Periodically, in this world of interior design I live in, we use terms that need to be explained to clients and those designers newly initiated into the field. Today’s word in our Interior Design Glossary is “Installation Day.” Recently, my team and I packed our bags and left our Austin interior design firm for the shores of Cape Cod to conduct an install over two years in the making. What better way to show you what an interior design installation day is than with a behind-the-scenes look at our most recent project? 

What is an Interior Design Installation Day? 

What is an interior design installation day exactly, you ask? It is that special moment in the life of a project when all the loose ends of the long months of work come together at one time and in one place — the client’s home! It can be chaotic as designers, subcontractors, and movers all try to work around each other at the same time, but it is so rewarding to see the vision come alive. 

What a Typical Design Installation Day Looks Like… 

Here is your sneak peek into a day in the life of an interior designer. Install days always bring surprises, so you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared with a few tricks in your bag to tackle anything that comes your way. Here’s a peek at what to expect.   

• Reviewing the hard work of the builders and subcontractors on a final walkthrough 
• Assisting electricians with the final trim out and installing decorative lighting where it is specified
• Making sure everything is functional, beautiful, and undamaged 
• Walking through with finish painters to put blue tape on areas that need touching up
• Rolling out rug pads and then rugs — the base of finishing any room  
• Managing custom furniture deliveries from the upholstery workrooms
• Styling the space — placing custom pillows, arranging books and accessories on shelves, installing art pieces, hanging mirrors, dressing beds, cleaning linens, stocking cabinets, and generally tidying up
• Overseeing the cleaning team 
• Scurrying around to make sure nothing was forgotten

As you might be able to see by now, an interior design installation consists of a lot of the items you’d check off when moving into a new home. It’s lots of unpacking boxes, making sure lamps have bulbs, and putting everything in its place.

The Order of Hierarchy 

Things have to happen in a particular order, or they do not happen at all. So don’t make the install day mistake of wrongly assuming the order of hierarchy. Who do you think holds the power on design installation day? It’s not the designer or the homeowner — frankly, the plumber outranks us all. (You want that shower install completed, right?) 

There is a ranking system and order of hierarchy as you move through the final days of an interior design installation. It is important to know and track this because it changes as the job progresses. You want to ensure the right tradesperson holds the power at the right time so they can complete their job and move on to the next phase. 

At the beginning of a job, the plumbers and electricians reign supreme. Then come the sheetrock installers and the painters. Trim carpenters and cabinet makers come next, followed by the stone and countertop teams. Then it goes back to plumbing and electrical while the finish out gets completed. The painters are always the last to hold sway for final touch ups. Finally, furniture movers and the design team come in to outfit and style the space. 

What a Real-life Interior Design Installation Day Looks Like 

A Behind-the-scenes Look at Our Cape Cod Project 

Our most recent installation took place at one of the most beautiful vacation spots in North America — Cape Cod! Honestly, it felt a bit odd to be in a vacation town surrounded by the beauty of the bay, a pool, a plethora of lobster rolls, and ice cream stands and be working rather than relaxing. 

Instead of relishing in the summer atmosphere, we would wake up around 6:30 AM to the sound of the trim carpenter’s circular saw and the beeping of a stone slab delivery truck. All in a day’s work! Sometimes, we’d be lucky enough to take a lunch break by the pool and partake in some crab dip. Otherwise, it was full days of heads-down working. We’d clock out for dinner, but many nights, we’d come back to the site to unpack boxes and organize for the day ahead before bedtime. 

Managing Stress: Working & Living with Your Design Team 

While many of our installations are in our hometown of Austin, this particular project was on the Northeast Coast. It kind of felt like a sleepaway summer camp for designers. We all stayed under the same roof, so there was plenty of bonding time. You learn things about your teammates, like what each of us likes to eat for breakfast, what’s considered an acceptable bedtime, and, most importantly, how we each deal with stress. And trust me, interior design installations are stressful! 

For me, I’d rise early and seek out a particular colleague who happens to be the only one who can talk me off a ledge. Each morning, he’d listen to my rant on everything that drove me crazy from the day before. It’s so helpful to have someone there to tell you it’s all going to be ok. And, of course, it was. 

Coordinating Logistics: Both Remote and On-site 

Interior design installations do not happen overnight. There are many logistics to manage, especially for a remote project, and they all take time to coordinate. We had to arrange trucks coming from other states, track deliveries coming through customs, and time it all to arrive when the builder teams were finished and out of the way. 

Timing is a skill in and of itself. The wallpaper must go up after the paint and before the decorative light fixtures. The area rugs must go down after the floors are stained and dried and before the furniture pieces can be placed. Every aspect requires careful planning and sometimes fast decision-making to keep lots of people happy and working. Communication and logistics are the key. Being flexible and molding expectations to fit the ever-changing situations is necessary.

Navigating Surprises: It Helps to Know Your Clients

Speaking of being flexible, surprises will come up no matter how carefully you plan an installation day. Over the course of our three-week install at Cape Cod, there were many times we had to act as the client’s representatives to address landscaping questions, manage pool maintenance, or plant decorative plantings. 

The client can’t be home and expected to answer everything, so this is where building a true interior design partnership comes into play. Over the course of two or more years of working on a project on behalf of a client, we tend to get to know their foibles and tastes, and we begin to understand how to make choices on their behalf. It is an exciting time when we get to see a lot of our hard work come to life in the real world. 

Finishing an Interior Design Installation: When a Job Site Becomes a Home

There is an important moment as a design installation comes to completion, and that is the moment when a job site becomes a home! Typically, I take the lead on marking this time. I decide based on the amount of work that needs to get completed and the high level of customer furniture that needs to come into the home. Once the transition is decided, the workers need to start emotionally letting go of a place they have often been working in for months and months. No longer their workshop, this place is now a home for their client that they are just carefully visiting. As a clear marker, this is the moment where the portapotty gets removed.  

I make a small speech to the vendors and subcontractors who are still there working, marking the occasion and reminding them to hurry along and finish up so that the clients can live there. It can be a sticky time — a coup in the reorder of hierarchy. For a brief moment, the design team rules the domain just long enough for us to style the space and get photos before emotionally letting go and turning the keys back over to the client. 

It’s funny because, as designers, we don’t really own our work. The home belongs to the client, and we’re just left with the memories and the photos. It really is fleeting, knowing the home will go on without us. I have been back from the Cape for only about five days, and it all feels like a long time ago. There is letting go and grieving that it is no longer “mine” in some way. 

 

But, that’s all in a day’s work for a designer.