Whether you’ve worked with a designer many times before or have always been more of a DIYer, understanding the process of your interior designer is key to a successful, seamless project together! We’ve taken years to refine our process and are always tweaking it as we learn more effective systems and operations that prove for a happier client experience. Below, we’ve outlined what you can expect when working together, the process that works best for our team and how we can get started together!
OUR DESIGN PROCESS
1. ONBOARDING + HOMEWORK:
After we have our in-person consultation and have gone over all of our process and agree we’re a good fit to work together, onboarding officially begins. Once your contract and retainer has been taken care of, we’ll send over your design homework.
The LBD team will set up a private Pinterest board that is broken into sections (based off project scope) and we have you pin away all the inspiration for each space. We require 8-10 inspiration photos for each space in the project along with a comment describing specifically what they liked in each image. This helps paint a super clear picture of what direction the client wants to go in each space.
Next, we’ll send over our Design Questionnaire which will guide you through defining your style, describing how you live in your space, your lifestyle, where you like to shop along with color preferences and personal style choices. Between our questionnaire and the shared Pinterest board, we’ll now have a clear understanding of your goals and preferences.
2. DISCOVERY MEETING
Once your project homework is complete, we’ll set up our Discovery Meeting. This is your first meeting as a client where the LBD team will take all before photos, get accurate measurements, meet with trade vendors to get bids for painting, wallpaper, and window treatments. Additionally, we’ll go over all of you homework, outline the project timeline and most importantly, go over budget.
3. DESIGN + SOURCING
After the Discovery meeting, the LBD team begins planning the overall color palette, design direction and go over the Pinterest board adding in our own pictures or items we want to use for the space. We’ll get to work sourcing furniture, paint colors, artwork, and finding all the decorative items for your home. From here we gather samples, create floor plans and draw any necessary elevations we need for the space to effectively communicate built-ins, lighting or millwork we plan for your space. Finally, the entire team comes together to craft a detailed design presentation to provide you the full vision of the overall design for the project.
4. DESIGN MEETING + PROPOSAL + REVISIONS
Our first design meeting is the most important, this is where we show you a full presentation of ideas for each space, go over concepts and samples and narrow down any options. We’ll provide floor plans, furniture selections, fabric swatches and samples for your review. During the presentation, we’ll take notes on what you’d like to change or any other revision requests.
Within 24 hours of our presentation meeting you will get a digital proposal for all items sent directly to your inbox. We use IVY as our software system that tracks all of the materials and furnishings for your project with itemized pricing. Most importantly, in your formal proposal you will accept or decline each item so we can execute our vision seamlessly without any surprises. Once we receive the completed proposal back, we get to work on revisions. Sometimes if there are just a few we will email them to get approval. If there are more, we will have a second design meeting until all design aspects are approved.
5. ORDERING + RECEIVING
When all designs are approved, our team begins ordering. Your dedicated project manager will order all of your items directly from our trade-only vendors, handle all delivery coordination + track any backorders. As products ship, our receiving warehouse will accept, inspect and store all of your items safely and securely – leaving your home clutter free throughout installation. Your project manager will keep you posted as items begin to arrive and we can set an install date.
During the waiting time of getting all of your product, we will book any trade work such as painting, wallpaper, windows or any light construction we might be doing in your home. This way, on install day everything is already completed and ready for us to move you in.
6. INSTALLATION
It’s finally install day – which is truly the icing on the cake! We kick you out of the house and our warehouse team delivers all the furniture and decor. The entire LBD team will place it, style it and wrap it up in a pretty bow. Depending on project scope this can be over several days. After the install we send you an accessory invoice for you to review. This allows you 48-72 hours to pick which accessories you want to keep and then we’ll pick up anything you decided to pass on.
Right after installation, we’ll schedule a photoshoot day for our professional photographer to come document our work in your space. There is something so special about seeing your perfectly styled home in its entirety, we love to share those final images with you. All invoices, warranty information, cleaning and care guides are packaged up conveniently in a final goodbye packet.
Video by 618 Studios, Photography by Amy Bartlam
Ready to work together? We’d love to hear from you! Begin with completing our Design Discovery Questionnaire here, so we can get to know you better. From there, our team will reach out to schedule a brief phone consultation to see if we’re a good fit. We can’t wait to hear more about your project!