You may have thought interior designers are the sole preserve of the mega wealthy. But the benefits a designer can bring to a renovation project or newbuild often easily offset the cost of their professional fees.
Not only can an interior designer save you time and money across the process of your build, they can also help define and hone your aesthetic to ensure the end result is a perfect fit for your lifestyle and tastes.
Here, interior designer Jess Weeks – who works on high end residential projects from her base in Marlborough, Wiltshire – talks us through the benefits an interior designer can bring to your project. She also explains why slimline aluminium sliding doors are the ideal, on-trend accompaniment for contemporary, light-filled interiors.
It helps to reduce the potential stress involved in a renovation project and it can save you a fortune by avoiding costly mistakes. If you consider that an interior designer might work on 30 projects over a year, just think how much experience they’re gathering? I learn something new every single day, so I have all that knowledge and experience to share with my clients.
The other benefit of using an interior designer is that it avoids the trial-and-error process. A lot of people need to try something before they know whether they like it, but an interior designer can visualise it for you. The designer is there to find out what’s going to work best in your home so that you don’t miss a trick. And once they’ve created your bespoke design, they will then ensure it’s all implemented as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
An interior designer’s role is to work out what makes the client tick and to create a design that will really work for them in their home. We start off by creating a ‘look book’ in which we pull together as many ideas as we can. These might be from Houzz, Pinterest, or from previous projects we’ve worked on. Then we show this to the client and we can work out from their reaction which details they love, which colours they like or don’t like, and that’s how we begin to build up a picture of their style and aesthetic.
In terms of how we work alongside an architect, there are some really valuable crossover points. Having two experts instead of one to bounce ideas off obviously means you have the best of both worlds. But one thing I would say is that clients tend to bring us in too late. I would advise bringing in an interior designer as soon as possible – right at the start of the project – so that we can work with the architect as a team and end up with a result that everybody will be happy with.
An architect will obviously look at the architectural features, but we’ll look at how you’re going to use the space to make sure it all works hand in hand. So before you start knocking down walls, it’s crucial to think about where a sofa is going to sit, for example, so that you end up with a space that is going to work perfectly for you.
There’s no doubt that sliding doors are growing in popularity at the moment, whereas bifold doors are on their way out. The problem with bifolds is that they’re tricky to use, and they take your eye off the view.
On a recent project, our client wanted bifolds because they wanted to open up the doors as much as possible for access. But what they didn’t realise is that you actually lose a lot of the view with bifolds, because when you pull the doors back you have to stack them up at one side. Whereas with sliding doors, you achieve a much better view with less visible frame. The sleek look of slimline sliding doors wins out for me every time.
There was one particular project we were working on for which the clients wanted a seamless indoor-to-outdoor experience between their kitchen and the garden. I looked at lots of different door options, but the minute I saw the Ultraline doors I knew they were perfect. I’ve even got a video from the Ultraline stand at Swindon Renovation Centre saying: ‘I think I’ve found them!’
I loved the size of the glass panels – the ones on display were huge – and also the narrowness of the frames. There is a seamless, slimline feel to them and the proportions are perfect. They’re also really easy to open and close, which is amazing considering how large they are. Ultraline doors are exactly as the name implies! Ultra slim, seamless sliding doors which are sleek and beautiful.
Absolutely brilliant! We like to work with people who are like us – highly professional, but also easy-going and friendly. And that’s exactly what the Minima team are like. They’re easy to work with, realistic, and they meet every deadline. And, of course, most importantly, the doors are gorgeous – so sleek and beautiful! I couldn’t be happier with the end result.
You can read more about Jess Weeks Interiors here.
Do you need seamless sliding doors for your project? If so, give us a call to find out more about Ultraline’s award-winning sliding doors.