Property Walk Through — The Interior Deco

Property Walk-Through

Your final walk through is when you finally get to tour your client's home and officially take on the task of understanding who they are and what they envision for their home. You're going to want to walk through the whole house, so you get a better understanding of their taste - if they already have other parts of the home set up how they like it. If they don't like the rest of the home and its set-up, you know what styles to avoid. Walking through the whole house, even if you’re only working on one room, will be a great way to get some feedback on what your client loves and hates.

When going through your walk through, on the rooms that you will be working on, the most important thing you want to remember is ALWAYS take measurements and pictures. You're going to need these to bring back with you to the office, so you can review them and get the right pieces for them. If you don't take the proper measurements, you can end up with furniture pieces that don't fit the room and that can backfire. The following is what you'll want to review with your clients to make sure you understand their design needs and make the outcome of the project what they want.

DISCUSSING PROJECT DETAILS

1. FURNITURE PIECES

Ask your client what they envision for the room. When you sit down with your client to do the paperwork, their budget will make a big difference on what they can afford to have, but understand what they are looking for in regards to the style and color schemes.

What themes do they want to see? For example: modern, mid-century, Victorian, farmhouse, etc.

Look at the sizing of their current furniture, and see if they need bigger or smaller pieces. You want to make sure the arrangement of pieces make sense to the shape and layout of their room. You may need to remove some accent pieces to make more space, or you may need to add more accent pieces to fill up bare parts of the room. Get a general idea for what they see the room turning into, then when it comes time to talk budget, you can gather how much it's going to cost to fulfill their dream for the room.

2. WALLPAPER OR PAINT COLORS

How do the walls look? Does the decorating/staging of the room require the removal of old and outdated wallpaper? Do you need to add a fresh coat of paint to cover the dirty one, or the neon green walls that clash with the rest of the house? Does your client want to stick to paint, or are they adamant about having wallpaper? Should the whole room be one color, or should there be an accent wall?

These are all of the things you want to go over with your client. As you look into the room, and they tell you their ideas, start to see it come to life in your mind. And again, as mentioned above, make sure you take pictures of every aspect: wall, lighting, fixtures, and each nook and cranny of the room. Even what seems unimportant at the time of your walk through will make a difference when it comes time to putting it all together.

3. REPLACING FIXTURES SUCH AS LIGHTING

If you spend thousands to fix up a room, and there is a fixture from the 70's that just doesn't belong, it's worth the time and investment to have that replaced too. It's normally with fixtures that you may need to budget for third party vendors, namely an electrician. Unless you have a significant amount of experience or licensing, you do not want to DIY your way through a client's home. Ask them about the fixture, if it doesn't fit with the room let them know the importance of having it updated.

Keep in mind, a fixture, depending on the style your client wants, can change their budget significantly. Although there are cheap fixtures for smaller budgets, lighting doesn't generally come cheap.

You want to make sure the lighting fixture brings the whole theme of the room together and makes sense for the space. If your client does want the fixture changed, measure the current one so you know how long or short to get the new one, and how far it should come down from the ceiling.

4. CLOSET/STORAGE ORGANIZATION

Don't overlook any closets or storage space. If you are working high end properties, you may be hired to work in a walk-in closet, but even outside of that situation, you want to make sure the storage space in a room is utilized properly. You don't want to shove all of the old stuff into the closet. If your client is okay with it, tidy it up, and add some storage organization into it, so it fits the mood of the rest of the room, instead of opening it up and being a disaster.

Trust me, your client will be all the happier if they don't skip on any part of the room. If they are paying to have a room redone, re-do all of it. And there is no better magic to staging than a clean slate.

5. TEXTILES & FABRICS

Does your client need new curtains? Do they need new carpeting or rugs? You want to write down all of the textile and fabric aspects of your design project. You want to ask about the textures, style, and quality they like. Do they want silk or are you going rustic and need fur? Go over with your clients the type of fabric patterns and textures they envision in the room - and the colors they'd like to see from these pieces. It'll be up to you to bring the final designs together, but make sure you understand what interests your client.

6. ANY THIRD PARTY WORK NEEDED

When reviewing the design requests from your clients, you want to make note if you will be needing to hire any third party vendors to help with the project. From electricians to plumbers and movers or any other contractors. There is more to a home than just moving furniture around, there may be structural renovations that need to be taken care - like a hole in the wall.

Write down anyone you will be needing to hire and take photos of the work so you can pass it around to a few different vendors to get a couple of quotes. You want to get quotes from a a multiple vendors until you build a relationship with someone you can trust.

7. LANDSCAPING NEEDS

Often times you'll run into clients who just want the interior of their home done and will leave the outdoor stuff for a landscaper. However, sometimes you'll run into a client who wants to have the exterior of their home fixed up. You may not necessarily do the work a landscaper would, but it's important to know some quick tips and fixes to refresh the front porch, deck, or even the yard to help with the aesthetic as a whole.

Even if you don’t provide any direct landscaping services you do need some tricks up your sleeve. Ask your client, especially if they are doing the whole house, if they want any exterior staging/decorating done as well. You may want to do some decor and plants around the house or even mulching and stone laying to liven it up. This may be the biggest request when working on homes that are for sale. Or they may ask you to be put in charge of hiring a landscaper and coming up with a final design.

8. ARTWORK

The artwork, is by far, one of the most important aspects of bringing a room together. Yes, you'll have the bed, the couches, the chests - but it's the way you decorate the walls of a room that make the difference of bringing everything together, or messing up the theme.

Ask your client the type of artwork that impresses them and the style of designs they like to see. If they like busy artwork, you want to keep the number of art minimal. One busy accent photo in the room, and the rest simple. If they only like simple modern pieces, you can use a few to bring a room together.

9. FLOORING AND TILES

You won't often be hired to take on projects that are as big as having the flooring and wall tiles replaced, but in the event that you do, it's important to have the understanding of this aspect of your job as well. You won't be doing the heavy lifting in regards to installation - but your client may need help in matching the tiles to the cabinets and having the flooring match everything as well. And by match, we just mean "not clash," since everything doesn't have to be matchy-matchy to make a room beautiful.

Make sure you review everything with your client during the walk through. And again,d on’t forget those measurements and photos!

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