Most interior projects that go wrong do so before a single wall is touched: an unclear brief, a budget with no margin, a decision made too late. These are the seven habits we see in every project that ends well.
Write the brief as a list of days, not things
Describe how you want to live: where the morning coffee happens, who works from home, where the children do homework. A designer can solve a day; a wish list of objects rarely adds up to a home.
Set a budget with a ten per cent margin
Allocate across civil work, joinery, furniture, lighting and styling, then hold back ten per cent for what the walls reveal once they are opened. It is the single best protection against stress.
Plan the layout before anything else
Colour and furniture are easy to change; plumbing and walls are not. Settle movement, storage and furniture positions on paper first, with real dimensions.
Decide early, change rarely
Every change on site costs time twice: once to undo, once to redo. Approve materials against physical samples and 3D views, then protect those decisions.
Design the lighting with the layout
Lighting points go into the walls and ceiling long before the furniture arrives. Plan ambient, task and accent light around where you will actually sit, cook and read.
Choose materials for how they age
Oiled oak, lime plaster, honed stone and linen look better in five years than on day one. Ask of every finish: what will this look like after a thousand ordinary days?
Keep one team accountable
Designers, carpenters, electricians and painters working to one schedule, with one person answerable to you, is the difference between a project and a saga.
A good project is a sequence of well-timed decisions. If you would like a team to take you through them, from brief to handover, we would be glad to hear about your home.
