What a Demanding Client Should Expect
The five stages of a prime London refurbishment — and where projects usually go wrong
Most of the clients who come to Supremati have worked with an interior designer before. Some are on their third or fourth home. They know the process, they know the standard they expect, and more than a few come to us because the last studio didn't deliver it.
So this isn't an explanation of what an interior designer does. It's an account of what an experienced client should expect at each stage of a project — and where, in my experience, things usually go wrong.
Before stage one: the first conversation
Before any of the five stages begins, there is a conversation. How you live. What the home has to do. How you prefer to work — directly, or through your family office, PA or buying agent.
You are assessing me at least as much as I am assessing the project, and it should stay that way. If the fit isn't right, this is by far the cheapest place to find out.
The best time for that conversation is earlier than most people think — ideally before the architect is appointed. Layout, light, ceiling heights, where the services run: these are inexpensive decisions on paper and very expensive ones once built. That is the point at which a designer can protect you most.
One. Concept
The direction — the feel, the palette, the key pieces, the way each room will actually be used.
You've seen concepts before, so the test is a simple one: is this your home, or the studio's house style? A studio with a signature look will always deliver its signature look, however beautifully it photographs. There should be one decision for you to make at this stage, and it should be easy: yes, this is mine.
Two. Design development
Every room, every surface, every fitting drawn and specified before anything is ordered.
This is where experienced clients look hardest, and rightly so — the detail here is what protects the design on site. You approve the scheme; I carry the hundreds of technical decisions underneath it.
Where it goes wrong is with decisions that get deferred. Anything left open at this stage will be settled later by someone else, in a hurry, on site.
Three. Technical drawings and procurement
Bespoke commissions, ateliers with long lead times, pieces that have to be right the first time.
All of it managed against a written schedule, with straight answers throughout. What you should never get is a surprise in week thirty — a lead time nobody flagged, a piece that was quietly substituted, a cost that arrives after the decision has already been made for you.
Four. Construction
This is where the drawings meet the building, and where a listed property in Belgravia or Mayfair will test how well the previous stages were done.
I'm on site weekly through the build. Not represented on site — there.
This is also the stage at which most disappointing projects quietly change character. The senior people you met at the start step back, and the work passes to people who don't know your home or how you live. It rarely announces itself. You simply notice, some weeks in, that the person answering your questions no longer has the answers.
Five. Final installation
Delivery day, and the days around it, until the last object is placed.
The design you approved on day one is the one you move back into. That is the whole point of the process, and it is the part that no schedule can enforce on your behalf — only the presence of the person who designed it.
Where projects actually fail
If a previous refurbishment disappointed you, it almost certainly wasn't a question of taste. It was process, communication, and who was actually in the room.
Taste is what people discuss afterwards. It is very seldom what went wrong.
If you're planning the refurbishment of a prime London home — or you're an architect, project manager or buying agent advising a client who is — I'd be glad to talk. Every conversation is, of course, private. Much of our best work is never published.
Magdalena Gruszczynska is the founder and creative director of Supremati, a London interior design studio working across Mayfair, Belgravia, Kensington and St John's Wood, with a particular specialism in listed and heritage properties.
Related reading: What it's like to work with Supremati
