Many people ask this question, it’s not a service you realise you need until you are mid renovation and surrounded by builders firing questions at you that you can’t answer because you need to do the school run or jump on a train to work. It’s hard enough juggling the average busy home life without suddenly having to entertain the needs of a full building team that are asking you questions that you simply do not have the confidence to answer. You have your architects plan, surely that’s enough? The answer is no, it’s the starting point but it doesn’t give you the answer to all questions regarding electrical and light fixtures. Architectural plans won’t give you plumbing locations for your perfect kitchen design. The plans your architect supplies don’t show your selected floor finishes or where you wish to place furniture. It doesn’t show your furniture locations and subsequent places to put a reading lamp.

So Why do I need to make these choices so early?

-Your builder might have priced for 10 ceiling spots, you have now decided you want wall lights, this has an impact on where the cables will be located and can’t be decided at the last minute.

-You want a central island with a sink, but he hasn’t costed to put in the waste pipe in the concrete screed, this will also have an impact on the drainage.

-You haven’t decided on your floor finish but the builder wants to finish the floor slab, what happens if you decided not to have a wooden floor and opt for Amtico instead, this will result in extra charges because he will have to re-screed the floor to bring the levels up to enable you to have a thinner floor type

Common questions that catch people out and cause delays on site when you do not have a designer on board…

– Where do you want the wall lights?

– What flooring is going down?

– Where do you want your sockets? If you haven’t planned out your kitchen before the builder starts you won’t know.

With an interior designer we take your architects plans, we add your furniture, we place your lighting and sockets to best fit with your furniture arrangement. We take the decision making away because everything is pre-planned, you won’t have a scary list of extras and the project will run smoothly and quickly leaving you to enjoy picking the nice elements in your own time and with more consideration.