PEELING BACK THE CURTAIN
– Insider Tips & Tricks -
Taking on a new project can be daunting. Whether it’s a DIY spruce-up or a large commercial renovation, there’s a lot to consider throughout the process. Design is a rabbit hole that may not seem too overwhelming at a glance, but once you take the first steps, it can start to seem like you’re falling head-first, and one decision leads to 10 new questions that need an answer. Material specifications, lead times & sourcing, colour chemistry, visual hierarchy and balance, texture and layering, function & form, visualizing details (and how they work from a construction standpoint), as well as finishing and installation methods (not to mention how your other layers like plumbing and mechanical tie in) are just a few examples of coordinating thoughts that are bumping around a designer’s head over the course of a project. Don’t worry, that’s why we’re here! No matter the level of involvement that you bring a designer on for, there’s a lot of intrinsic and background knowledge that a designer has to smooth over the questions and propose solutions that work for your project, rather than having you get stuck spinning your own wheels!
We’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite tips, tricks, and insider knowledge for your benefit. Whether you’ve approached us for a full-scope interior design or a quick virtual consult, we hope these tips will help make the process of your project a little smoother!
1. Our first (and possibly most important tip!) is to know your space inside out, and plan your approach.
The first step to almost any project is to understand the space you’re working with. This would typically start with your designers taking measurements and creating an “as-built” base drawing of your space. This creates a to-scale version of the space, which may vary or have been altered from the original construction drawing of the space. If you’re handling a reno yourself, you can do a dialed-down version of this by taking some general measurements and creating a sketch, or, you can reach out to the city to see if the original drawings of your home or commercial space are available.
One way or another, once you have a better idea of the space you’re working with, you can start to think about how to make your living and design goals suit the actual footprint of your space.
Another important aspect of planning your approach is being realistic with budget and timelines. A full-scope design process can take anywhere from 3-4 month to 1-2 years in planning, plus a construction timeline of 4-6 months (or more) depending on the complexity and scale of your project. Construction has also become increasingly expensive based on inflated material costs and supply + demand, not to mention increased lead times on materials, fixtures, and furnishings. We’ll touch on that in a later point, but it’s important to consider your budget ahead of time – what is your hard line on budget? Is there any flexibility or a range you’re comfortable working within? Do you also have money set aside for contingencies or anything that may change or be uncovered in the process of the design (such as structural deficiencies or modifications to meet code)? These can be scary questions, and your designer will do everything in their power to work within your budget, but it’s important to think about these things ahead of time and have open, honest conversations with the team you’re working with.
2. Create a narrative – what is the premise of your project?
Planning a space is a lot like writing a paper. Although space is quite a bit more complex, you have to start with a thesis statement. Once you understand the foundation of your project and what you’re trying to express, all decisions, planning, detailing, selections, (and so on) will be filtered through a narrative that ensures your space communicates the story you are trying to tell and feeling you want it to have. Taking this approach may lead you in a direction you didn’t initially expect, but will leave you with a much more cohesive and composed end result than if you were throwing independent ideas together and hoping that they work. Tying all your details and decisions back to a root concept will ensure that all the moving parts in your project feel like they contribute to a greater whole.
3. Start with your specialties.
Your project will have a rhythm throughout it – not every wall or sightline in your space will be a “hit” moment. When planning details, materials, and fixtures, start with considering where you want your “hit” moments to be. Maybe a beautiful stone resonates strongly with you, or an amazing light fixture has stolen your heart. Plan for it! Use it as the base of your palette, and coordinate the rest of your palette around it. Pull metal trims from the light’s finish, or pull a wallcovering that suits the tones of your stone and pull in a lacquer that reinforces their underlying connection. We find it easy to start small – your “specialty” fixtures or finishes, and work from micro to macro scale. There are thousands upon thousands of paint colour specifications across a ton of brands. It’s much easier to find a paint that suits the specialties you’ve selected, rather than starting with a paint and trying to force your specialties to work with it.
4. See your samples in person.
Every digital display is different. Whether you’re looking at materials on your computer or phone, it will never be accurate to how that material looks in real life. The colour balance of your screen or even the photographer’s lighting when a product photo was taken can drastically change how a material comes across online. Nothing is worse than ordering your materials, then finding that the beautiful quartz you’ve selected has a strong gray undertone that wasn’t immediately apparent, and to make matters worse, now it looks extra murky with the cabinetry lacquer you’ve selected, which is also way more blue than you expected.
When working on a project, we always order material samples so that we can see all of our potential specifications in person. The actual colours are one thing, but it’s also important to consider how they look (and potentially change!) when they’re hit by natural or artificial light, as well as how the contrast of other materials alters your perception of them when they’re put together. You can take things a step further by laying out your materials in the direction that they’ll be installed. Use a corner to lay your floor and counter samples out horizontally, but prop up your paint swatches and backsplash tiles against the wall. This way, you’ll really start to get a sense of how light will interact with your palette.
Through Covid, we became experts at digital design. It’s our job to visualize how your project will look upon completion, but even if we’re meeting virtually, we’ll always prepare a palette (and do our best to coordinate and get a copy into your hands as well)!
5. Details and terminations – plan around material sizes, and consider where things “end.”
Your concept is a starting point, but there comes a point where you have to get into the nitty-gritty details of your project. In a kitchen, you’d start with your general layout. Your general location of counters, appliances, and storage will dictate a lot of the details, but there will be a few decisions you or your designer will have to make.
How high/deep are your upper cabinets? Are they standard, or do they require a custom solution to suit the space? What material is your backsplash? If you’re doing a tile, do the tile dimensions fit nicely between your cabinet and countertop, or will they have to be cut to suit (potentially changing the look of your tile)? Does your tile wrap a corner, and are there any exposed edges? You may need a finishing strip, or to look for a tile with a “finished edge”. We’ve already mentioned that there are a lot of questions that go into every decision in a space. Our goal isn’t to overwhelm, but to potentially flag some considerations that you hadn’t thought about!
If you wanted a full-height tiled backsplash, look for a tile where the dimensions fit evenly into the gap between your countertop and upper cabinets. It’ll require less cutting, potentially reducing your construction costs as well as avoiding compromising the desired aesthetic.
On the note of material sizes, no material comes in an unlimited size. Because of this, if you’re using spans of the material in your project larger than the available sheet sizes, you’ll see seams. This is common in kitchen counters. Depending how long your spans of cabinetry are, you’ll likely see seams at corners or on longer lengths of counter. This can be detailed accordingly, using the material strategically to hide or integrate the seams meaningfully, but it’s important to note so you don’t end up with a seam where you didn’t know you would. For this specific example, an alternative may be to look at something like Solid Surface rather than a natural stone, where the seams are melted together and are as minimal as possible.
One other consideration is your lead times. A lead time is the time it takes from ordering to arrive at the project site. Lead times have unfortunately increased alongside costs, so it’s also important to make note of them when specifying materials or fixtures. A specialty fixture might be a perfect fit for a space, but it might not be a fit for your project and timeline if it isn’t available for 16-20 weeks.
6. Scale, proportion, and focus.
We had talked earlier about rhythm in your project. Not every moment will be a “hit” moment. You can use this to build your material palette, but it also applies to the overall flow of your project. There will be some sightlines that are incredibly impactful – maybe you’ve created a library-like den with a beautiful integrated shelving detail spanning an entire wall. A massive span of shelving filled with books or other décor will immediately draw attention. You can plan your furnishings to stand out in front of it, but you will likely want some relief in the rest of the room. If the room is lined wall-to-wall with feature details, your eye will get confused, not know where to focus, ultimately leading to all your beautiful “feature” details falling flat because they’re competing with each other. The wall opposite of your shelving may be a good opportunity for an art piece – something that elevates the space and feels considered, but acts as an extra “layer” rather than a new focus. If you’ve started adding in other feature lighting or furniture, maybe you leave the rest of the walls blank for relief! Negative space can be incredibly powerful, and can feel just as intentional as a designed detail.
We also talk a lot about “splurge” moments versus “cheap and cheerful” solutions with our clients. A feature detail doesn’t necessarily need specialty finishes. There are countless beautiful entry-level products, and you can coordinate a beautiful detail with the most basic materials. “Basic” isn’t bad, it’s all about what you do with it! You can definitely dial it back and use entry- level finishes or fixtures throughout your project, especially in areas that aren’t part of your “hit” moments. In fact, we encourage it!
There’s so much more to design than just these few points, but we hope these give you a glimpse into our brains, as well as inspire you with new considerations to further flesh out your future projects! In a full-scope project, your designer will likely take on a lot of these considerations and use their knowledge to make informed decisions. However, we’ve also begun offering virtual consults!
In a virtual consult, we may not have the time to deep-dive and flesh out every detail of your project for you, but our consults are a great opportunity to review your project, workshop some details or areas you may be struggling with, or give you a crash course to educate you and leave you with knowledge you can take in your project to make your own informed decisions!
Our consults are available in 60 or 90 minute consults, check them out here: