Business of Home

Spring 2024 | Issue 31

From inconveniences like an indecisive client to brushes with nightmarish contractors, projects sometimes go off the rails. We asked a dozen firms to tell us about their real-life worst-case scenarios. Though these stories ultimately have happy endings, each one features a designer who said yes to a project despite their hesitation, or let something slide, then took a bruising journey as a result—but also emerged with lessons in how to change their business for the better.

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Features

How to stick the landing in a project when a vendor leaves you in the lurch

When a millworker went MIA at the last minute, designers Lathem Gordon and Cate Dunning leaned hard on their industry partners.

BY Hannah Hickok

A client you’ve never met? Here’s how one designer made it work

Rayman Boozer turned a first-time remote project with clients he’d never met into a knockout space worthy of a magazine cover.

BY Fred Nicolaus

The client challenge that can boost your creativity

A client’s request to keep several pieces challenged Kerri Pilchik to rethink her usual design approach.

BY Hannah Hickok

The surprising case for not doing ‘favors’ for a client

A simple out-of-scope task turned into an expensive headache for Gala Magriñá’s firm, teaching her an important lesson about process.

BY Fred Nicolaus

Should you take a client that fired their last designer? This pro did

For Tineke Triggs, signing on as a project’s replacement designer meant pulling double duty to build rapport with a client who had been burned. Here’s how to turn client trust issues into a relationship-building opportunity.

BY Hannah Hickok

Subcontractor screw-ups are inevitable. How you handle it is what counts

A stoneworker’s error forced Grace Lee-Lim to problem-solve creatively—with stunning results. Here’s how she went back to the drawing board and made it work.

BY Hannah Hickok

How to protect yourself when a client’s behavior crosses a line

A struggling client took their feelings out on Niki Papadopoulos’s team, motivating the designer to reinforce key boundaries.

BY Fred Nicolaus

Why making exceptions to your process can be more trouble than it’s worth

A client-sourced contractor threw a wrench in Naïka Andre’s vision, motivating her to implement new guardrails on future projects.

BY Kaitlin Petersen

How one designer turned a budget nightmare into an opportunity

A too-low construction estimate sent the client into a tailspin, forcing designer Melissa Oholendt to rework her approach in order to finish the job.

BY Kaitlin Petersen

How to protect your process from an indecisive client

A client who overthought every step of a project prompted designer Hema Persad to begin taking measures that covered her time.

BY Kaitlin Petersen

What to do when a contractor isn’t cooperating

A singularly antagonistic contractor prompted the principals of Kobel + Co to hire a dedicated project manager and shore up their GC vetting process.

BY Fred Nicolaus

This designer went through the wringer with a GC before fixing holes in her contract. Learn from her experience

A contractor’s subpar performance forced Heidi Caillier to rethink how she works with external partners.

BY Kaitlin Petersen

Design Dispatch

meet the makers

Looking for pieces with raw beauty? This artisan’s ‘brutally hand-made’ designs deliver

Rafi Ajl pushes the boundaries of materiality with a medley of experimental techniques.

open book

This Seattle designer breaks down a project that lets the views do the talking

Brian Paquette explains his approach on a project that called for warm light, smart space planning and restraint.

big ideas

Is a four-day workweek doable in the design industry? This Chicago firm says yes

In an effort to boost productivity and retain their 17-person staff, the principals at Chicago firm James Thomas dropped a day from their workweek, with surprising results.