LET'S MAKE YOUR INTERIOR LOOK AMAZINGQuestions are answered by our experts:
Helena
Laurynas
As a rule, it takes 2.5-3 months to develop a design project for a 100sqm flat.
It is very important at the first stages to realise that our views on design in general and the vision of your interior coincide. For this purpose it is necessary to openly and honestly tell about your wishes. We need to draw up a detailed design specification. Then we will be able to offer the variant that you will be completely satisfied with much faster. And then the process of developing a design project will take a minimum of time.
Yes, we work remotely.
Depending on the location of the object, we can either come or fly to you to take measurements and finalise all agreements, or we can work completely remotely. In this case, you will have to take measurements of the object on your own, according to our recommendations, or engage specialists on site.
All further work is carried out with the help of video conferencing programmes Skype, ZOOM, as well as by phone and e-mail. But don’t worry – even if the designer lives on the next street in your city, most of the design work is done remotely. So there are no complications. Our studio from Poland has carried out projects for clients from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the UK and even Israel. Modern means of information exchange help to eliminate most of the inconveniences.
Unfortunately, the service of AUTHOR’S PROJECT SUPPORT is only available in Warsaw and Mazowieckie Voivodeship. In other regions – by agreement with our partners.
Obligatory. We work under a contract, which will specify the terms, cost, stages and composition of work, as well as the terms of co-operation and responsibility of the parties. You can receive a draft of the contract in electronic form in advance for its preliminary agreement.
Of course!
Not all buyers buy a home from scratch. In most cases, we can find a place in the interior for your favourite sofa or your grandmother’s wardrobe. But you should be aware that the items should at least somewhat match the general style of the room you have chosen. Otherwise, your interior will consist of disparate items.
We would also recommend ordering an interior design project for the whole flat or house. All the efforts of the designer will be in vain if each room will be different in ideology from the neighbouring one.
As much as we would like every service to be free (e.g. how about a free manicure/pedicure?), we have to charge for initial consultations. It takes a lot of time and effort to visit your facilities and prepare proposals.
Even if you don’t continue working with us after the consultation, most clients will appreciate what they get during such designer’s visit. The ideas presented during our initial consultation will save you time and help you avoid costly mistakes, had you not sought professional advice.
Every furniture shop has its interior designer. Some design studios offer a fixed price of repair, including the cost of materials and the design project itself. They have signed contracts for the supply of certain materials, and will create a project only on the basis of these materials and furniture from their range.
This is not our case.
In all of the above cases, these companies will not offer the best solution FOR YOU. They offer the most valuable. solution FOR THEM. You will only see the outside of the job, but you will never know, for example, what primers they will use.
The cheaper white paint will yellow after a couple of years, and the chipboard that the custom furniture was made from and skimped on will start to peel and buckle. You may look at the result and wish you had used better quality materials. As a result, at the end of your warranty, you may end up completely disappointed with the cheap repair.
We work with partner construction companies, as well as with the performers hired by the customer. But we always remain an INDEPENDENT observer, defending the interests of our client and his project. The builder is always trying to do cheaper and save on something, ignoring the designer’s ideas. And our task is to do everything so that the idea is not affected and the customer is not disappointed in the interior in a couple of years.
That’s a very good question. Many customers have a question: why does one designer want 2,000 euros for his project, while another is ready to do seemingly the same thing, but for 300? And he promises to do it not in two months, but in just three days?
Most designers set a fixed price depending on the area – per square metre. But you need to check carefully what exactly lies beneath the figures in the quotation. The same job can be done cheaply and superficially, or expensively and in detail. When you embark on a project for which you paid very cheaply, it may turn out that you only paid for pretty pictures, and the project will have to be handed over. Our studio just recently had such a case.
An aspiring freelancer who advertised himself beautifully and gave a low price, made a lot of mistakes. For example: he proposed a wall of a complex shape to lay large-sized tiles. The material waste was more than 60 per cent, but the tile worker physically could not fulfil such a complex shape of tile. Besides, the freelancer counted the finishing materials but ignored the primers and laminate substrates. The builders began to suspect something and informed the client in time. It turned out that the freelancer had never actually dealt with real repairs.
The client asked us to intervene. We had to significantly redo the project, replace a number of materials, but we managed to save it and save the customer several thousand euros.
Of course, if you do not need excessive detailing of the project, and you are ready to give your repair at the discretion of the builders, then you can save on this. But we do not guarantee the result.
But what you can really save money on, we will tell you. Imagine a flat with an area of 70 square metres. Do you think the designer’s labour costs will be the same if you need to make a one-room studio flat, or design three rooms separately plus a kitchen? The fewer rooms, the less labour, and it is also an opportunity to make a discount for the customer.
For the customer, comparison of 3D-pictures with reality is an usual kind of fear. He always supposes that the result will not be the same as expected.
We hasten to dispel your fears. The interior after the repair will be much BETTER than the visualisation!
Interior visualisation is just an approximate picture generated by a computer on the basis of materials predetermined by the designer. The computer picture can not always correctly convey the perspective of the room, and even more – it is not able to convey many of the effects that have building materials. For example, you will not see on it artificial irregularities of concrete, pearlescent flecks in the paint, or feel the charm of velvet upholstery of the sofa.
In the course of implementation we carefully select all finishing materials not on the basis of pictures, but on the basis of real samples. For this purpose we have to go shopping, communicate with furniture suppliers. We make colourings, order samples of custom-made products. But that’s not all. During the author’s supervision of the project, we check how it all looks on site, so that there are no differences from the original idea.
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The designer usually visits your facility on a weekly basis. Everything that happens on the construction site is inspected and recorded in a report. No detail goes unnoticed.
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Inevitably, force majeure situations arise on the construction site when it turns out that a pre-conceived colour or finish is not suitable due to lighting or other objective circumstances. We will quickly make changes to the project and select a different colour or type of finish material.
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Your interior will be much better than the computer picture, and you can be sure of that.
Each stage of work provides for a certain number of revisions.
At the 1st stage “Planning solution” the number of corrections will not be limited. Since the planning solution is the basis of the future interior, it is important that you are absolutely sure that the chosen solution is correct and that all your wishes are taken into account. After that you can move on.
Stage 2 “Design development and furniture arrangement” involves no more than 3 rounds of revisions on your part. If you have not decided on the style, it is now possible to present the interior in this or that solution, finish or colour.
At the 3rd stage “Visualisation 3D” photorealistic images are made according to your approved collages. They provide for 2 rounds of edits (not essential), i.e. within the pre-agreed stylistic concept. If at this stage you want to change the design concept, unfortunately, returning to the second stage will require additional payment, as the main part of the project has already been completed. The cost will be calculated depending on the level at which the already developed solution will be affected.
But as a rule, this number of edits is enough to achieve the desired result and not get confused in endless variations.
The designer’s primary job is to understand what the customer wants and deliver exactly the result they will like.
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That’s why we place a lot of emphasis on the preparation phase before we start designing.
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✔ We have a first meeting where you tell us everything you want to see in your project. You show examples of interiors that you like.
✔ A detailed specification is drawn up, where all the nuances to be taken into account are spelt out. The more detailed the tasks will be described, the more accurately we will fulfil it. Everything matters: the height of family members, the presence of elderly people, children, pets or disabled people. In the case of commercial interiors – what you plan to sell, where visitors will wait for their order, where visitors should put dirty dishes, etc.
✔ The whole design process is divided into stages. At each of them we consistently work through all the tasks set, taking into account your wishes and agreeing on the result.
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Thus, already at the preparatory stage we define all the most important things and cut off all unnecessary things. We will be constantly in touch and agree every stage with you. The client himself takes part in the design. That’s why you can’t help but like the end result.
Everything will depend solely on your wishes and possibilities. Based on our experience, we can distinguish three variants of finishing – budget, optimal and premium.
It is impossible to say at once exactly how much your interior will cost, but a professional designer will definitely try to fit into your budget and not exceed it significantly. Let’s say, the optimal budget of repair can be from 500 to 700 euros per square metre. The exact price may vary depending on the region and country. Although it is possible to save on something or, on the contrary, to choose more expensive and high-quality materials. Anyway, this amount includes:
✔ construction and finishing works (cost of construction team)
✔ rough materials
✔ finishing materials
✔ equipment (ventilation and air conditioning, heating radiators, plumbing, lighting)
✔ furniture (upholstered, cabinet and other)
✔ textiles and décor
After finalising the design project, we prepare a project estimate. The estimate contains information and calculations on all items used in the project and allows us to estimate the real cost of repair.
Among customers there are often people who believe that they can control the renovation themselves. For such people, the presence of a design project will greatly facilitate the task. After all, in fact, the folder with blueprints is a detailed repair manual, which contains all the drawings, visualisations and price of materials. In the hands of the contractor will be everything – from the type of material to the place of its purchase.
But will everyone really be ready to devote the proper amount of time, attention and effort to this process? After all, you will have to face a huge amount of new information, to get into all the intricacies of the process. Weekly travelling to the facility, to answer the questions of builders, to monitor the result, to notice discrepancies with the project and timely correct?
Don’t forget someone should undertake the timely purchase and delivery of finishing materials and furniture to the site. In each of the places of purchase will have to answer a million questions of managers, contractors, to coordinate the colours, to verify the order set, to accept at the site, and so on and so forth.
If you want to take it all on yourself, how do you reconcile it with your work, personal life? And many people also have responsibilities to their families – to take the children to school, to stop by the supermarket….
Undoubtedly, we try to support those who do decide to realise it independently. We arrange one-off visits to the object, give consultations. But if we talk about who will do it better… Think about it, who will cook a chef’s speciality dish or make a perfect suit better – a professional or a beginner?
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