5 Reasons to Hire a Designer in Hawaii
Designing an interior that reflects your personality, displays your memories and achieves the atmosphere you have always hoped for in your home is difficult for each and every homeowner -- no matter where they live. Sourcing the right products, working with the perfect partners and responding to issues as they arise is a lot to handle on top of the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Each of these elements becomes even more complex and time-consuming when your home is located in a remote region of the world. like Hawaii, because access and communication are often inhibited. Working with an experienced designer can help mitigate these difficulties. Designers manage the entire project while protecting the homeowner’s budget, timeline and vision for their space. They leverage connections to secure product and fix damage, draw on their knowledge of the area and offer solutions to unique storage and use issues. If you are planning to renovate your home’s interior, follow below for five reasons to hire a designer in Hawaii.
Finding exactly what you want for each room in your home can be difficult when you are limited to local shops and big box retailers. High-end, e-commerce marketplaces from which homeowners love to purchase home decor, finishings and furnishing often restrict shipping to the continental US -- or markup substantially when shipping to areas like Hawaii and Alaska. As such, that Kathy Kuo mirror or those Anthropologie drapes might ship late, cost more or arrive on your front porch damaged. Allowing a designer to handle product sourcing and shipping to your home in Hawaii removes a lot of the complexity while opening up a lot of options for the client. Designers have existing relationships with vendors, wholesalers, warehouses and freighters across the country. This means that designers can get their clients anything they want from anywhere -- even from the mainland -- and often at a lower cost.
As mentioned above, interior designers are much better connected than the average homeowner. They have spent years nurturing a network of vendors, product designers, manufacturers and more. As such, if your sectional or vanity arrives flawed or broken, the designer can draw on their connections and influence to ensure a new item arrives quickly and in perfect condition. While shops might not respond when you request a replacement or refund, vendors working with a designer are much more likely to send a new product. This is because they want to maintain the beneficial business relationship they share with your designer. While homeowners have little recourse on their own after receiving damaged goods, designers demand greater accountability.
The natural wicker Serena & Lily headboard or the leather Article. armchairs you fell in love with online look gorgeous in your Hawaiian home -- but they might not last. Local designers help homeowners choose products that will stand up to the climate of their region -- whether chilly and arid or hot and humid. For instance, the frequent high relative humidity in Hawaii does not mesh well with delicate organic materials like silk, suede and leather. Likewise, the salt air blowing in from the ocean easily degrades metal furniture and accents through oxidation. Further still, frequent temperature and humidity differentials can cause certain wall coverings to peel and detach. Local interior designers are familiar with the culture and the climate so they know which pieces will work for you and your home!
Many homes in Hawaii have small built footprints -- from one-bedroom condos to 1,000 square foot bungalows. Furthermore -- just like in the rest of the country -- an increasing number of households on the island are multigenerational. As such, homeowners are often faced with dozens of challenges -- from transforming a single room into a multifunctional space to creating storage out of nowhere. Interior designers are well-equipped to engineer unique and effective solutions for these space planning challenges. Local Hawaiian designers have adapted dozens of small-space interiors through their careers. As such, homeowners can expect an interior designer or interior design firm to come up with ingenious space planning solutions for entertaining, storage and shared living spaces.
Working with a full service interior design firm is especially beneficial for homeowners who will be away from the project for long periods of time -- e.g. those who have purchased a second home in Hawaii but live in California or Florida. Designers oversee every stage of the project -- from concept creation to final checks -- to ensure a stunning, fully-functional final result. Designers manage each step along the way so you don’t have to travel back and forth. They schedule drop-offs and installs, tweak interior design elements per the client’s feedback and solve problems if and when they arise.
Hiring an Interior Designer in Honolulu, HI
Hiring an interior designer in Hawaii to help create the space of your dreams protects the investment you have made in your home. Design firms like Studio Shaolin guide you through the entire project, considering your input at every juncture to ensure the final result is exactly what you were hoping for. We work closely with the homeowner through the discover, concept and design phases of the interior design process, making sure we understand their goals and preferences. From there on out, every product purchase is made directly from one of our trade vendors before it is safely sent to our warehouse in Kakaako, where we inspect for quality control. The installation of each piece -- whether luxury custom furniture or a family heirloom -- is carefully overseen and approved by the homeowner before we step back and welcome you into your beautiful new home!
