10 Mistakes New Interior Designers Make...(and old ones too!)

Hopefully you've already exhausted all of these and are safely out the other side.  I have to confess I have made most of them, and many more...although, never no.10!

Here are a few of the mistakes I now know not to make: 

1 BANKROLLING CLIENTS 

Before I buy anything for clients I always charge 100% up front, and I wait until the payment has been received before placing the order with the supplier. 

Here’s why: 

When you place an order for a client, a binding contract is created with the supplier.  If your client changes their mind and won’t pay, you may still be obliged to pay in full. (This does depend on whether you acted as agent or principal in the trade). 

Businesses can fail because clients change their mind, don’t pay, and the practice ends up with the debt.  

Different design practices have different purchasing policies: some require full payment in advance; others charge a percentage deposit and then send a second invoice for the balance after delivery (note: this method involves twice the business administration).

If you choose the ‘deposit + balance’ system, make sure that the deposit covers the supplier’s invoice in full (including delivery, sales tax, storage, and any other charges); trade prices are usually quoted to the designer excluding all of the above.  

Your terms and conditions should state that purchases are binding (obviously not if you supply the wrong thing, or it arrives damaged or broken). Everyone should be 100% committed to purchases before orders are placed - it's why it's best for clients to view products in the flesh.  

A shop wouldn’t bankroll a customer, why should you?  

2 HIDING BEHIND EMAIL 

Never, ever, ever introduce a difficult subject in writing.  ALWAYS raise new concerns face-to-face with clients (or with your team) or, if this isn’t possible, as part of a phone call. Script in advance exactly what you’ll say and how you’ll deliver difficult messages.  Make sure you cite clear and factual examples of any issues encountered.  

Here’s an example: a project is starting to run late because the client is indecisive.  You know this is going to cause bottlenecks ahead: either their behaviour needs to change or the project time will have to be extended. You gently explain your observations to your client (see my YouTube video on Indecision) along with your worry that - if things don’t change - the contract may have to be extended, leading to more expense. 

Don’t share anything that could be inflammatory in writing until both sides have had the chance to represent their point of view in person, and an agreement has been reached.  

Once the talking stage is successfully concluded, circulate a written record outlining the original issue, any agreement/s made, and gently signposting the potential future troubles that might otherwise ensue, along with the possible impact of this on the project. You must have a written record, you may need to refer back to this in future, it’s not enough just to have spoken it through. People will have different recollections of how events unfolded.

You could wrap this in an email along the lines of, ‘Hi {client}, I am so pleased we discussed {issue} yesterday, I think that we’ve arrived at a great solution that will get project timing back on track.  I’ve attached a copy of the notes from the meeting*. I look forward to {something upbeat, details of your next activity or meeting}, best wishes…’

*always take notes during meetings and share these immediately afterwards with clients

It’s important to: 

• notice early-stage problems and raise the alarm before serious damage ensues
• think ahead and predict the greater difficulties yet to come if behaviour doesn’t change 

It’s so much easier to surface and discuss small, new problems than to unpick a history of compound and complex issues once trouble sets in and parties have taken to the trenches. 

And, advice not to hide behind email doesn't apply just to you!  If your client is bright and sunny to your face, but fires off angry missives from their mailbox (if they are hiding behind email), this also needs to be discussed in person and illustrated with tangible examples. Arrange a face-to-face meeting, get to the bottom of the problem, find solutions, and again, confirm everything in writing. It could be that your client can’t cope with confrontation, so make the experience pleasant and business-like, bear no grudges.  Always be supremely professional.  Get over it and move on.  

Sending difficult correspondence out of the blue is a recipe for disaster, at best it’s likely to undermine trust between client and designer, at worst it could bring a working relationship to an abrupt and sticky end. 

3 BEING WOOLY OR VAGUE

Your fee proposal and business terms and conditions should lock projects down so tightly that there's zero wriggle-room - think Gulliver pinned down by the Lilliputians!  

In my early career I came a cropper several times due to wooly or vague documentation: contracts that allowed mission-creep without triggering revised design fees; jobs that chugged on (for reasons beyond my control) way past the end of my retainer; ’favours’ granted to clients that spiralled and cost me a fortune in unpaid time…let’s not even start on working for friends, when formal contracts seem ‘rude’ and yet are most needed.  

Your fee proposal should:

1. Itemise all the stages of the design process, the steps you’ll be working through to get the best design solution for your client 
2. Name all the rooms that fall within the contract scope (if it’s not on the list, it isn’t included)
3. Quantify the number of meetings included (and their duration)
4. Explain your working practices, set expectations for a ‘normal’ range of interactions per week, and confirm your working hours 
5. Share the hourly rate you'll charge for extra meetings, or to take in additions to the contract scope 

If you need more detailed help with this, take a look at ‘Charging and Fee Proposals’ on the courses page of my website.  

I mentioned that you should clearly communicate your working hours.  I keep a wary eye open for emergencies, but don’t reply to messages or answer the phone outside of working hours.  Once you’ve answered your first weekend client note, it becomes very difficult to defend the line.  You need to maintain boundaries between your work and personal life. 

Structuring a robust fee proposal - one that anticipates the typical issues that beset interior design projects - can be really satisfying. There is something about the aura of an accomplished and experienced designer that makes clients determined to secure their services.  Sometimes the tougher and more expensive you are, the more they want you.  

4 ROMANTICISING THE MARKET

I have wracked my brain to come up with a universal interior design service but, despite having tried and investigated multiple options, to-date I haven’t found a model that liberates a living wage from low-budget decoration projects.  

You have to be realistic when planning your business: just because friends encourage you sincerely doesn’t mean that, when push comes to shove, they’ll choose half a day of your time over having an oven.  

If you look at my 'hourly rate calculator', you'll find that most designers need to charge a minimum of £70-100 per hour to keep afloat, to earn an annual salary around the national average.  It’s really hard to make a good, going business out of one hour slots sold singly to a multitude of different clients.  It probably costs a minimum of £200-£500 in design time just to get your head around a project, before you have your first useful thought about how you can contribute.

Typical interior design clients: 

• Have high disposable income
• Own their own homes 
• Live in expensive neighbourhoods 
• Really care about the look and style of their home 

I have heard it said that interior design services are appropriate for any client who’s happy to pay John Lewis + prices (John Lewis is a good quality, mid-range UK department store), ie., clients who’ll pay upwards of £2,000 for a sofa, £1,000 for a rug, £200 for a lamp. I know this is a lot of money - well beyond the average budget even - but a designer needs generous margins to make a living and at this level there isn’t much fat.  

Please prove me wrong - I really want you to! Until you do, give very serious thought to your business plan, where you’ll find the clients essential to your business success, and put your back into a marketing plan that winkles them out.  

5 CLEANING BEHIND THE FRIDGE 

And on the subject of your marketing plan, stop working on your logo or fiddling with your website: get out there and find some clients!  My life partner calls this avoidance tactic ‘cleaning behind the fridge’; time-management experts call it prevarication. Old designers make this mistake too - one of them is writing this article.  

I’ve seen my laser-focused business partner snag lucrative contracts without a fancy logo - or even a relevant portfolio - because she’s an animal when it comes to business development. 

Believe me, I know it’s hard: this is my biggest struggle! The best gift I’m determined to give my business this year is to build my email list and social media followers. 

Let’s make a pact that we’ll confront and beat prevarication in the coming year!

6 UNDERESTIMATING CLIENTS’ FEAR OF CHANGE  

Design projects have beginnings, middles and ends.  They often look worst in the middle.  An experienced designer understands that clients can lose faith, be unnerved by the desolation of a half-finished room, shocked by the contrast between their old, bland paint and a new, vibrant, wallpaper.  

Imagine how impressed you’d be by the wise designer who accurately predicted your feelings of disappointment when the first delivery arrives, who gently explained why it isn’t yet the time to judge, who calculated how long you’d take to adjust and reassured you just how great the finished scheme would ultimately be.  You would relax and have faith in that individual.

When you help your clients manage change within their home in a way that demonstrates your sensitivity, insight and experience, you avoid unsettling panic and undermining fear (and a flurry of worried, late night phone calls and messages). 

In fact, warning your client that the interim state of their home could be disappointing might actually help grow your hero status. 

Take time to coach your clients through periods of change, think about the changes pending in the coming weeks and months, and reassure clients ahead of time.  Practice panic prevention rather than fire fighting.  

7 BUYING THINGS THAT DON’T FIT 

This is so common, I think every designer does it at some point - I hope I’ve caught you in time! 

When you specify large items for home delivery, you have to check-measure doorways, stairs, corridors, and so on, to ensure delivery will be possible. You can of course pay to close roads, hire giant cranes, remove and replace windows, but this is normally best avoided.  That said, some clients want what they want, and have the budget to cover extraordinary delivery costs (which need to be investigated and shared as part of the estimate to supply, not discovered later).

Some suppliers offer a measuring service (paid), or will manufacture large pieces in component parts…to help you get an emperor bed up a spiral staircase.  Cast a critical eye over the dimensions of your client’s property and cross reference these against your client’s aspiration to own a concert piano.  

8 MESSING UP MEASUREMENTS

Once upon a time I tried to buy 4m of leather - I'd like to see that cooooooow! - leather comes in hides and half hides.  I was a newbie and still remember the embarrassment when I was called out in the showroom.  

My boss once commissioned a massive banana fibre rug for a baronial hall - we were lucky there were 6 strong men on site, otherwise it would have spent time out in the rain.  Always anticipate the weight of materials: marble, stone, glass, metal, wood…banana fibre, how are you going to get materials located with pinpoint precision? At what point should you change the plan, and instead supply in parts, taking the opportunity to detail in interesting seams, joints and juxtapositions? 

Another colleague ordered a pop-up TV ottoman for the end of a bed but muddled inches with cm - she specified the number but not the unit of measurement.  Worse - facepalm - the supplier actually made it (and delivered it to our office)!  It was tall as a man and as wide as the room.  It was funny, not funny.  

A designer friend estimated the supply of wallpaper mistaking the per m2 price as the roll price (an easy mistake at £200 per m2).  She underestimated by a factor of 10x and was held to it by the client.  

When you are relatively new to the industry, making mistakes like these can be mortifying as well as expensive - they hit you hard in the imposter syndrome.  But we all occasionally make mistakes, when you’ve been practising for years (and only if no harm is done) then even learning the hard way can be interesting or funny: relax and roll with the punches.  

Meanwhile, research the manufacturing processes of the materials you specify. Manufacturing processes constrain the dimensions of standard materials: carpet and textiles roll off standard looms; glass and sheet materials roll off standard production lines; natural selection defines the size of trees and cows.    

9 FORGETTING LIGHTING! 

A plea from the heart, and a particular passion of mine - there is no point designing a beautiful scheme if you can’t see it!  

Good lighting - the right colour, the right layering, the right shape, the right intensity, with the right focus in the right place, produces theatre within the home.  Great lighting creates myriad moods, and lights your client’s way to complete all the key activities that comprise their living rituals.  

I've seen humungous expenditure on interior fittings, materials and furniture, only to fall back on the single pendant light for lighting - truly the ultimate design crime.  

If you want a great introduction to lighting design with simple hacks for tackling client projects, take a look at my course: ‘Light Your Home’, available from the ‘courses’ tab on the www.recipeforaroom.com website.  

10 WALLING UP CATS 

A true story: a client, grieving the disappearance of her beloved cat during a bathroom renovation, takes a first bath in the new room.  Lying back in the soapy bubbles, she hears scratching behind the freshly-tiled wall…

If your clients have pets, and if pets and workers will be together on site for a while, discuss how the safety of pets is to be handled.  The same applies to children!  Discuss this with clients and share protocols and policies with your trade teams. 

Having the builders in can upset the normal rhythms of the household: external doors might be propped open, windows too, not to mention the opening up of walls, floors and ceilings.  No wonder the house cat might choose this moment to jump ship and adopt new owners. Consider trackers (as well as name tags and chips) for animals (and children - LOL) that might be vulnerable during building works.