At HoM we believe that every homeowner has their own ideas that they can bring to life. It is your home after all! We also believe that working with a designer/maker can bring added value to your project though in the following ways: Designers can develop your ideas into solutions that may fit your space better or push your creative boundaries. Designers look to ensure that you spend every pound in the best way possible, many having trade accounts to help you save. Some will oversee the project work, saving you time as well as money. Many independent furniture makers are surprisingly more affordable than off the shelf furniture, and having a designer provide you with drawings and specifications can greatly help you to communicate your design to any trades people that you work with.
Your HoM brief is your starting point to finding the right designer for you. It doesn’t need to include every detail, as this will come (as no doubt develop) once you’ve started discussing your project with our makers. Useful information that you can include to help a designer understand your project and whether they are a good match for you may include:
An overview of your project: what it is that you’re hoping to achieve, where you are now with the project, what you would like the timescales to be?
The budget for your project to help makers understand the scale of your project
Give dimensions, describe your style (once you’ve started chatting to a maker/designer you can send images through our chat service). What do you want? Do you just want concept drawings or do you want a full design service?
Don’t forget, even the smallest of projects can be attractive to our makers!
At HoM we don’t employ our makers. Each maker is self employed or working for their own business with their own standard forms of appointment. We don’t set their rates or their terms, we simply provide a platform for you to connect.
We can’t guarantee that all of our makers will have insurance but we strongly recommend that you confirm with your maker that they hold personal indemnity insurance
To put it simply, HoM helps you to find the right designer for you. You as the customer have control. We don’t match you through algorithms because we don’t believe that science is the answer to you finding the right designer for you. Instead you can put your project out for them to connect with you and you can seek out your own designer and connect with as many as you like.
This is entirely down to your own preferences. You can browse through designer profiles and once you’ve posted a job, you can filter your search by location and services. Once you’ve found a maker you’re interested in working with, you can connect and chat. This doesn’t just have to be online, you can also speak over the phone or even meet face to face before committing to any work.
Initially you will connect with a designer(s) through consultation to develop your brief. This is a chance for both of you to see how you get along. Trust and understanding between you and the maker is important to see if you are the right fit for one another as you and all of our makers are unique. The maker will explain how they work and charge for their services, leading to a full quote after consultation. For designers this initial consultation provides them with an opportunity to understand your wants and your needs.
Once you’ve made the decision to work with a HoM maker you should ask them to provide a full quotation. The quote should include details of the work that will be involved, fees and how long they think that your project will take.
