Choosing an Interior Designer (ID) or Contractor

After researching designers and contractors, I contacted 5 and ended up meeting with 3. One of the 5 did not even reply to my website enquiry – why invest in a website if you plan on ignoring genuine leads?

At the top end there are full-fledged IDs with architectural backgrounds even and who are qualified to deal with structural changes. At the other end of the spectrum you have the workman-type contractor who merely executes on your design. In between lie a host of mass market IDs (and I understand the term ID is used loosely as well), ranging from one-man shops to large commercial setups that advertise heavily and are out in force at every home reno exhibition. The line between contractor and ID is blurring, with some IDs taking on the role of the contractor managing the individual work components such as tiling, painting, carpentry etc, while you also have contractors moving up the value chain by offering basic design services. 

Here is an outline of the 3 companies I met:

• #1: A contractor who does basic ID.  He was much talked about on Renotalk, however I belatedly realized these discussions were from a few years ago. It was tough setting up the initial meeting, and when it finally took place he showed little interest in the project and appeared to be just going through the motions. He did email the quote over very quickly however, but with no further follow up attempt.
• #2: A young ID whose company is very new and had a low profile. I think I stumbled across them when I searched online for “young interior designers”. I did not have a large budget, and my thinking was that since my re-design was not going to be extensive and I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted, I could take a bet on some up-and-coming ID who would likely be lower in cost.
• #3: An ID I found from a Renotalk blogger whose renovation I thought was very tastefully done. This ID focused on more up market projects, primarily condos and landed homes.

Having at least 3 quotes to compare against is a good practice and even a prerequisite in the corporate world. The truth though is that it was really hard to compare across quotes, even with itemized line items, as the proposals were based on different designs and dimensions, materials and other variables. Still, you can use some basic items to baseline against – e.g. painting of the apartment.

Choosing who to engage on any project is also dependent on chemistry. I did not click at all with #1, who looked like a middle-aged Ah Beng. #2 was 2 guys in their late 20s, nice and down to earth, boy-next-door types who were very obliging. #3 was a husband and wife team who were not local. This was not an issue however I did wonder how they would be able to communicate with the mostly Malaysian workers who speak Mandarin or dialects. They were very polite and interested, although we did not really click.

Price-wise, the overall quotes for #1 and #2 were similar while #3 came in about 60% higher. To be fair though #3 had been proactive and suggested extra design elements which resulted in their quote being higher. When comparing line items however there were instances when #1 or #2 quoted the highest amounts. It soon became apparent that the IDs work on the final quote first, and then work backwards to allocate costs to different line items – albeit according to some parameters.

I ended up selecting #2 –Vinterior Design, formed by Benji the ID and his business partner Alvin. 

Benji taking measurements

In retrospect it might have been better to meet with 4 designers instead of 3, in case 1 or even 2 did not meet expectations. The meetings are time and effort intensive however as you have to spend time getting to know the designers as well as conveying to them what you want, so meeting too many IDs is not a good idea either. I'm lucky that 1 out of the 3 IDs I met did fit the bill though.