If you are building a new home or considering a home renovation, you may be evaluating what strategic partners you need to bring your dream home to life. At Flourish Interiors, we routinely plug in as a partner in that process, whether that’s for a custom new construction home, a full house renovation, a kitchen or bath remodel, furnishing updates, or even equipping an air b and b with furniture and functional items. But you may be wondering if your specific project could benefit by a designer like Flourish. Here’s my top 5 reasons why hiring a designer makes sense and adds value for specific projects.

Top 5 Reasons to Hire an Interior Designer

Expertise: Often home owners are loaded with inspiration pictures and pinterest boards… but they have no idea HOW to get what they want. Many people underestimate the level of detail and pre-construction planning that is required to pull off certain home features. For example, even a simple shower niche must be framed out in advance and ideally on a non exterior wall. As projects become higher end and more complex, these details multiply and require someone who knows HOW and WHEN to specify the right products, wiring, support structures and more. For example; if you want to have motorized blinds you can pre-wire to simplify the process. If you have a heavy chandelier that you would like to be able to clean, we can plan for a chandelier lift that brings it down to you with the push of a button for easy cleaning. Want a panel ready refrigerator? You guessed it: a designer knows how to plan in advance to make the fridge flush with the surrounding cabinetry. The list goes on and on. Designers use softwares like AutoCad, Photoshop, 2020 and more to plan with accuracy and communicate the desired aesthetic with your builder or contractor. Check out a visual below our team provided for a recent primary bathroom renovation. You can immediately see how our expertise is deployed to specify details of the project.

An example of AutoCad tile details provided to contractor for a home renovation by Flourish Interiors in South Bend Indiana — Make it stand out

Here is an AutoCad tile layout Flourish Interiors generated for a recent home renovation. We inlaid genuine marble with wood looking tile to create this beautiful french inspired flooring. This is a perfect example of how pre-planning via the work of an interior designer leads to a better implementation of high end features. Scroll for the end result.

Value: There is no doubt that most people would consider interior design a luxury service. But if you are teetering on the decision and unclear if the cost is justified….then you should feel reassured that often an interior designer can save large amounts of time, money, and hassle (and remember for most of our clients time is money). For example, interior designers often can save you costly mistakes. I find that clients often desire to try new and innovative things, but lack the experience to know when to “go for it” and when to hold back. We can help you not install a bold counter top and hate it…or try a tile pattern that looks good in your mind only to discover you hate it in real life. A single wrong order of a wall paper or quartz countertop can be a major blow to a design build budget. Designers have experience to know how to implement ideas in ways that will reduce change orders that waste time and money. We also can often make material selections in a fraction of the time it would a homeowner. When a homeowner enters a tile showroom for example, they have to patiently meet the showroom staff, learn the layout, research materials and much more…often leading to feeling overwhelmed and exhausting huge amounts of time. As designers, we know where to go, know our way around the local showrooms, and are familiar with product catalogues as well as the pros and cons of the materials and brands. All of this delegation, leads to huge amounts of time savings for you.
Space Planning: At Flourish Interiors we are masters of space planning. We are often working with clients who live remotely from the project we are helping them with. We specialize in helping non primary residents design and furnish their near Notre Dame townhomes, as well as people with lake homes in Michigan and Indiana. As a result, sometimes our clients have not even set foot in the property and have little to no sense of the scale. Or perhaps they toured the home before purchasing it, but now are at their main residence and cannot be on site to take measurements. They rely on us to carefully plan out the furnishing layouts and maximize efficiency. Properties like this often need to sleep a lot of guests for game day and vacation usage. That’s where we come in! We can help lay out each room, and find creative ways to maximize seating or sleeping arrangements, while still allowing for the proper traffic paths and walk ways. No surprises here for furniture being too big or small! We also make sure couches can fit up and own stairs and through other narrow spaces during delivery.
Reducing Stress: Building a home, or furnishing one can be a stressful process if you are not careful. From budget planning to disagreeing with a spouse on a decision…what started as a dream can turn into a nightmare as the weight of the decisions increases. Our team at Flourish Interiors has a nice range of specialties and focus, with each person helping make sure your process is stress free and enjoyable. On staff we have a kitchen cabinetry designer, a project manager, a procurement and quality control professional, designers, and installers. Our kitchen designer can help make sure every convenience you have in mind for your dream kitchen is planned for and arranged. Our project manager can arrange for the proper vendors and help keep selection decisions on schedule and more. Our procurement and quality control specialist is a great help when ordering materials and furnishings. She triple checks each order checking for accuracy, tracks deliveries and stock, can meet delivery companies on site, and inspects each item for damage and quality issues. As a result our team is specially equipped to reduce the burden on you and reduce stress in the process. You can lean into our expertise and help us find design compromises along the way too!
Unique, Personalized Design: Whether we are designing a residence or a commercial space, we are passionate about making spaces unique and one of a kind, with our clients in mind. Do you love Paris? We got you: French influence can be subtly woven into your design! Love Notre Dame but don’t want a “Ra-Ra” look to your Irish football house? No problem: we can tastefully weave in Notre Dame colors, commissioned campus artwork, or a few vintage artifacts in a soft way. Other details like personalized monograms, family heirlooms re-imagined, gallery walls and more are ways we have designer to incorporate what is special to our clients and make spaces more than just beautiful…but truly meaningful as well.

In summary, hiring an interior designer like Flourish Interiors can be a smart and impactful decision in the home building or renovation journey. And by the way, we have a lot of fun while we do it and joyfully call many of our clients friends too…so I promise, we are fun to work with as well!

Please feel free to email us at hello@flourishinteriors.net or call us at 574-216-2000 if you are interested in hearing more on how hiring Flourish Interiors might benefit your next project.