Excitement and Exploration, Programming

A pedestrian word for one of the most exciting parts of the experience, programming includes getting to know you and exploring your tastes: learning what you like, what inspires you, both for who you are now, and whom you want your environment to support you in becoming.During programming, we are also looking at the architecture of your home and any rooms that will not change, and making sure there is a relationship, a conversation between what you (and we) will be adding, and what is already there.This stage is where we refine the nuts-and-bolts parameters of the project in terms of defining your specific needs and details, whether this is space planning, lifestyle needs, or personal desires.

Space Plans, Materials, Design Boards, and Decisions

Now, in Phase 2, we apply our expertise to creating the design for you.During this phase, we show you options. We arrange one (or several) meeting(s) and present you with two well developed and different sets of ideas for your space(s). Complete with fabric and finish samples, tear sheets of furniture.Each set is assembled together in its own design tray, or we may attach these pieces to boards (hence the name “design boards”) or arrange them in boxes. The purpose is to have you experience the colors, shapes, weights, and textures together, and respond. For clients who want more help visualizing how all the pieces will fit together in the space, we may create a computerized 3D rendering.

Quotes, Proposals, Orders, Deliveries

Expect that high-end products and fine furnishings take time to make, and deliver. The Programming and Design phases (Parts 1 and 2) are one aspect of the time the whole process takes, but there is also the time it takes to custom-make or hand-make your items, and have them shipped to you, and installed.This is what comes of wanting high-end, bespoke, artisanal. Pieces that show the hand of the maker, because they are made by human hands, artisans who spent years learning craft. This is why the product is so soulful in the end. You can’t rush heart.Expect timelines to be estimates.

Contractors and vendors also will have a timeline, and that timeline may stretch, due to their own suppliers, and/or the fact that they, and all of the vendors on your project, have other clients and projects they are serving.Expect to be surprised. Even after we have finalized a design plan with you, along the way we may come up with something previously not discussed. This could be a new color, a new wallpaper, an outrageously beautiful light fixture, a soulful antique. As designers, we have strong, intuitive, gut reactions that we follow, and we frequently simply stumble upon that unexpected piece of furniture, fabric pattern, work of art, etc., perfect for you.

This phase is all about installation day. And as much as we might think we know what that entails, here are a few things that clients are sometimes surprised to learn.Expect that clearing your space for install day may take some advance planning. Do you have outgoing furniture that you would like to have donated or handed-down? Maybe your niece just moved to her first apartment? — let us know, so we can refer you to movers and haulers, or we can suggest charitable organizations open to receiving your donations.Out with the old, in with the new, means deep cleaning, too! We recommend hiring a cleaning service to detail clean your space(s) before we come in with all of your beautiful new things.Expect to feel all the feels. You might have a wide range of emotional responses, from utter joy, to the possibility that you may be uncomfortable — initially.

Many of our clients are simply excited and thrilled by change, however if you are the sort of person who has trouble getting used to alterations to your environment, there’s a chance you might need time to adapt to what we’ve created. We suggest, before you decide how you feel, give the new design 21 days.The brain settles in that time, lets go of the idea of what used to be there, and opens up to the newness. The old is comfortable, comforting. But if you wanted to stay in that place, you wouldn’t have hired a designer. In the end, we designers are creating beauty and magic, just for you.We want you to be happy, in a space that inspires and supports you to live your best life — a space that invites you to “come home to your Self!”