What would you guess this room, designed by Charles Faudree, cost?
The Skirted Roundtable tackles the true cost of using an interior designer. Join Linda, Megan, and Joni as they discuss what things really cost and why custom design can get a little pricey!
What would you guess this room, designed by Charles Faudree, cost?
Comments
Leslie
Great to listen in...
Michelle
As for budgets I think it has alot to do with the market you are working in. I work with upper middle income clients mainly. Alot of them are empty nesters. They are established and have decent budgets, but not what Pam Pierce or Renea Abbott would get to work with. On the other hand someone like Layla (Lettered Cottage) is younger seems to work with younger clients, just starting out, would love to have one of our budgets, and I would love to see what she could do with it!!!
Michelle - you are so right. The better prepared clients are, the better for all. Stay tuned for a Saturday Short episode where we talked about the importance of open communication regarding the budget.
Anon - in trying to keep as close to the subject as possible, I did edit around our conversation about how we charge. You're correct - Megan and I both charge a combo of fee (for the design stage) and markup on goods (for the implementation stage). It depends on the situation, but I usually split my designer discount with my clients. I forget what Megan said on this score. Joni said her fee is a % of the price the clients paid for all the goods, which included no markups. Her clients paid what she paid, then overall she added her %, which is much like how architects and builders do it. Interestingly, Joni's % markup is very nearly the same % that I realize doing it my way.
And absolutely, the budgets are totally affected by geographic market (the coasts are more $$ than inland, and LA is more $$ than Boston). We tried to focus our convo on our own client base experience, which is neither the creme de la creme of the design world (the folks you mentioned, or a Ruthie Sommers, etc) nor the totally entry level either, if that makes sense. I'm sure Layla would do a gorgeous job with a large budget and, quite frankly, there are high end designers who couldn't do what she does at all.
best :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post!!!!
T.V. is t.v.~ they can make plywood look grand on camera. But for real clients, with real thoughts about style, durability and quality, things add up. It's always better to know what things cost up front, so we can all budget and plan accordingly.
Lidy
http://vicentewolfblog.com/random/frustration/
The percentage needs to go up or I need to start charging for time. It is alot easier to charge a percentage than trying to keep up with all of my time, not to mention milage, book keeping, sales tax, employ tax! Now why do we do what we do? Oh yeah we LOVE IT!!!
Tina
-jennie
Designers never mention (in public) how they charge for their services. If you have to ask...
For a long time I've been looking at how costs are presented on designer sites. Pineapple House in Atlanta has the best and one of the only explanations of cost that I've seen.
These sorts of costs are familiar to commercial architects and developers but not to ordinary home owners.
My experience with pro design is a 20 year relationship with Gordon. We've never done a $30K room. We've picked colors, arranged what we have, bought a few new things as needed, brought in some incidentals, bric-a-brac, etc. to help tie things together. Gordon has also prevents us from spending money on mistakes.
Basically, we call Gordon when we think we need to do something. Sometimes we don't see him for years. He comes over and straightens us out. We pay him, save money overall and our place is nice.
The high-end design is just SO far out of the realm of the normal everyday people I know, although I sure enjoy looking at magazine features of those high-end rooms. At least I can take some ideas and inspiration and make them my own. With my teeny-tiny budget! I had a hard enough time when I worked for Ethan Allen, quoting drapery prices to people that just made me gag. I'll never have one of those homes and really, that's OK with me!
Terry - you're actually not really correct saying that designers never are willing to share fees publicly and most don't hold the "if you have to ask" view point. It's a waste of our time to focus on a potential client who ultimately isn't going to want to pay our fees, so why wouldn't we address it. But, there is knee jerk reaction to the fee process that can turn some people off initially, so as I said above to Laurie - we do want potential clients to focus on our results and talent first. Then the price tag will make more sense.
I was at a design show in Boston and Vern Yip was speaking. He was very open about how he charged. $200 per hour, no markup on any goods. Period. The real question is not the hourly fee, but how many hours are we talking about. So you're right, the time something takes is also never really addressed. Another topic for an upcoming podcast, I think!
So clients have to ask and designers have to make a sale. It's a cost of doing business.
The design media isn't much help. How is an inexperienced client supposed to know?
The very thing that would be most interesting - an itemized list for a specific project - is they very thing we'll rarely see.
Maybe there is an anonymous designer who would dare this: Show us a rejected proposal. The space, the design, the estimated budget, the project timeline. And, tell us the expense and timeline for preparing the proposal.
My family's advice to me is from the Princess Bride: "Get used to disappointment."
I once worked with a designer who I first consulted with as an architect who would help me combine the two apartments I'd just purhased. The plans came promptly and the design was executed by our contractor, and it came out beautiful.
The designer then began to question me on my choice of wallcoverings, ideas for rooms etc. I was so happy with his previous work that I decided to continue with him.
At this stage, before I got into the nitty gritty of what things cost, I had no idea what to expect from this designer. I explained my budget, and this designer, who normally does HUGE houses, said that though it is a smaller job than normal, he loves to do a Manhattan apartment, because it is so much fun!
I had a realistic budget in the 6 digits, appropriating half for the living/dining and half for the master bedroom. (Nursery and the spare bedroom where not part of the deal. Bathroom and kitchen were all brand new.)
After some meetings with the designer, at over $200 an hour, he picked out wallcoverigs that totalled to over half the budget. He had me wallpapering every wall and cieling in the whole apt!!!
When I asked if we could paint some walls/ cielings instead I began to get awful treatment from him and his staff. He Missed apts with no apology while I waited and his staff called me cheap and said "He would meet you, but what's the point???"
I paid his bill, which was time charges for picking out the wallcoverings that I couldn't afford and then enrolled in design school.
Now, as a decorator, I am very sensitive to people's budgets and their sensitivity about the budget. If they come to me with unrealistic goals, I explain to them that with the budget they do have they can start their project. There is no need to purchase everything down to throw pillows all at once. There is also no reason why everything in the room needs to be custom. I often wear my Chanel bag with an H&M dress and there is no reason why décor should be any different. Of course, we need quality, but Ikea hacks and flee market finds are sometimes the most special things in a room.
There is nothing I hate more than when someone else is so cavalier with my money, so when spending other peoples money, sensitivity is really in order.
That said, the client should trust me enough to know that if I want to purchase a big ticket item for a room, that I really think the money will be best spent this way and not on a lot of mediocre things.
I wrote a whole post about this on my blog www.sketch42blog.com
Thanks to HGTV, I also find that there are clients who want to meet me, have me create a design plan & THEN they get to see if they want to hire me or not. They think that they can interview several designers & get several proposals & get to choose... I think there is a show that does that.. arggg hahahaha
Anyway, just starting out, I find budgeting & billing to be the most awkward/ difficult part of the project... I reccently switched form hourly to a percentage of the total project so we'll see how it goes.
great topic & would love to hear more--- maybe about billing (without giving us exact specofics of course)
thanks!!
I am so disappointed in this discussion and your previous discussion about budget decorating. I think the BEST places to buy pieces are from T.J.Maxx and Homegoods. Target is absolutley no comparison. Yes, Target has some great and different pieces of which I have, but the quality is 2nd grade.
I think you guys should really really rethink the price tag of $10,000 for a room.
I recently looked for dining chairs and the chairs I wanted were approximatley $500 each. Well I looked on craigslist and found chairs (made by a high end designer) and had them re-upholstered and they look soooo much better than the ones I originally wanted. You guys need to really consult Eddie Ross or even my self on how to tackle budget decorating. I think you guys have missed the mark on this discussion...and I am such a loyal listener.
Thanks for your thoughts and input, we really do appreciate the varying points of view!