I love you because you’ve done an incredible job on my projects and opened up my mind to so many new styles and ideas. But man, I hate how y’all can’t keep a budget! Now I’m not talking five or ten thousand dollars. I had a budget blowout of over $130,000. It made me sick. It actually blew up a deal with a friend, and I had to eat the whole thing because of it.
Before:
It’s been about two years, and I’ve finally made about 80% of that money back—thankfully, because the short-term rental business has been good. And honestly? The design was great.
After:
Builder/designer relationships are always tough. Builders like to move fast and move on. Designers, on the other hand, like to stare at every square inch and figure out how to make it better. That’s truly the art they bring. They can take basic plans and turn them into something extraordinary. They breathe life into a room.
What I’ve learned is that you want a designer for two reasons: either you can’t come up with the vision yourself, or you’d rather have someone else handle the mess for you.
I always say: the best designer is the one who can do the most with the budget they’ve got. But most designers are artists, and they’re going to push for their vision to come through—and sometimes, that means pushing your budget a bit too.
Now, I do think designers are needed once you hit certain thresholds. If you're building a spec home for a high price point, it’s gotta look like a designer touched it. But for us? Renovating our old, beat-up home? We didn’t need a designer. We just needed Pinterest, and a little belief.
