How long does it take to furnish a home? How early on should a potential client reach out to an interior designer? Today I want to explain the answer to these common questions, giving you insight into why the interior design process can be a longer one than you anticipated.
And it does take longer than you think. Sadly, we get a number of potential clients reaching out to us a month or two before they’re going to settle on their new home, thinking that they’re starting the process early. Cue me breaking the bad news.
And the bad news is this: the interior design process from start to finish can take at least six months. At least. And here’s why…
The Interior Design Process Can Take Six Months? Really?
We follow the same process for every design client we work with. It’s a proven process that moves them along the interior design journey with as little stress as possible to get to the end.
The end, of course, is where you walk into your new home and everything – right down to the karate chopped cushion – is there, styled to perfection. Photo are in frames, art is on the walls, beds are made, and ornaments are in place.
Like Rachel Hunter said, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen (if you’re not old enough to remember this reference, you missed out on an iconic era). And it takes at least six months for that to happen. I’ll break it all down for you below.
From Submitting Your Online Enquiry to Us Signing You On, It Can Take a Month
Once you’ve filled out our online enquiry form and locked in a 20-minute discovery call, it can be a few weeks before we move to the in-home consult. The reason for this: we’re busy.
You want to work with a designer who has existing clients they’re working with (not someone whose calendar is empty and can see you tomorrow).
Last year, for example, we had about 15 interior design clients, all at different stages of the process. We wrapped a lot of those projects up at the end of the year, thankfully, but we still have other jobs, moving through the stages of the design journey.
So, from the time we speak on the phone to the time you lock in a home visit, a few weeks will have passed. Should you decide to have us transform your home after that in-home consultation, the signing of agreements and onboarding can take a a week. That’s pretty much one month already gone.
Once Signed On, The Design Concept Phase Can Take Two Months
We put together a design concept for every client we work with. This can be up to a 50-page PDF document that’s made from scratch, addressing your individual requirements, containing:
- Inspiration imagery of the design style we’re executing for you
- Mood boards for every room showcasing all of all the products we recommend
- To-scale floor plans so you can see where everything is going to sit in each room
- A colour palette showing you all of the proposed tones we use throughout the design
- If needed, 3D elevations of spaces where we might be doing cabinetry
This stage takes a while. We have to address the function of each room, what the spaces will look like, ensure all the proposed furniture will fit, selecting the right art, and ensure we’re sticking to the budget you’ve outlined. Creativity (and problem solving) takes time.
Of course, we’re not working on your project every single day for two months.
As mentioned earlier, we have other design clients whose projects we are also working on alongside yours. We’re not working every single day on your project alone.
We block out time for every client in a calendar so it’s clear where we’re allocating our resources, and so time is tracked and charged accordingly. We’re very dedicated to our clients which is why when we’ve allocated time to one, we’re not taking calls from another.
So, yes, if can take two months to complete your design concept – ready to present to you.
Once The Concept is Presented, We Have Showroom Visits and Trade Visits to Coordinate (Allow A Few Weeks)
After we’ve shown you all of the design ideas in the concept meeting, it’s time to give you a spreadsheet of all the products we recommend we purchase on your behalf from our suppliers. But first, naturally, you may want to see some of these pieces in-person.
Showroom Visits
Lining up days to do these showroom visits is dependant on your calendar and ours, and sometimes the availability of the showrooms. So to road test pieces and give us the go-ahead can take a week.
Trade Visits
On top of that, we have to factor in potential trade visits to your home. This would involve visits from our joiner if we’re designing cabinetry for you. It would include a measure and quote from the window team if we’re doing sheer curtains for you.
The more trades involved (paint, carpet, wallpaper etc), the home more visits we require to liaise with them and you to get the right products quoted. We try our best to line all trades up to visit on the one day, but their calendars don’t always allow for this.
All up, allocate a few weeks for the showroom visits and trades coming to your home for measures.
Preparing Your Product Spec Sheet Can Take Two Weeks
Now that we’ve gotten all the trades to do their measures and quotes, and now that you’ve seen some products in-person, we can prepare your spreadsheet of products for approval.
This is a comprehensive list of every single product we plan to purchase on your behalf for your home. It’s everything from the sofa we showed you in the design concept to the art, lamps, cushions, rugs, chairs and more. We specify all the bedding for bedrooms, too.
The specification sheet will also include all of the pricing from our trades for their work. Think of this stage as the point where everything is laid out for you with images, dimensions and pricing – ready for you to hit approve so we can order it all.
The quicker you approve products, the quicker we can get orders underway.
Around Four Months Have Passed, Now We’re Up to Ordering Products
Please keep in mind that the timeframes will differ for each client. For some clients, their home is a one-bed apartment. For others it’s a two-storey, five-bedroom. And in some cases, we’re only doing two rooms in a home for a client with no trades involved. In this case, things can be completed much quicker.
But for the purpose of this exercise, we’re assuming we’re furnishing your entire home. And now that roughly four months have passed, we’re up to the part where we place orders for all the products from our suppliers.
This process also takes a few weeks, because for a whole-home project we could be purchasing pieces from up to 30 different suppliers. Getting all of those invoice together is not a quick process.
Once Orders Are Placed, We’re at the Mercy of Supplier Lead Times
This is the part many potential clients don’t factor in. Some suppliers have your dining table and chairs in stock, while others have a two-month wait on your dream sofa. A custom rug, for example, can take over four months to make in some cases.
This is always the least-fun part of the process for clients, because some things arrive quickly while others have you waiting a while. We can work with you on this to make it easier though.
At the time of specifying, we can tell you if a product has a long lead time, and you can guide us on whether you want to wait for it, or have us specify something that has a shorter lead time. We can also tell you what’s worth waiting for, and what we can easily substitute.
We Do Come Back to Install Everything and Style It Up
Given everything you read above, us visiting to style your entire home at the end could be four months after we first met you, or it could be nine months after we first met you. It’s so hard to know because of the lead time challenges just mentioned.
That’s why I always say to clients, it’s really important that we vibe with one another, because we could be in your life for up to nine months. Gosh, over Covid we had projects that lasted two years! So you need to feel good about us, and we need to feel good about you.
Honestly, I would say the timeframes above would be pretty standard for most successfully interior design businesses. Designers turning a whole-home around in half the time I would assume are repeating the same design/style over and over again in a mass-production, cookie-cutter approach. We don’t do that.
The Big Lesson (Especially with New-Builds): Reach Out Early
If you’re building a new home I would be making contact with an interior designer as soon as possible. You’d want an in-home consultation to take place at least nine months before your proposed settlement date.
There’s also scope then for your interior designer to look at things like proposed floor plans from the builder. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve saved clients from an unsuccessful kitchen layout, or saved them from installing the wrong-colour flooring or tapware.
With new-build furnishing, we often hire a storage facility once orders are placed and get everything held for you, just in case the completion date of your build keeps moving back (which in my experience, is almost always).
How We Once Turned It Around Quicker
There was a time when we furnished a home in less than six months. It was a bit of a miracle turnaround, and only happened for a few reasons:
- The home was on the smaller side, so not as many products to consider
- The client was a return client and we knew their style and vibe
- Because we knew the vibe, the design concept stage was much shorter
- They were fine with us to choose in-stock products only (no product delays)
- They approved all products immediately and didn’t need to see anything in-person
- It was pretty much a furnish-only job (minimal trades involved)
The above is absolutely not the norm, but if you’re in a similar scenario do reach out and we can see if we can fit your project in around the others ones we currently have on.
Hopefully the above has given you insight into how long the interior design process takes. I hope it answers your question around how long it takes to furnish a home too. If you have any questions we’ve not touched on though, feel free to drop them below.
Hi Chris, I read your article on the Design Process and found it very interesting. When the process is all laid out for you, you can understand why the process takes, what could feel, such a long time. Thanks. Keep up the good work! Ann