What the Designer Should and Should Not Do for the Client: A Professional's View

Why a designer can refuse to provide author's supervision, where their responsibility ends, and what a client shouldn't expect when ordering a project from a well-known professional – these nuances of working on a design project that every client should know, we discussed with Victoria Kiorsak.

Victoria Kiorsak, Designer. In 2005, she graduated from the Academic Design School, a professional course on Interior Design. She believes that in an ideal interior, every piece of furniture should be customized – made as a single unique item for the client.

About interior design as a service

Interior design as a service is an option for fairly wealthy people. Wealthy and accomplished in every sense. Those who don’t hurry to live and don’t feel rushed! Interior design in unimaginable timeframes and budgets – this is IKEA. By the way, the company has a convenient room planner if you need one.

About the contract

If you clearly and, attention, don’t specify the budget in the contract in advance, don’t expect the designer to guess the amount you mentioned over tea at the kitchen table. Even if you casually mentioned it during initial negotiations – that’s not counted either. If you want strict adherence to the budget, write it down in the contract.

Good and cheap – fast never happens!

And straight to the numbers – this will most likely lead to serious delays in project implementation, as at that point, I immediately recall my favorite triangle: good and cheap – fast never happens! And if it’s fast and very cheap, expect quality “bumps”.

About author’s and technical supervision

Services like “Project Completion” and “Construction Management” are different things. Each service is paid additionally and does not include in the design project contract.

This is an expensive and stressful job. Especially communications with builders, accounting, mutual settlements, approvals. And no – it’s not the same as author’s supervision. Author’s supervision is solely regular checking of ongoing construction to ensure it matches the signed documentation. Nothing more.

Author’s supervision is not the same as technical supervision.

Yes, author’s supervision is not the same as technical supervision. By the way, that’s also a highly paid job done by separate specialists.

Why a designer might say “No”

If the designer wishes, they can refuse author’s supervision. I do it quite often, actually. Precisely for the reason described above, when from me, as part of design supervision, they still expect all other unpaid services.

About furniture selection

Furniture made from solid wood in our climate conditions behaves quite unpredictably under unclear usage conditions. It turns out that the studio specialist was right in warning about this to the client.

Sometimes even furniture of the same brand behaves very differently in the same space.

I’m a big fan of solid wood furniture, and I have plenty from various species. So I can confidently say that even furniture from the same brand sometimes behaves differently in the same space. If you also ask for a solid wood slab and aren’t ready for beautifully glued veneers, expect trouble: the chance of wood splitting is 90%. Unless you’ve installed the most complex smart home system that monitors humidity and temperature.

About choosing contractors

Specifications, especially for custom furniture, are made by contractors quite slowly! It’s not the design studio manager or even the designer who makes them, but specially trained people at specific production facilities. These people also get sick and go on vacation, leaving unfinished work.

This in no way reflects a lack of professionalism in the design studio, but rather extremely inflated expectations from clients – very!
Believe me, we choose them based on price, quality, and reliability, not to increase your estimate by 300%!

About logistics

Even people who professionally work with logistics for many years can’t tell you in advance how much freight will cost. Can you imagine? There aren’t many such people among designers.

Yes, we do know that the average freight line from New Jersey to St. Petersburg costs $4500. But there’s also delivery within the country of origin to a logistics warehouse, warehouse services, and depending on your furniture’s weight, this affects the cost of customs payments. A container might go through minimal tariff rates or even be 2–2.5 times more expensive. And no, the designer is not expected to know all that.

I’m not even mentioning that the market situation changes instantly now and in an unfavorable direction. Nobody will give you any numbers in advance because while you’re working on the project, developing concepts, and sketching designs, it will change 100 times in an unpredictable direction.

About collaboration

I have very different clients. There are clients who understand their budget perfectly well, but who find me as a designer so interesting that they’re willing to wait for me to find contractors suitable for their budget and reliable for me. Or they wait for super discounts on selected lighting or even go the extra mile to bring in beautiful accessories chosen by me, because they want and can get a magnificent interior.

You won’t believe it, but for a designer, what matters most is to make the project beautiful.

Or if they choose a contractor on their own for some part of the project, they understand that it’s their risk. And with respect and gratitude, they appreciate the designer's work, understanding that I do everything I can.
Simply because, you won’t believe it, but for a designer, what matters most is to make the project beautiful.