How we work
A free first visit, then a plan you can see.
Four steps, one designer, and a written proposal before anything is committed. Here is how a project with the studio actually runs — and what you get at the end of each stage.
01
Free · no obligation
A free consultation, at the house
Call or email and we arrange a visit. Katherine walks the house with you, asks how you actually use each room, where it frustrates you and what you have stopped noticing, then gives you an honest view of what is possible — including the ideas you did not ask for. There is no charge, no pressure and no expectation that you go further. Plenty of people have a consultation and take six months to decide.
- We come to you
- An honest read of the house
- No charge, no obligation
02
Before anything is committed
A written proposal, stage by stage
After the visit you receive a written proposal setting out the scope, the stages and the fees for the work in front of us. No published price list, because no two houses and no two briefs are alike — but nothing is open-ended either. You know what each stage produces and what the next one commits you to before you agree to it.
- Clear scope
- Fees stage by stage
- Nothing open-ended
03
The design work
Planning, scheme and drawings
Spatial planning comes first — layouts tested on paper, openings questioned, flow and light resolved. Then the concept scheme: finishes, fabrics, joinery, lighting and furniture, presented with real samples you keep and live with before deciding. Where there is building work, full technical drawings are produced and issued to your contractor, and Katherine works through them with the builder on site.
- Spatial planning first
- Samples to live with
- Drawings for the builder
04
Through to handover
Sourced, installed, styled — and the garden too
Orders placed and tracked, lead times planned around the building programme, deliveries coordinated, curtains and blinds made to measure and hung, furniture placed and the rooms styled on completion. Where the garden is part of the brief, KB Landscapes runs alongside on the same programme, so the terrace is set out against the room it is seen from. You walk back into a finished house rather than a project.
- Orders tracked
- Made-to-measure fitted
- Garden on the same programme
Want the detail of what happens inside the design work itself? The five design stages set out what each one produces, what you sign off, and what shapes the scope.
The five design stagesThe principle
Plan the space first and buy last. Almost every expensive regret in a house comes from doing it the other way round.
Ready to start at stage one?
Tell us about the house and we will arrange the first visit. Free, no obligation, and you will come away with an honest view either way.