Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater Masterpiece

As I get ready to do something I’ve never done before (to “blog”), I’ve been pondering what exactly I will be talking about. Let’s face it, blogging is just editorializing, talking about stuff that could be anything from pure opinion to well researched short topics. It’s conversational, topical, ideally informative, and preferably entertaining. One topic continues to rise to the top as an item of critical importance to those of us in the design service profession; the client.

Clients are critical, for without them we literally have nothing to do. Even if we’re designing our own dream homes, some theoretical super “green” high rise, or even a floating city as a movie set, there is a client involved. This client may be imaginary, but there is still a list of wants, needs, and limitations that make up the foundation of the problem that any project proposes to solve. Design professionals are in the end, just problem solvers, so no problem, no solution.

What I’ve come to really appreciate about great architecture, and all its design cousins, is that the resulting physical thing (the answer), while attractive and meaningful, is servant to the problem statement, the question being asked. This question is the foundation of the project, and it lives in the mind of the client, although it is the job of the design professional is to help discover it truly and describe it thoroughly. This is a collaborative process where the design professional is critical, but where a forthright, cooperative, patient, and trusting client is invaluable. Without the client fully embracing their role, their responsibility in this partnership, the designer is limited to making it up and mailing it in.

Fallingwater Interior

As I want to salute and define what it means to be a great client, let’s assume a talented, experienced, and thoughtful design professional is on board. I’ll talk about design process in the future, defining what the differences are between bad, average, and great design professionals.

A great client is an active partner in a process of problem discovery, willing to accept that the initial problem statement may be partially or even completely wrong. “I need a two storey addition on my house because I need a master suite and new kitchen, and it should be built on the back right here.” It’s a great place to start, a very necessary step, but what should happen next is a lengthy and thoughtful process of understanding what is and what needs to be, as well as what limitations and opportunities exist that will impact the project. Afterwards, we may learn that an addition wasn’t necessary at all in order to accomplish a renovated kitchen and a basement master suite.

As we all know, time is money, and thinking takes time. Particular in tough economic times (now), with tight budgets (usually), or with challenging schedules (often) this phase is often truncated or eliminated in order to expedite the next phase (design and documentation). While understandable on the surface, does it make sense to rush into battle without some understanding of your enemy, the field, the weaponry available on both sides, and then of course the role of this battle in the bigger war? It is critical to think before leaping, and that takes time. To inadequately plan is to just roar your battle cry and go charging down the hill and hope for the best. Almost any professional will keep a client out of harm’s way, giving you something safe and functional, something adequate. But such thinking does not make for great projects.

Fallingwater Exterior

A great client also trusts the design professional and the discovery process. If there is no trust, the whole design process is irrevocably broken and the result will be mediocre at best. Trust does not mean being led by the nose or letting the professional have their way. It means allowing the process to work, for questions and answers to flow, and then questioning answers, even when they seem obvious. Depending on the complexity of the project, there could be numerous formal rounds of this, although truly the questions never cease to come until the project is built.

Lastly, a great client is a thinking client, one that challenges their design professional and is willing, even asking, to be challenged themselves. For the process to work best, all parties involved need to be offering up their best, while insisting that their partners are doing the same. You would be surprised how opportunities are uncovered and obstacles are hurdled by honest and thorough collaborative deliberation.

So, what makes for a great client? Time and Patience. Trust. Thoughtfulness.

Done properly, this process results in projects exceeding expectations. You’ll see I’ve included images of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. This is the first time I remember learning of a project achieving such awe inspiring timelessness because a client offered an inconceivable amount of patience and trust to the architect. The client wanted a vacation home that celebrated their family’s favorite swimming and picnicking spot, and trusted Mr. Wright to give it to them while they vacationed abroad. What they got was totally unexpected and completely restated the original problem statement. Their house was built over, on, and around their favorite spot. Their house became their favorite spot.

Fallingwater Exterior

Fallingwater Interior

To read more of the history of Fallingwater, please visit the website.

Please contact Derek via email for more info or questions about a specific project. 

Whether you are building your retirement portfolio or training for your first marathon, you may search for advice online but ultimately you covet a face-to-face experience with a professional.  When it comes to tackling a home remodeling project, however, homeowners often don’t know where to get the information needed to ensure their project’s success.  Searching for advice online usually results in more confusion and frustration.  Where are all the design professionals when you really need them?

Define your environment

Spend some quality time assessing how you live in your home, not just the space you are looking to renovate. Good designers weigh how the layout, traffic patterns and needs of your lifestyle balance with the functionality of your home. How does the layout of your space psychologically affect your emotional well-being and life? More than you may realize. It’s hard to identify those trouble spots without spending some time analyzing all areas in the home.

Exercise

Start by listing your general wishes for the house (a fully functional office, room to entertain friends, an inviting outdoor space, storage for your Boston Terrier figurine collection.) Just brainstorm, don’t think too hard or try to limit your ideas. Next list adjectives you want associated with your space (calming, inspiring, themed, glamorous, rustic, ethnic, urban, sleek, etc.)

Frequently, clients think they can’t have it all, but more often than not, design professionals are able to incorporate all their client’s wishes by thinking a little outside the box!

Scope of Project

This is a term you will hear the professionals using time and time again. Once you decide exactly what your project will be, you need to set some parameters. To define your scope of project you need to, not only answer the questions in the exercise below, but expand upon them into as much detail as you can. It’s like having a business plan: the more detailed you can be, the clearer your vision will be and the better your chances are of having a good experience and successful renovation.

Answer these questions with as many specifics about your expectations

• What is my timeframe?
• Do I need to hire a professional? (interior designer, architect, general contractor, project manager) See article Who are these people?! And what do they do?
• What is my budget maximum?
• What vendors do I have in mind for materials?

Do your style homework

Frequently, when meeting with clients, it becomes a designer’s job to be an interpreter, to read between the lines. Clients will show the designer pictures from magazines that exemplify what they believe to be their ideal look for the room. Sometimes it’s just the color scheme, the furniture arrangement or texture story that really speak to you. It’s very important to look critically at what you do and don’t like about photographed rooms to hone your vision and get exactly what you truly want.

Exercise

Read design magazines, blogs and websites to find out more about what’s going on in the design world. Tear pictures out of magazines. Try to define what about each picture catches your eye. Is it the light, bright airy feeling, is it the furniture arrangement, is it the fabric and rug textures, or could it simply be the wall color? Get a binder and put those inspiring pictures together, jot down your thoughts about each room on a post-it affixed to each page. This will help hone your vision and give your project more focus. Create floorplans

Create floorplans

Don’t want to waste time and money? Smart designers start their physical design process right here: with floorplans. After defining your desires for the space, it’s time to get down to the dirty business of laying out that idea. Retail furniture stores like Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel can help you get ideas on various furniture arrangement possibilities just by visiting and looking at their how they display their floor models in settings.

Exercise

Go to an art store, like Dick Blick or ArtMart here in St. Louis, and grab a packet of ¼” scale graph paper and a ¼” scale furniture template (only a couple bucks!) Sit down and map out your room. Pencil in a couple different arrangements to see what may or may not work. It helps to sketch the room out once and make some photocopies of just the walls and doors so you can try out many different plan ideas. One idea should stand out as a natural arrangement. Before completely committing to your space plan, lay out newspaper on your floor to make sure the footprints of the items you are selecting will indeed work.

Some general spacing considerations:

12-18” between sofas and coffee tables or ottomans

3-4” between upholstery and side tables

24”+ for traffic paths (wheelchairs need 36”)

36”+ between dining chairs and walls

Budgeting & Materials Research

Building on the previous step, creating floor plans, you now have an idea of what items to budget and research for your project! Go out to shops, look in magazines and check out websites of retailers to get an expectation of what the components of your project will cost. Above all, do not forget to include LABOR, this can easily double the cost of a project.

Exercise

Create an Excel spreadsheet that lists all items you will need to purchase (see our sample budget spreadsheet) to obtain a clearer picture of your total cost.

Some tips regarding budgeting and materials research

• Be realistic–those lamps you love…$1800 each? Clip a picture for your designer or lighting showroom salesman, they can probably find something similar in your price range.
• Don’t forget all those incidentals-they can really add up (curtain rods, rug pads, chocolate silk shades for your chandelier that was purchased with cream silk shades.)
• Delivery costs can add as much as 20%, so be sure you are factoring in those figures.

Designers’ fee schedules work in all sorts of manners and many designers use different pricing schematics based on what type of design work they will be doing on a particular project. Here are the most common ways in which designers bill for their services:

Retainer

Retainers are usually employed for any type of design project that is not consultation based. This retainer is agreed upon by the designer and the client and usually is set up to cover the designer’s and designer’s employees time in preparing the initial design plan. Retainers are used in conjunction with other fees listed below.

Fee Based

After the scope of work is defined, the designer or firm will submit a proposal to the client. This is a set price that is to be paid incrementally throughout the lifespan of the project, typically monthly or at set milestones in the project (deliveries, construction completion.) The firm determines their fee based on several factors: projected employee hours, costs, square footage and other factors. This can be dangerous if the project is under-estimated.

Square Foot Based

Same as fee based, but price is set only by square footage, no other factors.

Hourly

Depending on the designer’s education, experience, skill level and where you are located in the nation, an hourly fee can fluctuate from $50-$500+/hour. Hourly fees are usually charged when the services are largely consulting in nature, and on an as-needed basis (selecting paint colors, rendering floor plans, product selection.) This method is most popular with independent designers not associated with a firm.

Cost-Plus

The designer plans and executes design of the space. The client purchases furniture and accessories from the designer directly and the client pays the item cost (design net price) plus (markup percentage.)

Hour and Cost-Plus

Hourly fees are paid for consulting services, budgeting and client meetings. Then any items procured through the designer are handled cost-plus.

A&E and HGTV still haven’t called, nor have their cameras ever appeared at one of the many properties I “flipped” or rehabbed.

I’ve been at it longer than these stations have existed: buying foreclosed and distressed properties fixing them up, staging them and selling the property for a profit. It did surprise me that someone found flipping real estate to be worthy of a television show until I saw a few of these shows. Suddenly the way I rehabbed felt very boring.

I never removed kitchen cabinets with an axe. In fact I haven’t done any demolition work with an axe. I have never convened with my posse in a large black SUV. I have never gotten in a physical altercation with any of my contractors. But, I have had insects rain on me like a spring storm. I also have encountered smells that are beyond description and scenes that are not suitable for television. So, now you know why the cameras haven’t shown up.

Staging Your Home To Sell and Other Real Estate Investing Tips

Those of you wanting to try your hand at real estate investing should know that if cameras did follow me the show would be very different. Here a few things I’ve done that the cameras may have missed.

Get Mentors.
My network of friendly competitors and mentors contributes the most to the success of my business. Viewers never see Armando call his mentor when he gets in a bind. I have a feeling his mentor may suggest he not engage in fist fights with contractors.

Use Professionals.
Take pride in your rehabs, adopt the philosophy “if the job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well”. We are lucky in the St. Louis area to have such skilled trades, so call your mentors and find out who they recommend. Use ASID designers for staging as well as kitchen and bath design. Use structural engineers. Use Realtors for marketing. Unlike the television shows, my projects go relatively smooth. I owe this to the slew of talented people that help me with my rehabs. If the television experts used professionals they would know that not staging at all is better than bad staging (and axes are for lumberjacks).

Make a Great First Impression. 
Great, not good. Good isn’t great enough. My clients are always anxious to hurry and get their projects on the market. Seeing how far a project has come, a client frequently sees it as ready to go. The competition may have started from an entirely different place. That’s why yours must be great. A buyer isn’t going to come back and take a second look if she wasn’t impressed after the first visit. The taping schedule forces TV projects to hold open houses while the paint is still drying or flooring still needs to be laid. Don’t lose your patience at the end and give buyers the impression that you hastily threw the entire project together.

Don’t Get Greedy.
Price your project to sell quickly; there’s no prize for the house that sits on the market the longest. Your first offer could be your only offer, so try to make a deal. Not all projects are winners. You may have to take an offer that makes you pick up your lemons and move on to the next project to make lemonade. After the television show ends you don’t always know what price the property fetched or if it even sold at all. Many investors will turn a rehab project that is not selling into a rental and attempt to sell in a better market. Being a landlord is very different than being a rehabber, but both are very real possibilities.

Don’t Stop Doing What Made You Successful. 
Be disciplined to stick to the systems you have refined that have produced the desired results. I suppose the television personalities had to realize some level of success in real estate to attract the attention of producers. Though their television antics are entertaining, I would find it hard to believe that the behavior exhibited is the most profitable and efficient way to rehab houses. If you want to be a successful real estate investor, think of the overall process of rehabbing as a routine elimination of weaknesses. Initially you may not fetch the price you want because you overlooked certain things. But as you learn from your mistakes, you’ll eliminate your weak points, and the end result will be a smooth and efficient rehabbing method that will consistently earn a profit.

If you’re interested in rehabbing, and you have realistic expectations and a good work ethic–give it a try. The risks can be high, but currently there are a lot of properties available and prices have sunk to rock bottom. The prices of large black SUVs have also come down.

Interior Designer Cary Baumann’s company, Cary and Company, LLC, was voted BEST Staging Company by St. Louis AT HOME Magazine.