JPS Design and Project Management - In The News

*Republished from Successful Builder

Interior Designers - A Value Added Resource

Offering the services of an interior designer to work with your home buyers through the various supplier and subcontractor showrooms and their design staffs from the start can help minimize change orders, maintain customer selection deadlines and reduce any conflicts after product installation.

Interior designers are trained and qualified through education and testing to assist home buyers with many spatial and functional issues, in addition to selecting colors and accessories, that lead to a healthy, safe and comfortable living environment. Compensation for these services is typically through consultation fees from the home buyer and in mark-ups on wholesale pricing of furniture and accessories they purchase.

Education covers a wide range of knowledge areas and skills including flame spread ratings; toxicity and fire rating classifications of materials; national, state and local building codes; and acoustics and sound transmission. In Wisconsin, designers must then pass a state exam to become licensed.

The cost to home builders is little, if any, and there can be savings realized in both time and money. The designer, after an in depth consultation with the home buyer, can work directly with supplier design center staff to help narrow down the field of options available. By developing and presenting an overall concept for the interior of the home with sketches and product samples that incorporates everything from bath fixtures to lighting to tiling, the home buyer can more readily make all final selections within project deadlines. Because the home buyer reviews all of the interior selections together in a comprehensive design, the chances of last minute change orders or conflicts after installation can be significantly reduced.

When considering assistance in the overall interior design of your homes, first determine what needs you and your customers have. Then ask questions of the designers you meet. Are they familiar with your suppliers and subcontractors and their showrooms? What professional organizations are they a member of? What is their design philosophy? Are they licensed? What are their specialties? Answers to each of these questions will help you determine who is most capable of meeting yours and your customers’ needs.

(Our thanks to Jennifer Striepling of Organize By Design, LLC. For more information you can contact her at 262-613-5167 or Jennifer@jpsdesignandpm.com)