Big interior design projects are residential projects over 3,000 square feet. Big projects include remodeling most public spaces—living room, family room, kitchen—and private spaces—bathrooms and bedrooms. The minimum it will take is six months.
Waiting too long to hire me is the mistake that will most delay the project, and clients must move out of the house during a big project. (You can imagine the delays clients could cause, living in the midst of the rubble.) The sooner a client hires me, the faster it goes. I need a vision for exactly what they want. My initial, conceptual design work takes at least four weeks. If we can put concepts into construction documents during escrow, we gain time. We can line up my tradesmen, leaving less time the house sits idle.
A delay in decision making also slows the process. In big projects, 50 decisions a day are common. We are pros at this!
With small interior design projects, bathrooms take the longest. They are small but labor intensive—with plumbing, tile and stone. You should allow three months for a single room remodel. Moving plumbing and installing tiles and stone are hard and time consuming. If you want more than one bathroom remodeled, you should do them together, saving time and money.
With small projects, clients intend to live in the house. I urge them to move out, because it’s safer for everyone. The unknown factors include hidden surprises in the walls: previous remodels done wrong that we must fix also delays our work. Sometimes it’s easier to start from scratch. Bad weather can delay projects, although we try to anticipate for the outside elements.
During installation, each specialty tradesman must come and work in order. Multiple people can’t work simultaneously in a small space. (With large projects, they can, which is why a big project seems to go faster than a small project.) This means there is dead time, while tile and stone cure.
Happy remodeling!
*Featured image by Yoko Oda Interior Design LLC
