How an interior designer can add value to your home improvement project

There are several key project team members that make up TDT – The Design Team. The homeowner of last year's Parade of Homes winner of People’s Choice Award coined this term, and I just love it! It is important to be familiar with the overall goal of and individual member responsibilities of TDT. It can be comprised of many different parties, but at a minimum, is made up of homeowners and skilled trades.

• Homeowners: have needs and dreams, and a budget and timeline. 
• Architects: design the overall bones of a building and how it looks from the outside and relates to its surroundings - balance of volume and void, textures and colors, and developing dominant, sub-dominate and subordinate parts.
• General Contractor: figures out the best way to build and execute a project, pulls together and manages a team of skilled trades, while also managing the project schedule and budget.
• Skilled Trades: framers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, HVAC specialists, masons, drywallers, painters. The list could go on.
• Interior Designers: starting at project inception, listen to the needs and dreams of the homeowners, distills and synthesizes the information, figures out the best spatial layouts and functions based on homeowner lifestyle, and helps them create a cohesive vision to be implemented via design documentation and drawings distributed to the team, while guiding them through the details along the way until they reach the finish line.

The goal of every design team is that when the project is finished, not only do the homeowners love it new, but it’s a continual joy to inhabit because of the thoughtful design and quality build that make it unique and perfect for them.  Leaving few, if any, moments of “why didn’t someone mention that,” “I wish we had thought of that,” or “wish we had done that.” 

An interior designer can elevate the project by relaying their technical knowledge and the homeowner’s vision to the builder via specification documents and drawings; save homeowners stress by keeping them apprised of options, and allotting time to review them well in advance of the builders request for decisions, keeping the project on schedule; and save money by anticipating, avoiding and mitigating mistakes or occlusions.

While some homeowners have time and energy to commit to the building process and all the decisions to be made, they may not have the foresight to mention that they want something that is best implemented in the very beginning. For example: remotely controlled locks on entry doors. A project is nearing completion and the door has been framed in and is ready for hardware in the next couple of weeks. When the homeowners are asked for their door hardware selection, they tell the contractor it’s a remotely controlled lockset which needs hardwiring. Now there are three disappointing options.

1. The homeowners can forgo their intent and install something standard

2. They can pay for a change order to have door taken apart, electricians to make a special service call to install, and carpenter to put door frame back together while also potentially delaying project delivery date

3. Spend time researching other options and potentially delay the project delivery date.

If the special locks had been accounted for in the beginning of the project, it may have cost 50 percent less, and would have been implemented without delay to the project.

These are the kind of details that an interior designer can often catch before this kind of scenario plays out.

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Your local home builders association is your best resource to find a member, hire a local professional or join the National Association of Home Builders. To learn more about Lakes Region Builders & Remodelers Association, visit lakesregionbuilders.com.