What an Interior Design Project Does Not Include. You Need to Know This.
What an interior design project does not include is a question that surprises a lot of people. It may seem odd, since the contents of the project are set out in a standard contract, and it would be logical to assume that anything not listed there is not included.
On paper that is true, but in practice many clients are genuinely surprised, halfway through the design work, that a conscientious designer does not check their furniture picks from a shop, does not redraw the tile layout in the bathroom, and refuses even for money to produce working drawings for the inside of a kitchen unit.
The misunderstandings and the hurt feelings come from clients not seeing where the service ends. This article settles the question once and for all: what is not part of an interior design project.
Building services: electrics, low-voltage systems and plumbing
Electrics
The designer sets out the lighting circuits, the sockets and switches, their positions and dimensions, their manufacturers and models, and the outlets and type of fixed appliances. The layout of the electrical outlets is agreed with the client and becomes the brief for the engineer who calculates cable sizes, designs the consumer unit and works out the power reserve. The designer does not produce executed services drawings, because that is the engineer's work. If an electrical design is needed, an electrician will produce it before installation starts.
Fitted furniture, dressing rooms, kitchens
The interior designer determines where fitted furniture (kitchens, dressing rooms) goes, its configuration and its appearance, and produces a sketch design. From that sketch design a cost can be worked out and a maker chosen. The working drawings for the furniture itself are produced by the maker's own technologist. Detailing the internal fit-out of built-in furniture is not part of an interior designer's job, because the designer does not know the chosen maker's range and is not qualified in components and detailing. The designer specifies the configuration, the colour and the desired material. The maker does the rest. During design supervision the designer approves the colour and texture samples and the visible details (handles, hinges).
If the client wants it, I do design bespoke furniture. This is not part of the project and is paid for separately by agreement. Even then, the maker's own designer or technologist prepares the technical documentation.
Low-voltage systems
The designer specifies the position and type of low-voltage equipment (motion sensors, smart home elements) in the drawings and the design brief, and passes that on to the contractors. It is the starting point for their conversation with the client about detailing, purchasing and installing the equipment. The designer sets out the client's needs as formed in the brief and refined during the project, while the executed drawings, the equipment selection and the exact positions are done by the contractor's engineers. During the build the contractor agrees the visible elements with the designer: outlets, sockets, grilles.
Plumbing
The designer indicates the centreline positions of the sanitaryware and describes the principles behind the outlets that need attention if the project contains a non-standard solution. The builders get the detailed connection arrangement from the equipment's installation instructions. The designer should not specify the exact installation drawing, because it comes with the equipment from the manufacturer and is detailed there.
Finishing work: access panels, tiling, colours and materials
Access panels
It is impossible to establish the exact size, height and tile cuts at project stage. The builders agree the access panels with the designer during design supervision. On the drawings the designer indicates the preferred position and adds a note: "to be agreed during design supervision".
The setting-out of the tiling
On the drawing the designer indicates where the tiling starts and the principles of how it is set out in the space, the starting point allowing for the joints as designed, and adds a note to the drawing: "confirm setting-out once the walls are built". The builders then set the tiles out on site, taking account of the walls as built and plastered. During design supervision the designer takes finished sections off the built and plastered walls and adjusts the setting-out if it differs from what the project assumed. The design decisions cannot contain more precise information about setting-out on built walls, because the measurements were taken on the bare shell and there is no way to predict exactly what will come out.
Cost estimates, supervision and control of the build
Cost estimates
Cost estimates are not part of the design project. The designer is not qualified to price building work and will not allow for the finer points. The estimate is produced by the building contractor, the site manager or the head of the building crew. If the designer has a friendly crew, the designer supplies the estimate with their help.
Procurement and construction management within design supervision
Design supervision exists to point out the mistakes found when the builders' work is inspected, everywhere that has not been done according to the project. Design supervision covers advice and consultation for the builders within a strictly defined time, and nothing more. All the furniture that needs ordering is ordered by the client, alone or with the designer's help within the procurement or design supervision service. Within design supervision I help choose, or choose myself, the right furniture, while payment, delivery and any claims are handled by the client. The design project service includes choosing and helping to order furniture and other items remotely while the project is being built. In any case I never leave a client alone with the choice of furniture or interior pieces and I always come to their aid, but this is not something the contract obliges me to do.
Supervising the building crew
During design supervision the designer does not supervise the work of the building crew. That is the job of technical supervision. If no technical supervision has been engaged, it falls to the client. If the correct methods are not followed, the client takes it up with the crew leader under their contract. The designer supervises the technical side of the construction only if a construction management contract has been signed. In that case the designer stops being a designer and becomes the manager of the site.
Planning approval
Approval of the plans is handled by the client or by a firm engaged separately, which takes the plan supplied by the designer, gets it approved and files the changes with the technical inventory authority. The designer must know and follow the relevant regulations so that the plan can be approved, but the approval process itself is not part of the design project and is an additional undertaking, namely dealing with the authorities.
Purchasing, colours, lighting and complex technical solutions
Ordering by product code
Product codes are not given in the design project. The manufacturer, the collection, the type and the model are. The exact code is put together in the showroom with a salesperson, because a model chosen from a photograph may consist of several parts, and only someone who knows the manufacturer's technical catalogue can configure it correctly. A shower, for example, is made up of three or more separate parts (handle, head, riser, hose), each with its own number. One digit or one letter can be the difference between a matt and a gloss finish.
To avoid getting into a tangle, the codes should be left to the supplier rather than ordered yourself or demanded from the designer. Ordering by product code is serious, responsible work. If the designer is not the one placing the order, they are not paid for that responsibility and should not have to answer for the showroom salesperson's accuracy.
The exact quantity of material to buy
In the working drawings the designer gives the manufacturer, the name, the model and the type of material, and the quantity the project requires. With that information, during the build, the client buys the material, alone or with help from the designer or a shop assistant, with the project quantity plus more or less of a margin, and arranges delivery and storage. The exact purchase quantity cannot be part of a design project, because a margin is always added and the margin differs from case to case. How large it should be is not a question for the designer. It is decided by the client, with the manufacturer's or the salesperson's recommendations in mind. Someone might want to save money and take no margin at all, at the risk of holding up the build if the material runs short.
Exact colours
The designer does not give an exact colour number in the project, only general names and a reference to the visualisation. The same colour, Ivory in RAL 1015, will come out differently at every manufacturer, so colours absolutely have to be chosen in the flesh. What is printed in the catalogue, what stands in the showroom and what actually gets delivered will all be different.
Even when an exact paint number is given, that does not mean you should buy the whole quantity at once and start painting. You must first buy a small sample, and better still several close shades, and paint out test patches, which should be judged in the room they are meant for, under different light.
Colours are chosen from test patches and samples, and from nothing else. During design supervision, in daylight, the designer gathers the samples together and decides how they work with one another.
Lighting calculations
In a normal situation the designer chooses the fittings from experience, drawing on knowledge of light sources, their type and their intensity. The designer uses lighting circuits and dimmers for control, and offers the client lighting design with installation as an option. Photometric calculations, lamp selection and calibration are done by a lighting contractor.
Executed drawings for complex technical solutions
Fireplaces, aquariums, water features, saunas, home cinemas and other elements that require professional design. When the project is drawn up, the designer receives the principal schemes and constraints from the contractors and takes them into account in the sketch design. During the build the contractors agree the final equipment and cost with the client and then produce their working drawings. The designer takes account of all the existing plans and ties the design decisions to them, but does not reproduce other contractors' executed drawings in her own documentation, does not detail them and does not answer for them.
What to do with all this
Understanding where the service ends helps you go through the whole process calmly and without false expectations. To understand what you get and in what order, I recommend reading what an interior design project includes and its service packages, what stages a design project has, and what design supervision is and why you need it.
Frequently asked questions
What is not part of an interior design project?
A design project does not include executed services drawings (electrics, low-voltage systems, plumbing), working drawings for fitted furniture, building cost estimates, planning approval with the authorities, ordering by product code, the exact quantity of material to buy, exact colour numbers, lighting calculations, or executed drawings for complex solutions (fireplaces, saunas, pools and so on).
Why does the designer not produce a cost estimate?
Pricing building work is the province of the building contractor, the site manager or the crew leader, who take the technical detail into account. A designer can only supply an estimate with the help of a friendly building crew.
Does the designer supervise the building crew during design supervision?
No. During design supervision the designer points out what has not been done according to the project and gives advice. Supervising the crew is the job of technical supervision or of the client. The designer supervises the build only under a separate construction management contract.
Why does the project not give exact product codes and colours?
The exact code is put together by a showroom salesperson who knows the manufacturer's technical catalogue, because one model may consist of several parts. Exact colours are chosen only in the flesh, from test patches, because the same shade looks different from one manufacturer to the next and under different light.
