Here’s a horror story I once heard that cost this interior designer $15,000….

One of my clients was telling me about a friend of hers who had hired an interior designer to help her renovate her home.

Most of the project was going really well but there had been quite a bit of discussion between the designer and client about the colour for the (polyurethane) kitchen. Eventually a colour was decided and agreed on but on the day of install the client noticed the colour of the newly installed kitchen wasn’t what had been agreed (the kitchen was grey - not white!).

It became clear that the designer had updated a number of documents she had prepared for the cabinet maker but had forgotten to change the colour name on the drawings themselves.

So the kitchen got made in the wrong colour!! And with polyurethane kitchens, as you all know, it’s not as easy as just repainting it in situ. The whole thing had to be dismantled and resprayed back at the factory.

Who was to blame for this error? The designer (for not updating her drawings)…

And because the colour was not at all what the client wanted she insisted on getting it changed (which is fair enough). And because the designer had made the mistake she was now responsible for paying to rectify and respray the kitchen.

This ended up being a very costly mistake for the designer and, to make matters worse, it was also found that she didn’t have the correct insurances for the work she was doing - so she had to pay for all of this out of her own pocket.

I don’t know exactly how much this ended up costing her but my guess would be maybe $10-15K as I saw the finished kitchen and it was big (including a butler’s pantry that was also wrong). Eek…

And this is not the only story I’ve heard like this one. I’ve heard lots of things like this over my years working in the industry (more examples in the post below).

But at the end of the day we are all human. And humans make mistakes (as much as we try and avoid them).

But there are ways to limit the number of mistakes that happen in a design project and there are also ways to protect yourself in the case of mistakes happening as well, which is what I share in this post.

Just before we get started this feels like one of those posts where it’s important to remind you I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice! :) I’m just sharing some of the things I have learned in running my own interior design business and what has worked for me.

If you are worried you don’t have the correct insurances or legal documents in place for your business then I suggest you get these put together by a professional as quickly as possible.

What mistakes could happen in your design business?

Mistakes are going to happen when you’re working as a designer.

Here’s a quick brain dump of some of the common ones I’ve heard about (or experienced myself!) over the years I’ve been working in the industry:

Signing off on incorrect paint or finishes colours and then a house being painted in the wrong colours and having to be repainted (at the cost of the designer!)
Having incorrect quantities of tiles, flooring or similar products ordered and delivered (TIP: always order 10-20% for flooring wastage depending on the type of flooring - talk with supplier about what a good wastage amount is for the particular product you're using). The problem with under ordering is that often flooring is made in specific batches and if you don’t have all the flooring from the same batch you risk having colour variations between different batches - so this is quite an important one to get right!
Not opening or checking deliveries as they arrive - make sure one person is responsible for this during construction and they know it is their job (TIP: this is normally the project manager or site manager - not normally the interior designers’ responsibility). I’ve heard about a sink being opened many weeks after delivery and it being found broken. If it’s sat on site for a few weeks then nobody can tell when the damaged happened and the supplier will be unlikely to replace this or take responsibility for the breakage.
Buying materials or appliances too early and then realising they aren't going to work in the scheme or space.
Not ordering products early enough - e.g. many new designers don’t realise that certain fixtures for bathrooms will be needed for plumbing rough in phase or that certain appliances will be needed before cabinetry can be made.
Incorrect bench top material or thickness installed due to mistakes on drawings or specification schedules
Wrong types of paints used - e.g. gloss vs matt
Custom items are ordered in incorrect size, fabric or colour (these can very costly to fix as normally custom pieces can’t be returned so this is a really important one for sign offs)
Order wrong size or quantity of items - e.g. a dining table that is too small for a space, sofa that is too large for a space (this is why I love SketchUp so much as you can put exact furniture in the space before ordering to make sure it will work)
Flooring or material selected is not fit for purpose (e.g. tiles with the wrong slip ratings installed, residential fabrics used in commercial settings). I’ve heard terrible stories of court cases for incorrect tiles being specified that were not fit for purpose - e.g. someone slips and breaks something (or worse!) and the designer can be liable for this (remember this is not legal advice!).
Kitchen drawings signed off with incorrect colours or materials (e.g. incorrect paint colour for cabinets signed off or even worse is specifying the incorrect stone as this is hugely costly to replace).

My two golden rules

The problem with mistakes is that they can be costly to rectify so my overarching tip for you is to avoid making mistakes in the first place!

This sounds like obvious advice - but so many designers are extremely busy and juggle a lot of different projects all at once. Sometimes decisions, sign offs or checks are rushed and not done carefully and this is where the bulk of mistakes happen.

When I was still working as a designer I had two golden rules that helped me to minimise the number of mistakes I made. I was very lucky that I never had a major (expensive!) mistake with any of my clients and I think this came down to my implementing these rules every day.

These might seem quite simple rules but I think they can get easily forgotten when you are extremely busy.

RULE 1:

Be extremely careful about your attention to detail and never rush when signing things off.

This especially relates to approving drawings for design intent or approving any final decisions around costly items (e.g. fabric selections for expensive custom sofas that can’t be returned).

Make sure you allocate distraction free time to go through final drawings or specification schedules that you are signing off on. A few extra minutes of focused attention could save you thousands of dollars in mistakes that need to be rectified.

Make sure you get appropriate wording from your lawyer about what exactly you are signing off on (e.g. will normally way you are approving for ‘design intent’). And never sign off on drawings for construction or things that are outside your scope or areas you are licensed or insured to be approving.

RULE 2:

Always, always, always keep a paper trail of everything that happens in your design projects.

Examples of how I used to do this include:

weekly Friday update emails to clients (if you want my FREE template for my Friday client updates then join one of my business short courses and you get this and heaps of other free resources with it!).
summary email of all site visits and what was agreed (and by whom) - sent to full project team and whoever was present at the meeting
for any decisions made in person or over the phone a summary email is sent with what was discussed and decisions made
document as much as possible in email or via text message (or other text based platforms like WhatsApp or Slack)
keep your client projects organised at all times and document all steps along the way in one place (there’s lots of ways to do this but if you need a quick and easy way to organise your client projects then check out my short course The Client Project Tracker where I give you a template to drop straight in to your business today)
Document absolutely everything in a project and over communicate. Ideally keep your paper trail in a digital format (e.g. by dropping it in to your Client Project Tracker) - but any organised system that works for you is fine.
It may feel like overkill but clients generally like to be over-informed rather than under-informed and the paper trail is a major risk mitigation strategy for your business.

Mistakes are inevitably going to happen but the aim is to minimise how many of these mistakes are made by you and to make sure that you have a paper trail of all decisions made throughout the project.

Very few trades and contractors will keep good paper trails of decisions made so it’s your responsibility to take ownership of this in order to protect yourself and reduce your risk.

Sometimes you may make mistakes as well so this paper trail is also going to be helpful to pin point who is at fault so the appropriate person or company can work out how to rectify any mistake that may happen.

My top tips for avoiding mistakes

So those are my two main rules for avoiding mistakes - but I have other tips for how to minimise mistakes during an interior design project.

Here’s my brain dump of tips:

Have your legal contracts in place and do not DIY these! Get a lawyer to help you.
Make sure you have the correct insurance for the type of work you're doing and be honest with your lawyer and your insurance broker about the work you're doing to make sure you cover yourself properly. This is honestly the best protection you can have and it will cost you something to get this all set up - but it will be worth it if you ever need to rely on this.
Make sure the correct people are in charge of sign off - don't sign off on things that are not your responsibility or that you are not insured or licensed to sign off on. Most interior designers should only be signing off for ‘design intent’ only - not for construction purposes - so make sure your drawings clearly state this. For example - with joiner/cabinet maker drawings for production you can review these for design intent and approve - but do not approve their production measurements as this is their responsibility.
If you are responsible for signing off on things (e.g. paint colour schedule) then double and triple your work and don't do it in a rush or when you are distracted.
Check every page of documentation you are signing off on carefully. I have had instances where a cabinet maker has written a bench top material in one colour on one page and another colour on another page - that is their error, not mine, but it’s important those sorts of mistakes are picked up before production commences. And don’t sign off on drawings with these mistakes in them!
Include a disclaimer on any drawings you submit and get a lawyer to help you draft this to ensure it will protect you if your drawings are ever put forward in a court case. AGAIN: Don't DIY your legal work!
As mentioned above, make sure when you make any decision with a client or on a client's behalf that you put all decisions down in writing - e.g. you can summarise in an email at the end of a site meeting or even send a quick text message after an informal meeting. Document absolutely everything that happens in a project!
Communicate and over communicate to avoid mistakes - even if you feel you're repeating yourself it's better to be safe than sorry.

I hope some of those tips have helped you think through how to reduce risk and mistakes in your design business.

If you have experienced any mistakes in your business (or seen others make mistakes you’ve learned from) then please share your story in the comments below so others can learn from these. The more we share the more we will all learn!

Courses and Templates for Designers and Architects

DO YOU WANT TO….

Improve your professionalism?
Find more clients?
Bring in more revenue?
Create better systems and processes?

Then check out my business courses and templates for designers and architects.

These courses and templates leave you with work done - not just a long list of things you need to do next. We have a really strong focus on taking action and getting things created that improve your business.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY COURSES + TEMPLATES FOR DESIGNERS

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Clare x

Dr Clare Le Roy