Designing to Fit Your Vision: Help, Favors, and Bargains!

Ouch! Those can be three magic words—or just another way to spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e. Help, by its best implications, is supposed to be a good thing. A favor should make us appreciative of a gesture, and a bargain is designed to reach us where it counts: the budget. If these concepts always lived up to their promises, almost every business and personal project would benefit.

We have all given or received help and favors, and a perceived bargain always catches the eye. However, the back-and-forth of these three concepts has likely been part of our collective experience, and while some of those experiences are good, others can be nightmares. When things go wrong after accepting help, favors, or bargains, we may not like the outcome, but the fact is that we were often complicit in the choice.

We have all seen the pitfalls where "help" promised competence but delivered nothing but expensive re-dos, or where a "favor" lacked follow-through and became an embarrassment. Even worse is the "bargain" that fails in less than a year. Within the context of an interior design project, any help, favor, or bargain offered deserves—and must receive—serious scrutiny.

A professional design team applies conscientious oversight to all subcontractors, general resources, suppliers, manufacturers’ representatives, and materials. On your behalf, they run a tight ship, requiring the appropriate credentials, experience, and expertise for the specific work at hand to ensure the vision is realized correctly.

It can get a little dicey if a client introduces surprise help or wants to substitute bargains in place of the design team’s professional recommendations. All the red flags go up until that help or bargain proves to be a legitimate preference that the team can support.

While the final decisions are ultimately yours, a design team may require a disclaimer, a release, or a "hold harmless" understanding for any product or service they recommend against. This area of risk often occurs due to cost anxiety, the temptation to trade quality for a cheap price, or simply not knowing how to make the appropriate choice for a complex situation.

An interior design team has to wear two hats: one representing the expertise and integrity you are paying for, and another representing your project’s security—the advocate who keeps the project out of trouble. Help offered is usually well-meant, a favor can be a real gift, and a true bargain is a great find. It simply makes sense to discuss these possibilities with your interior design team before saying yes to questionable help, iffy favors, or tempting bargains

Aunt Mabel’s donated paintings may be a bargain for the new dental office, but better check with the design team first.  (Just to be sure it’s a good fit!)