Post-Design Support
Your designer, available through the build.
The design is finished.
The project is not.
A completed design is a set of decisions made in advance, on paper, about a room nobody has opened up yet. Then the work starts, and the building begins arguing with it. A pipe runs where the vanity was going. The joists face the wrong way for the lighting. Your builder prices the scheme and asks four questions you had not thought about. Your tiler wants to know what happens at the junction the drawing does not show.
Post-design support is your designer staying available through that phase: answering the questions, adjusting the design where site conditions force it, and giving your trades a decision rather than a shrug. Not because the design was wrong, but because no design survives contact with an old building entirely intact.
On site, or on a call
Your choice, and plenty of projects use both. Remote is available everywhere. On site depends on where the property is and who is free.
On site
- Your designer visits at the stages that matter, agreed with you in advance
- Photographs and a written report after each visit, so there is a record
- Decisions made in the room, with the trades present
- Subject to location and availability, most straightforward in cities where our designers are based, among them Berlin, Munich and Madrid
Remote
- Available anywhere in Europe, in English
- Photographs and video from site, answered the same way
- Your designer can join a call with your contractor directly
- Faster to arrange when something has stopped and the trades are waiting
Tell us where the property is when you enquire and we will confirm honestly whether on-site is workable for it, and what the travel adds, rather than leaving you to find out later.
Scoped to the project,
not sold in boxes
Support used to be sold here as three fixed packages. It is not any more, because the packages were a guess at how much help a project would need and projects do not divide that way. A single bathroom with one awkward discovery can absorb more design time than three straightforward rooms.
So we scope it to the effort the project actually requires. Tell us what you are building, how many rooms are involved, how much is being stripped back and whether you want a designer on site. We come back with what we think it will take and what that costs, and you approve it before anything starts. If the project turns out to need less than we scoped, we will say so rather than spend it.
This is not
project management
The distinction matters, so here it is plainly. A project manager holds the contract with your builder, runs the programme, controls the money, inspects the workmanship and carries responsibility when the build goes wrong. We do none of that. Your contract is with your contractor, and it stays there.
What we do is narrower. We keep the design intact through the build: answering design questions, resolving what site conditions have made impossible, specifying alternatives when something is unavailable, and making sure what gets built is what was drawn. That is a design role, not a construction one.
On a large or structurally complex renovation you may well need a project manager as well, and if that is what your project needs we will tell you so. The two are not alternatives.
Everything goes wrong
in the same week
There is a predictable moment in almost every renovation: the point just after strip-out, when the walls and floors are open and the building finally shows you what is actually in it. A soil stack nobody knew about. A floor level that drops thirty millimetres across the room. A wall that turns out to be doing structural work. Ninety per cent of the design questions on a project arrive in that fortnight.
It is also the worst possible time to be waiting for answers, because the trades are on site, being paid, and cannot proceed. That single window is what post-design support exists for, and it is why the useful version of this service is measured in response times rather than in hours.
What people ask before booking
Do I need to have had the design done by you?
Usually yes, because this service protects a scheme we produced and we know why every decision in it was made. If you have a design from someone else and want help getting it built, get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether we can be useful.
How is it priced?
By the effort your project needs, scoped after a conversation rather than sold as a fixed package. We look at the number of rooms, how much is being opened up, how long the build runs and whether you want a designer on site, then quote it and get your approval before anything starts.
Can a designer come to the property?
Where the location and availability allow. It is most straightforward in the cities where our designers are based, among them Berlin, Munich and Madrid. Tell us where the property is on enquiry and we will confirm before anything is agreed, including what the travel adds.
What happens on an on-site visit?
Your designer attends at the stages you have agreed, works through what has come up with you and the trades, and follows up with photographs and a written report. The report matters more than people expect, because it is what everyone refers back to when there is a disagreement about what was decided.
Will you speak to my builder directly?
Yes, and it is often the fastest route. A designer and a contractor can settle in ten minutes something that takes four days when every message passes through you.
Do you manage the build?
No. Your contract is with your contractor and the programme, the money and the workmanship stay their responsibility. We protect the design through the build rather than running the build itself.
When should I book it?
Before work starts, ideally. The demand is heaviest in the fortnight after strip-out, and arranging support while a project is already stalled means losing days you are paying for either way.
What if the design needs changing on site?
That is the main thing this service does. Where site conditions rule something out, your designer works out the alternative and issues what the trades need to carry on, rather than leaving you to negotiate it with a builder who is waiting.
Is this the same as your furniture concierge?
No. Procurement handles buying and delivering the furniture. This handles the building work and the design decisions inside it. Full renovations often use both, and styling at the end once everything has arrived.