Myth Buster Series - Part I: My Designer Will Spend All My Money.

We are starting a fun little series here on the blog called "Myth Buster Series". This is where I will expose some common myths out there about interior design, and provide compelling evidence that these are just that - myths; no truth to them.

In today's post, we will tackle the money conversation - "my designer will spend all my money" - or some version of this statement.

Emerald green silk draperies, green hair on hide nightstands

Vignette From Flower Magazine Showhouse Baton Rouge

Before I get into it, imagine with me this hypothetical scenario.

Let's say that you have always dreamed of going to Europe - name any place you like. You work hard for a few years, watched how you spent money, and finally you have enough money set aside to afford your dream trip to Europe.

You reach out to the best travel guide you could find in the area. It was important to you to find a travel guide with enough experience, expertise and knowledge of the areas that you wanted to explore. You even did a bit of research to see what sites you'd like to visit but relied heavily on the travel guide to suggest some lesser known but wonderful areas for a fully immersive experience on your trip.

Of course your travel guide is super professional and discuss what your investment is for the experience you desire well in advance, and set your expectations for what the experience will be like. You were pretty adamant that you will only spend X amount and nothing else.

You go on this trip, and no doubt you had a great time. Your travel guide delivered as promised - showed you the sites as planned and you return home feeling good about your trip and what you invested in the trip.

Then you meet up with a friend for lunch and begin to share some of the places you went to on your trip. The friend then asks - did you go to this place, or that place, what about the other place? No, no & no, you didn't go to any of those places. Some of them were hidden gems that only a well connected travel guide would know about.

So you reach out to your travel guide and you ask, what the heck? Why didn't you tell me about these places? I would have loved to go explore them. Your travel guide then tells you, well, your budget didn't allow for those extras. We went to the places that fit within the budget you expressed to me.

The honest to goodness truth now - how would you feel?

Would you say, well ok then, you did your job as promised, or would you have preferred if your travel guide had told you about these spots and let you decide if you'd like to spend extra to explore them?

There's no wrong answer. Just food for thought.

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, I would want my travel guide to understand all the goals for my trip (not just my financial goals), and give me ALL the options, and let me decide which route I want to take. I would want to know about those extra sites, how much they cost and then have the option to work with my travel guide to redesign the trip.

Living Room Vignette From Casa Vilora Interiors Studio

Now that is a simplified version of the point I am trying to make, but before you go accusing your interior designer of spending all your money, consider why you even hired a designer to begin with - like with the travel guide scenario, you would likely want to see all the options available to you and you decide if they are worth the investment for you.

Interior designers have access to vast resources, vendors, trades, manufacturers, artisans that most consumers have never seen and don't have access to. They are the travel guide that know all the little hidden gems on that European trip. An interior designer's job is to build these resources and make them available to clients in a way that matches their unique visions.

While your budget is absolutely important to us and will be respected, we would be doing you a disservice to lead our design process only with a budget in mind and not the creativity and access to unique and inspired things to satisfy the grand vision you have, that you came to us for.

We invest heavily in attending furniture markets and trade shows multiple times each year to provide our clients with this access.

We can create any vision and price it out for you, but it doesn't mean you have to accept the vision exactly as it is - though we spend a lot of time listening before we create and it is often what is right for you. Neither do you have to accept it all right now. Projects can be done in phases.

You the consumer get to choose what you want to invest, but only after seeing the full potential and the exact plan to match your vision, and working with a professional team who will invest time into making the necessary revisions to get closer to your investment without compromising the original vision is important.

This is what anyone should want for themselves and for their experience with a reputable and professional design firm. There should be no fear that your designer's goal is to spend all your money because they are bringing solutions to your project.

The budget conversation is a layered conversation. It doesn't just happen in one meeting, and it should never be a turn-off when your designer wants to help you realize the full potential of your space based on what your vision is.

Money can be a very personal and private topic, but it is one that is very important to have with your designer, and full transparency for everyone involved is very important.

The goal is never to spend all your money, but to invest in the things that are most important to you.

That's why it is imperative to work with a firm who understands the importance of both (your vision and your investment) and will help you achieve the perfect balance that you will love for years to come, without feeling like you compromised.

Dining room with geometric wallpaper and stained wood

A Tailored Dining Room In Katy TX

My approach is that I am more so your interior designer than your budget manager.

Don't get me wrong - I honor both roles, but I will always make the design my priority.

I get a full understanding of your vision, your goal, your desires, what you have to have now, what can wait, what you're flexible on, and so much more. Then I want to know what is your investment range, and it will be some of the same questions - how flexible are you with adjusting that range. It helps to be completely transparent with your designer. We are both working towards the same goal.

When we are talking about your financial investment range for whatever the scope of work, we can only pull from historical data of past projects. This means we are making a really good guess as to what your project will cost.

But we all know that no two projects are ever going to be the same and they certainly will never cost the same, so right out of the gate, the budget conversation has to have some flexibility built-in.

What is most important to you, may not be for another client, and so we can't arrive at a final number at the initial meeting. However, it is very important to discuss ranges, limits and flexibility in the first few conversations.

Colorful living room with lots of patterns

Fresh And Colorful Living Room In Lafayette Louisiane

I have had clients who are super adamant about commissioning original artwork - which typically cost more than mass produced customizable prints. Both projects will have art work and will look amazing, but one project will have a considerably higher artwork budget than the other, which naturally affects the overall budget.

We could do this with every line item.

We could purchase a 22x22 throw pillow for $100 and another for $500 or more.

The ranges are vast, but a part of getting to know you and what is important to you is understanding where you're comfortable in that range, and how flexible you are to potentially exceed that range if we find the perfect pieces that will make your heart sing.

I am in the midst of building my own dream home. I had my heart set on honed marble for the kitchen countertops and a certain budget. Wouldn't you know that as I went out looking for marble within my budget, I found the perfect one that.....you guessed it......exceeded my budget by almost 20%.

I had a decision to make. Leave it be and think about it forever. Find a dupe, and think about it forever, or go for it and cut back in another area if possible. I did the latter.

You get to decide which you would choose in a similar situation.

Bold And Beautiful Fulshear Dining Room

There are several ways we whole-heartedly engage in the budget conversation to make sure our clients feel good about their decision and love the result.

We will discuss a high-low strategy. What that means is that we will curate higher-end products where it counts - the statement pieces and "workhorse pieces" that make the room - and go with lower end for other pieces. Upholstery is an example of where we will go mid to higher-end and accent tables is where we try to go with some lower end pieces. It is a very detailed process to create just the right balance where it all feels luxurious.
Create a budget worksheet and explore different scenarios. We don't do this very much, but we are certainly open to helping our clients see some estimated numbers on paper before we begin. This can be a very helpful tool for clients who have never worked with an interior designer before. You see, people generally know that spaces need the larger core pieces, and that's usually what their idea of a budget entails. But true design is so much more layered and lush. Often times the layers like wallpaper, accessories, greenery, rugs, pillows, lighting, aren't considered when a client thinks through a range for their budget, or the numbers are lower than what's reasonable. This exercise is very interactive, as we call out the pieces the space will need, and the client determines a range for what they would pay for each item. Of course, things like freight, sales tax, receiving, storage, white-glove delivery has to be counted as part of a budget, and that can be often overlooked.
Use existing pieces. This is a given for us anyway. We always strive to use pieces our clients already own if they work. We always have a deep conversation about how these pieces will impact the budget. The goal of course is to reduce the total, but in some cases, we have to repurpose these pieces, which can add to the cost.
Phase things out. This is a last resort, because we know that everyone would much prefer to get the big dream done all at once, but realistically, phasing things out is a better strategy long term than compromising on the vision.

The point here is that most designers I know genuinely care for their clients and want them to have the best of the vision they expressed, and we are not trying to spend all your money willy-nilly.

I can speak for my firm, especially in that we have developed a valuable list of vendors, manufacturers, artisans and craftspeople in all price ranges and can offer these products and services to our clients at competitive rates. It is a part of the value we bring to our clients.

Interior design is actually a luxury service. I don't think people need it to survive, though it greatly enhances your quality of life. But even with this knowledge that it is a luxury service, we have positioned our firm to make this luxury available to most clients. After all, everyone has their version of luxury.

So, with this in mind, consider reaching out to your designer if you've been considering a new project in your home. It is not as intimidating or awkward as it seems. It is all about communication.