What a full-service interior designer in Miami actually does
From the first walk-through to install day: what is included, what is not, and why the middle part is the part you are really paying for.
Draft post, for review and voice edits.
People usually picture the two ends of this job. The mood board at the beginning, the styled shelves at the end. Those are real, and they are the fun parts. But if that were the whole job, you could do it with a weekend and a good Pinterest account.
What you are actually hiring when you hire a full-service designer is the middle. Here is what that looks like on a Casa Chiang project.
Discover
We walk the house together. I want to know where the backpacks land, where the mail piles up, which room nobody uses and why. I ask about the dog. I ask about who cooks. I ask what you are embarrassed about when guests come over, because that is usually the first thing we fix.
Design
This is the part that looks like design. Floor plans, elevations, 3D renderings so you can see the room before it exists, and every single selection, tile, hardware, fabric, lighting, presented for approval. Nothing is ordered until you have said yes to it.
Build and source
Here is the middle. Ordering from forty vendors with forty lead times. Tracking a sofa that shipped from North Carolina and a light fixture stuck in customs. Coordinating the tile installer with the plumber with the electrician so they are not standing in the same bathroom on the same morning. Inspecting deliveries so the damaged nightstand goes back before you ever see it. This is months of work, and you do not see most of it, which is the point.
Install and style
One day, or a few, when everything arrives and gets placed. Art hung, beds made, closets set up, pantry labeled. You leave in the morning and come home to a finished house. It is the best day of the project and I will never stop loving it.
What is not included
We are not a general contractor. We work closely with yours, or help you find one, and we manage the design side of construction, but permits, structural work, and the crew are theirs. We are also not a furniture store. You pay for the furniture; we source it, specify it, and make sure it fits through the door.
If that sounds like what you need, that is our Renovation and New Construction work. And if the house is built and just needs to become yours, that is Furnishings.
