Where to spend, and where to save
Almost every conversation about money in this job comes down to the same misunderstanding. People assume a beautiful room is an expensive room. It is not. It is a room where the money went to the right places and was firmly kept away from the wrong ones.
Here is how I split it.
Spend where it is hard to change later
The plan. I would say this, but it is true in a way that shows up on the invoice. Getting the layout right on paper costs a fraction of getting it wrong in the room. My smallest online package is £395 for a room. A sofa that turns out to be 12 cm too wide for the alcove costs considerably more than that to return, if it can be returned at all.
Lighting, meaning the circuits. Not the fittings. Where the switches are, how many circuits there are, and whether they dim. This is the single most transformative thing in a room and the single most expensive thing to add once the walls are closed up. Decide it before the plasterer.
Anything with a structure your body rests on. A sofa frame, a mattress, a dining chair. You will feel the difference every day for years, and cheap versions of these fail in ways that cannot be disguised.
Joinery. Built-in storage is the one thing that solves an awkward room completely, and it is made to measure, so it is bought once. A well-built fitted wardrobe outlasts three freestanding ones.
Flooring. Continuous, correct, and laid well. It is under everything, it is the largest surface in the room, and replacing it means emptying the room again.
Taps and door handles. Small, touched daily, and immediately obvious when they are poor. They are also the cheapest of the spending items in absolute terms.
Save without anyone noticing
Side tables, console tables, bedside tables. Shape matters, brand does not. This is where the high street and the second-hand market are genuinely competitive with anything else.
Decorative accessories. Vases, bowls, trays, books. Nobody has ever walked into a room and priced the bowl.
Art. Buy the picture you like and frame it modestly, rather than buying an expensive frame around something you do not care about. A good mount and simple frame does most of the work.
Lamp bases. The shade does more for the room than the base does. A plain base with a well-chosen shade reads better than the reverse, at a fraction of the cost.
Cushions and throws. These change with the seasons and with your mind. Spend here last, and spend lightly.
Paint colour. Not paint quality, which is worth paying for, but the decision itself. Paint is the only element in a room you can change in a weekend for the price of a takeaway, so it is the wrong thing to agonise over and the wrong thing to fear.
The middle ground
Rugs, curtains, and the dining table. Rugs should be the right size even if that means a plainer one, because a rug that is too small makes an expensive room look rented. Curtains should be the right length and fullness before they are the right fabric. The dining table should be the right dimensions for the room before it is the right timber.
Get the size right and the material second. That order is almost always the cheaper route to a room that looks considered.
How trade pricing works here
Designers buy at trade. What varies enormously across the industry is what happens to that discount.
My arrangement is simple. In your sourcing list, every item shows my trade price beside the retail price, so you can see the saving and where it comes from. That discount is passed to you in full. I do not take a margin on the difference, and I do not hide the retail figure.
If all you want is that access, without a full design, I offer it on its own for £45. It is not the service I would recommend to most people, but it exists, and I would rather say so than let anyone assume the discount is the hidden part of the fee.
The order to spend in
When a budget is tight, sequence matters more than total. Money spent out of order gets spent twice.
Anything structural.
Services: electrics, plumbing, heating.
Joinery and anything built in.
Flooring.
The large soft furniture: sofa, bed, dining table.
Light fittings.
Everything decorative.
If you run out of money at step six, you have a working, comfortable, unfinished room and a clear shopping list. If you run out at step two having bought a sofa first, you have a sofa in a building site.
A reasonable way to start
If you are trying to work out what a room should cost before committing to anything, that is what the first call is for. Twenty minutes, free, and you will get an honest answer about whether the budget and the ambition match. If they do not, I would rather tell you at the start.
