Choosing the right interior designer/renovator/contractor

It’s always good to shop around – browse topical forums, post a question on Facebook, ask everyone else who’s recently done up their place for good contacts. But it all comes up to a point where choices, instead of helping you get the best deal out there, gets you confused. Truth is, unless someone thinks his/her interior designer sucked or seriously ripped him/her off, chances are, he/she is going to recommend him/her. If the interior designer is costly, it would most probably be justified with creativity and quality. If the interior designer is cheap, he probably will belch when you ask him to mount a mirror on.

Frankly speaking, what you pay IS (usually) what you will get.

Getting a baseline

That being said, there are instances whereby certain companies are unethical enough to rip you off badly (most of them advertise, you get the drift). Those with strong branding will definitely charge more. It’s simple economics. Price is the perceived value of a product.

What the husband and I did was to speak to 5 firms. They range from one reputed to be super value-for-money, to a ruthless, branded firm. You’d probably seen them on TV.

We asked for the same thing. And the quotes we received ranged from S$11,000 to S$28,000. I know, that’s insane. I used to work for an interior designer who charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in design fees. Well, well.

Interior designer? Renovator? Main contractor?

Every firm has its own strengths and core competencies. When you first get into this whole renovation thingamajig, you’ll realise the world of renovation LOVES USING JARGON. So what exactly are the differences between an interior designer, renovator, and main contractor?

1)      Interior designers (ID)

Well, as the name suggest, they are designers. Meaning they are creative, full of weird ideas, and are probably the ones who’d advise you to hack a wall or two to “open up the space”, “let the light in” or propose you to have built-in structures that will put Pablo Picasso to shame. They charge you for their time. They charge for every 3D drawing they provide. They have tonnes of pride. They are, well, designers.

2)      Main contractors ( Main-con)

Think uncles. Who might smoke in your house. Honest people, no lip service. He’ll tell you your idea is “cannot lahhhh” if he needs to. They are usually the guys interior designers engage, so going to them saves you some money which would otherwise have been spent on the ID’s 3D drawings and other stuff they call “customer service”. Main-cons may or may not provide 3D drawings, but they are the practical guys. They’ve been through more kitchen cabinets than you have held a frying slice.

If you have a very clear idea of what you want, and don’t mind doing a little project coordination and management on your own, it might not be a bad idea to hire a Main-con. However, this would mean that you have to match-make your other suppliers/contractors with him (eg. your lighting guys, your plumbers, your air-con people…). Hiring a main-con would probably save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars that have been costed in for project coordination manhours. But if you can’t really deal with uncle-talk then you probably need a third party patient and accommodating enough to answer all your littlest doubts and entertain all your whimsical queries.

3)      Renovators

They are what I see as the in-between. No fancy designs that will throw you off your feet. Chances are that when you first meet them, they will recommend you the most basic package available. You are free to add in your requests (and your quote starts ballooning…) as the ideas developed. They provide you with 3D drawings and have already built their project management fees into the quote, sometimes as a “package”.  They are cheaper than branded firms. This is not to say that they aren’t capable of awe-inspiring designs, but that’s premium service that you’d have to top up for. If you have a clear idea of what style you want, you could consider hiring a renovator. Where the ID is the one managing the contractors. This way, your requests will be taken in carefully. They usually know what works and what doesn’t. They will afford sound, practical advice for your most basic, foolish questions. They won’t say “that’s not my job” because they’re paid to manage the entire project. Essentially, they are problem solvers. Less heartache, less headache.

Here’s my renovator’s website. They’re ‘showroom’ is located at IMM. http://www.innerview.com.sg/

Simply put, if you know nuts about what you want, have lotsa cash and want a kickass beautiful home, go for an interior designer. If you know what you want, have clipped thousands of pages off magazines and have enough spare time on hand to coordinate among suppliers, renovators, plumbers, whatever, go for a main-con. If you kinda know what you want, have clipped pages off magazines, are on a budget and have no time to play octopus, then go for a renovator. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to dressing up your own home.