possibly not liking the final product.
How do you keep up to date with the trends and products available?
The lobby area in one of the furniture buildings at High Point Market in High Point, NC. Our interior designers go to many shows like this throughout the year to gain insight in the market for our clients.
Cabinetry, Lighting and Furniture Products
Manufacturers update their specification binders during the year giving us new insight into which products they are carrying, discontinuing and improving. We travel once a year to the Kitchen and Bath Trade Show to update our team on the latest improvements for the industry. Here we have the chance to meet many different professionals industry wide. This show and many others like it provide a good context to our growing base of knowledge. Without these types of events we would not become as great of a resource for our clients. A big show we attend each year is the High Point Furniture Market in High Point, NC. This show is so big our team has never been able to see the entire floor of products. We typically shop for our clients and get updates on trends surfacing for the coming year of design.
Manufacturer Relationships
Being at the shows helps us to put a face with a name. We like to meet the manufacturers of the products we bring to our clients so we can learn more about how they operate and how it will affect our kitchen design projects. We have relationships with some local manufacturers too. It is great when we can visit their showrooms and see their backend manufacturing process. We want to carry the story of how something was built through to the story of our client’s kitchen design.
How often are you present during the construction phase?
There are certain aspects of the kitchen design construction process that require your interior designer to be hands on and available. Some of those high priority points are:
- The initial meeting with the contractor and the client
- The electrical walk through with the contractor
- Tile setting plan with the contractor
- When certain products arrive
For an interior designer to achieve her goal with a kitchen design client, she must be available for these and several other points in time during the construction phase. Helping the client make it through all the hurdles that come during construction is necessary to keep the project on track and see the client’s vision through to the end. One way an interior designer can pull all of this together is to be in tune with the contractor’s schedule. Coordinating her time around the schedule of the contractor helps the client to have a much smoother construction phase experience.
How long will the design process take?
For the kitchen design process you should expect around three or four months. This does not include construction. The different aspects of this process include:
- Getting to know the client’s goals and vision for the space
- Space planning
- Electrical layout
- Selecting the finishes
- Putting together the specification binders
As we have mentioned in other posts, the kitchen design process is something you should approach with patience. If you want the kitchen of your dreams it will not happen overnight. Taking the time to think through how your space will best be used will allow you to make informed choices and ultimately achieve great results. You’ll end up with a kitchen design that tells your story.
