Trust and Collaboration in Interior Design
People hire a designer for a lot of reasons, an eye they don't have, time they don't have, a problem they can't quite name. What's talked about less is that the projects which turn out best all share something in common on the client's side, not just the designer's: a real willingness to collaborate.
I don't mean agreeing with everything I suggest. I mean something closer to what you'd want from any real partnership: telling me the truth about how you live and want to live, sitting with a recommendation that isn't what you expected before deciding against it, and trusting that twenty-four years of doing this has taught me things a homeowner, however thoughtful, generally hasn't had the occasion to learn.
What Trust Looks Like In Practice
It looks like answering the questionnaire honestly, even the parts that feel a little exposing, because the mail-pile question and the "what do you actually do in this room" question are how I learn what a mood board can't tell me.
It looks like telling me when something doesn't feel right, rather than quietly going along with it and living with a decision you never actually agreed to. I would always rather hear it early, when a change is a conversation, than after the fact, when it's a redo.
And it looks like giving a recommendation a real chance before deciding against it. Not every good idea looks right on paper. Some of the best decisions I've made for a project were the ones a client almost said no to.
What Collaboration Looks Like and Why It’s Necessary
A good renovation asks something of the client too, not effort in the sense of doing my job for me, but engagement in the sense of actually being part of the process. Responding to questions in a reasonable window. Making a decision when a decision is needed, since a delayed choice on my end usually means a delayed contractor on someone else's. Coming to the in-home session with some honesty about how you actually live, not the version of your life you'd present to a magazine.
This isn't about being an easy client. It's about being a present one.
Why I Bring This Up At All
Every so often, I meet someone at the beginning of a project who tells me, in one way or another, that trust only runs one direction: mine, toward them. I understand where that comes from. Plenty of people have been let down by someone they hired, and caution is a reasonable response to that.
But a renovation built entirely on suspicion doesn't really work, for either of us. If nothing I recommend gets a fair hearing because the working assumption is that I can't be trusted, we're not collaborating, we're negotiating, project after project, decision after decision. That's a much worse experience for a client than the one they were trying to protect themselves from.
I say this not as a complaint, but as an honest description of what makes a project go well, because I think most people considering a renovation genuinely want to know. The relationship is the foundation the rest of it gets built on. When it's solid, the whole process moves faster, costs less in revisions, and produces a home that actually reflects the life you told me about in the first place.
If that sounds like the kind of partnership you're looking for, I'd love to hear about your project.
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