Boccabella: Being flexible with change
A successful installation involves many details
LAKE COUNTY >> You and your interior design team have moved through the process of considering themes and concepts for your existing Interior space renovation or refreshment, or possibly, your completely new interior space site. You moved through concept and theme details. Then came all the preliminary groundwork choices. You and your team looked at many things: you considered resources, reviewed budgeting and timing and made commitments on which actions would be based.
At that point it probably felt like the tough decisions were all behind you, no more agonizing back and forth! It’s exciting to finally be imagining all the moving parts of the end-point vision coming together with the final yes’s and no’s!
(Everything coming together? Yes! Final? No!)
It’s OK to enjoy that good feeling of accomplishment, and with it, a big sigh of relief! But the next most important consideration is to realistically prepare yourself (and any other principals) for the reality of possible changes! Your professional interior designer should spend a little time on the factor of possible necessary changes to your original choices and decisions—how and why they may occur.
Under the professional management and coordination of your experienced interior design team the project starts to inch forward. There are literally dozens (sometimes hundreds!) of preliminary details your interior design team must now pull into focus, run down, set up, make inquiries about. There are resources to research in accordance with the concept and theming that you and the team decided upon. There are steps and preps regarding timing and resources. Your team has relationships with manufacturers’ representatives with whom they will consult with regard to all your proposed preferences from accessories to equipment and elements desired for the design vision.
So, let’s take a look at some typical developments, circumstances and unknown surprises that can require changes in your original intent.
Renovation often involves some demolition (on small, but maybe a large scale). Not only can that be temporarily messy, it can unexpectedly reveal surprises that can change plans. Perhaps the removal of wall treatment in a vintage building reveals doors or windows no one knew (or remembered) were there. (For many vintage structures, the original plans cannot be located.) So, where the plan was to simply remove one wall covering treatment and install a new one, your structure first needs some repairs or reconstruction. You might even decide to return the use of those hidden apertures; that would also present some changes to original intent—and cost.
Some other kinds of situations may arise that require modification (sometimes postponement or cancellation) of a wellplanned, carefully strategized Interior design project. Elements available at the time of initial planning may no longer be available. A financial setback might require you to revisit your plan and approach it incrementally, in stages. Relationships can change in partnerships and marriages that could affect the scope of what’s advisable for your interior design project.
One of the simplest changes that can come up: You might just change your mind! Your interior design team has experience with that, too. I can personally attest to some situations where a client was positive about a color or a piece of furniture or equipment—then did a 360 after installation! We have to expect the possibility of changes, and we, too, have to be flexible.
It’s important to distinguish the difference between kinds of changes. There are changes that must happen through specific circumstances that you can’t avoid and that can be costly. Then, there are those changes you may just choose to make (perhaps even after the fact of installation) and that will cause budget increases. It’s important to consider both situations carefully, and be prepared for the consequential impacts.
Producing a successful installation involves many, many details. Be flexible with the possibility of changes—large or small!