FNB World Impressions (M) Sdn. Bhd.: September 2012

When we talk about a room, we always presume that there are only four walls. This is the traditional thinking but in reality it can always be more than four walls.

Our experience is that many home owners are reluctant to hire interior designers to assist them in doing the interior of their house simply because of the cost. The argument is that why pay the interior designers because with that money they could go and buy more furniture’s or other things that is needed for the house. They are also of the opinion that there are plenty of design books and magazines available for them to purchase and try to follow the design illustrated in them for their own home. It is only natural as a new home owner you become excited about filling up the space and inviting family and friends to visit your new home.

Interior designers are equally guilty of why home owners are reluctant to hire them. This happens when interior designers take the easy way out thinking that home owners have no clue about designing but they want a dream home. Interior designers that short changed their clients in terms of producing substandard designs by copy and paste methods but at the same time charging unreasonable fees are also guilty of creating a negative perception of Interior Designers.

It is nothing unusual about this feeling. Many home owners would try to learn from the information in the magazines or books after which they pick up what they like to implement in their new home. One thing many home owners do not realize is that what they see is only one part of the room which is being published and generally do not get a whole idea of what the room design is all about. Implementing it in your own house may not be a good idea. What you have followed may not be the theme that you have set for your home. This will result in clashes in the theme and colour schemes. More often than not you would ask a contractor to do it for you by showing what you picked up from the book or magazines with no idea what the contractor would produce in the final product. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, it may cost you more money to redo it again to your satisfaction. Simply put it there is one cost for doing it the first time, second cost to remove it because you are not satisfied with the outcome and the third cost to redo it. “Penny wise pound foolish”.

Interior design is a multi-faceted practice which requires creative and technical solutions to be applied to structures to achieve a built interior environment. It seems like a mouthful of information to digest, but that is the reality. It can be a complex process though of getting the right design to fit the needs of the home owner. A good interior designer will insist on drawings to support its proposal. Drawings will include initial sketches to develop a conceptual proposal followed by computerized generated drawings. Home owners are also reminded not to be misled by the colourful drawings only because of today’s technology of copy and paste being a familiar solution. Detail drawings to support the construction works is absolutely essential, otherwise there will a war between home owner, designer and contractor. Lastly colour board with specimens of materials to be used is a necessity.

I am about to share a story with you. I will not use original names in light of privacy issues. There was a Project Manager, Unaware who came to me to help his client, Excited who was very upset with the Interior Designers Cheat and Lie that he hired. Excited is an Indian national. The project was in Rahman Putra. Cheat and Lie gave him a proposal with 3D drawings of the different areas of his house. However, Cheat and Lie gave drawings of only certain walls per room without giving Excited the whole perspective of every room. Excited was so impressed with Cheat and Lie after seeing the 3D drawings and made the initial deposit to commence work. Two weeks later the first batch of built-in furniture was brought in for installation. The measurements of the furniture were wrong and could not be placed in the respective location. What made it worse the colours were not what Excited had selected. Hell broke loose. I decided to have a look at the proposal and was shocked to see that the drawings belonged to another client of Cheat and Lie because the name of the client is China. Basically what Cheat and Lie did was to do a copy and paste job but forgot to make changes to the clients name and was caught with their pants down. These types of Interior Designers really spoil the reputation of genuine ones.

Home owners must insist on conceptual sketches, computerised generated drawings, and detail drawings for construction purposes and colour board with actual specimens. The designer must produce computerised walkthrough the house so home owners are able to see if the concept for the area that is four or more walls is in accordance with the home owner’s desires of their dream house. Home owners should understand that these entire drawings act as a contractual agreement between home owner and the designer. In the event of a dispute the drawings becomes the documentary evidence which was mutually agreed upon and thus can avoid unnecessary stress in the process of building his/her dream home. So stay wise by hiring a good interior designer and insisting on documentary evidence which comes with a price, designing fees.

I would like to give you an example of what was discussed above and hope it will assist new home owners in creating their dream home. Living is an art, you dream and together we crate your dream home.

DESIGN PROCESS FOR A PROPOSAL OF A STUDIO APARTMENT'S MASTER BEDROOM