What are my options when designer bungles a room?

[Anonymous]

We bought a weekend house near a beach about 18 months ago. The house was empty and a friend recommended a designer, someone she had recently hired as she had also bought an empty house. I explained to the designer that my challenge is scale - making sure the pieces fit in the room and with each other - and I really like cohesion.

The bedrooms are largely done. One is not to my liking and we are trying to figure it out. We came in this weekend to see the LR installation and...it...is...horrible. The rug is too small to fit all the furniture on it - which is what the designer did when she put down the rug and left. The pieces are probably too big for the room. The beach house is not huge - it is not a 6-8 BR Bethany or OBX McMansion. I said that more than once, especially after the fail with one of the bedrooms with oversized furniture. "This is not a full on suburban house. The BRs are not overly large nor is the LR space opening onto the patio."

And here we are. The sectional, two swivels, and a large coffee table are crowded on this rug. And the rug doesn't really tie into the entry hall leading to the room, etc.

A lot of these pieces are custom. I'm just beside myself. I can't wait till we leave today so I don't have to look at this failure.

What can I do?

[Anonymous]

Was there no rendering or plan that you approved before getting to this point? Did she misrepresent the design vs final project?

[Anonymous]

I would never have left a designer by themselves with such vague directions, OP. This is on you, sorry.

[Anonymous]

OP didn’t you approve a floorplan? Selections?

[Anonymous]

Weren’t you getting periodic updates and providing input on the custom work? Or did the designer have carte blanche?

[Anonymous]

Re-do yourself. I am not sure how you got into this predicament. Did you give designer carte blanc authority to select and purchase furnishings? On the positive side, swapping in furniture you like, that is to scale, is an easy fix.

[Anonymous]

I will never understand people like OP. Outsourcing tasks does not mean waiving all supervision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I will never understand people like OP. Outsourcing tasks does not mean waiving all supervision.

Or at least not if you’ve never worked with this person before!!

[Anonymous]

I'd pull out the contract. Are there places where you can and cannot approve/disapprove? That does'nt seem right, especially with custom pieces.

[Anonymous]

Like the others I am curious if you were not provided plans and products to approve or select from. Designers usually have a lot of freedom with retailers to return stuff that an average customer cannot. I would tell her you are unsatisfied and need resolution before paying her balance due.

[Anonymous]

Did the designer not see the house in person or photos of the house and rooms? Receive a floor plan and/or dimensions of all of the rooms?

Did you not approve of the rugs etc before purchase?

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on what your contract said and if you signed off on orders with dimensions or a floor plan? I would right away make it clear you hate it. At the very least the designer should be willing to work with you to order correct sized pieces and either not charge her hourly fee or markup, depending on your payment structure with her. If you didn’t sign off on anything with dimensions then I’d really push back. I’d also dig into seeing if she actually ordered everything new for your place or if she was reusing things that someone else was not satisfied w/. I know a popular designer (who has been mentioned on this site) who regularly pushes things that people didn’t like on to future projects. I’d be very skeptical of the too small rug and if it wasn’t a reject from something else? I despise when a rug looks too small to anchor the pieces in a room.

[Anonymous]

Post a bad review on Yelp.

[Anonymous]

Use the rug in a smaller room, keep the sectional, move a swivel into each bedroom (or use on ends of DR table or breakfast nook if height permits) and use the coffee table outside if nothing is returnable.

OP, I'm especially miffed about the small rug- how/why would you have signed off on this? This could not have been vague on all the designs/receipts.

Stop hiring a designer/do it yourself if your eye is so good that you can see this is a cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Use the rug in a smaller room, keep the sectional, move a swivel into each bedroom (or use on ends of DR table or breakfast nook if height permits) and use the coffee table outside if nothing is returnable.

OP, I'm especially miffed about the small rug- how/why would you have signed off on this? This could not have been vague on all the designs/receipts.

Stop hiring a designer/do it yourself if your eye is so good that you can see this is a cluster.

I signed off on sectional and swivels. They said the sizes would be fine. The rug is custom. The color seems off from what they showed me, but I don't have a strike of it (so my bad). We discussed the size, etc. I'll have to go back and see if I have a floor plan with this configuration.

Unfortunately, all the other rooms have rugs. Trying to figure out if swivels can be repurposed or do I need to live with them - probably so and may be able to work on a larger rug.