Interior designer blues

[Anonymous]

The $400 consult involved her walking through the entire house and taking detailed notes on my wish list for the house. I gave her a furniture budget and prioritized the rooms I wanted to have done. The scope is just for furniture selection.

[Anonymous]

She has good boundaries. You do not.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a massive rip off. Go on instagram. There are these fantastic European and Australian interior designers with proper architecture degrees. It’s a one time fee, they go over your floor plan and solve everything. Don’t let some botox primadonna sell you Visual Comfort made in PRC rubbish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's fine for you to send a text at 7:45pm on a Friday evening and also think it's fine for her to wait to respond until working hours Monday morning. She's not even doing that to you - she's saying she'll send you the revised contract Saturday morning. Get over yourself. 40 hours of work is very small beans.

I agree with everything you said above but I found the “I ask that you please respect my family time over the weekend” unnecessarily chastising- like in what way is she expecting me to invade her space this weekend?

This. She didn't need to say that unless OP demanded a response that weekend. That said, if I email or text a professional on a Friday evening or weekend, I make it clear I don't expect them to see it or respond until the work week. Sometimes the only time I have to respond is when they aren't working.

Also, for that much money an hour I do expect stellar service and good communication. I don't expect to hear from them on weekends, but if I am signing a contract, I want to know you are on the ball and not flaky. OP< I would move on.

[Anonymous]

Also, wanted to add, she should tell you from the start how long it will take for her to get the proposal to you. $400 is a lot for a consult and usually people who charge that much are one of 2 types: 1.) Highly competent and organized and will let you know timeline for everything and be respectful and professional. 2.) Rich princess who thinks this is a fun way to make money, but lack organizational skills or professionalism and they don't need to pay bills or earn good ratings so it's hit or miss whether they will do a decent job or flake on you a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ballsy, but on some level, good for her for saying that.

No.

She could have waited to Monday to check her email/respond or better yet, explain to clients up front that she does not respond to emails at night or in the weekend because she has a family.

She sounds like she is saying, “YOU should not send emails at night or on the weekend, which is unacceptable.”

If you really liked her taste, keep her but say you won’t expect responses during off hours but will sometimes write then because you have your own schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like a massive rip off. Go on instagram. There are these fantastic European and Australian interior designers with proper architecture degrees. It’s a one time fee, they go over your floor plan and solve everything. Don’t let some botox primadonna sell you Visual Comfort made in PRC rubbish

Like who? How do you find these people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ballsy, but on some level, good for her for saying that.

No.

She could have waited to Monday to check her email/respond or better yet, explain to clients up front that she does not respond to emails at night or in the weekend because she has a family.

She sounds like she is saying, “YOU should not send emails at night or on the weekend, which is unacceptable.”

If you really liked her taste, keep her but say you won’t expect responses during off hours but will sometimes write then because you have your own schedule.

Sorry, I had not focused on the mode of communication. I agree that text is more intrusive (suggesting the expectation of a timely response). Email is better (and easier to track).

But the designer needs to communicate her preference in this regard (upfront), especially when they are deciding whether to establish a relationship.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the two of you didn't agree on expectations (expectations of time spent on the project, communications turnaround, when and how she would be communicating with you, etc.) during the initial consultation - that's on her.

I'd find a different designer. Sounds like you learned a few things during the consult, so it's not a complete loss.

[Anonymous]

I don’t want to give away my architect but they are brilliant and Australian and it will cost you less than 10 hrs of Ms. $400 interior decorator to redo the whole floor plan and pick stuff out.

Google it. Interior design is overpriced in the US. It’s also very formulaic. Just like the kitchens: Poggenpohl or Boffi are a fraction of what we pay here in Europe. On the mass market end of things, my bespoke room is one out of the UK but there are amazing young architects all over the world

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an interior designer and this is exactly why I stopped doing residential design. You wanted to reach out to her and have her respond after hours and are offended that she asked you to correspond during work hours. Meanwhile, I would imagine she had a busy pipeline and does not turn proposals around within a day or two like you feel entitled to. Which is not abnormal at all. A week or two to return a proposal is not abnormal. And mind you, you’ve even cut your scope to a very bare minimum. 40 hours isn’t remotely significant to even complete a living room. But of course you want her to drop everything and work during her family time to get this proposal done for you. You shouldn’t be hiring a professional designer.

The easy solution to this is to not reply outside of your working hours. I send emails outside of YOUR working hours because I don't send personal emails while I'm at work and this is a personal matter for me. I don't expect you to reply immediately - I certainly don't reply to work emails outside of work hours. If you feel that you have to, that's on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I paid for a $400 consultation with an interior designer. I liked her and said I wanted to work with her but I needed to complete my project by August. It took her two weeks to get back to me with a contract and proposed hours (80). The proposed hours were too high for me, so I cut the scope of the project in half and told her my max budget was 40 hours. She agreed to that and told me she’d send me a revised proposal. I waited for two days and she didn’t send it. So tonight at 7:45 PM I texted her and asked her when I could expect the new proposal, and when we could get started, and I expressed my concern that things were a little slow to get rolling. She wrote back:

“I appreciate that you’re eager to get started. I will send you the revised scope of work and contract tomorrow. We can discuss the project start date on Monday. I ask that you please respect my family time over the weekend. Thank you! 😊”

I find this message annoying and scoldy and it has kind of put me off working with her. But then I’ve lost the $400. What should I do?

You shouldn't have texted her, you should have sent her an email or waited until the next day to call or text her.

[Anonymous]

Her text was totally fine. It isn't appropriate to be texting people about business things on the weekend. She's setting healthy boundaries, not scolding.

[Anonymous]

I think the mode of communication was an issue, possibly. I also think this was in response to the urgency of the request. The please respect line may have been about, I'm not working on this project this weekend as much as anything else. She could have muted the thread or just waited until Monday. My first read was it was bout don't contact me over the weekend, but I think it has to do with respect that I will pick back up with your project overall on Monday

[Anonymous]

I think the biggest problem is you had a budget discussion during the consultation but she didn’t force/help you to understand the cost of working with her. The final number in a proposal, after a paid consultation, should not be a surprise. So either she dropped the ball or you’re not being clear about what happened, but either way it’s probably best for both of you to part ways.