Our Interior Design Process: Creating a Home with CFD (Part 1)
To us, there’s nothing more important than a client’s home: how it functions, how it , and most importantly, how it feels (and of course, making it stunning is a given!). We believe that a well-designed, timeless home is not only beautiful, but seamlessly functional, comfortable, and ready to meet the demands of daily life with ease. Over more than a decade in business, our team has built a process that our clients love, which serves as a pathway to creating joyful, elevated, deeply personalized interiors.
Creating a Home Together
Today we’re taking you through the steps, milestones, and timelines of our process: i.e., all the things you can expect when we are creating a home together. Come on in, y’all- because we’re going to share it all with you. This will be a 3 part series (apologies- we just could not fit it all into one post!) Everyone likes to know what to expect going into something new (we do too), and our hope is that this will give you an inside view into what we do, how it’s different, and why it works so well for our clients.
Cat perusing the notoriously massive fabric sample wall in our studio. We organize them by color and it’s very satisfying (if you know, you know!)
Love of Home
The first thing to know is that we are here because we want you to love your home. As in, it makes you happy every= time you walk through the door. Yes, we love to design (we are the biggest design nerds you’ll ever meet) and we love this work. But we do it because there is nothing more important to us than helping each client create the home that will bring them joy every day. Most of our clients have actually been with us for years, through multiple homes and different stages of life. They trust that we will take care of them, and know we will translate their needs, preferences, and vision into beautiful, personal spaces that are just right for them.
This mid-century modern-inspired home design was all about bringing the outdoors in, and crafting it in a way that felt plush, comfortable, and serene. We feel that these sweet doodles were on board with the mission.
Our Team
One thing that sets us apart is our team approach, and clients experience this from the start. CFD is a group of full-time professionals, each with their own area of expertise in how we take care of our clients. When you reach out to us for the first time, you will hear from Krista, our operations manager. She will email you after receiving your inquiry (you can see the contact form here, or you’re always welcome to email us! We love to hear from you however you prefer). Let’s take a moment here to acknowledge the amazingness that is Krista. She is our mastermind of the details, tracking and triple checking every single thing that goes on behind the scenes- the scheduling, documentation (very important), product orders, timelines, and beyond- all with a meticulousness that is second to none. We all celebrate the day she came to us because she is such an invaluable resource to us and our clients.
Krista in the Captain’s Chair (rightfully so), at the head of the table. Cat to the left, Ryan (Installation Manager) and Julian (Design Tech) on the right.
The Discovery Call
Krista will get you set up for a free discovery call with Rebecca, our Lead Designer. Rebecca is a deeply experienced, award-winning interior designer (read more about her here!) who also happens to be the kindest person in the world. We’re not kidding when we say that talking to her feels like a warm hug, and we (and our clients) just love her to pieces. Rebecca will spend time getting to know you and listening carefully as you share what you are looking for in an interior design project- the hopes, the goals, the problem areas, the story- you’ll have time to go through everything that you need and what you envision for your home. Rebecca will also talk with you a little more about what we do, our team, and how our process works.
Rebecca, our very-much-loved Lead Designer doing what she does best - making beautiful spaces. Her incredible skillset is only matched by her love for our clients.
The Consultation
After talking with Rebecca, you have an opportunity to move forward to schedule an in-home consultation with Cat. After talking with Rebecca and learning about what brings you to us, this is Cat’s time to come to you, and get a deep feel for your space and your life. Where do you like to spend time at home? What do you love (and not) about your space? What would make daily life easier or more relaxing in the day to day? What pieces are important to you that we would make part of a new design? We want to know all of this and more.
You get to take her through room by room, and talk with her about ALL the things. Clients love the consultation because they very feel seen, heard, and understood. Cat’s down-to-earth personality and open-minded listening puts clients at ease from the start. We design with intention: we want you to love your home, and make it right for all the things you care about most, whether that’s family time, entertaining, relaxing, cooking up a storm like you’re on Top Chef, or anything else that makes you happiest. And the journey begins when we gain a deep understanding of how your space can bring you and your family joy in the every day.
Cat loves to say, “we want to create a home that will let you live your best life”. What she means is that with every design decision we make, big or small, we are thinking about how we can design your home to bring you the most ease and happiness in the every day (it will also look amazing too ;)
Next time, we’ll talk about what happens after the consultation (which is a VERY exciting time). This is when we really start to home in on your unique personal style and all the details that will go into your custom design. The things you’ve always wanted and envisioned for your home? We’re on it. It’s one of the times our clients love the most and we can’t to take you behind-the-scenes.
We’re so glad you came over to the CFD blog today. We’ll be back on the blog with more design behind-the-scenes and studio happenings soon. Until then, if you’re looking for more CFD design work, take a look at our Portfolio page.
Meet our team: read about our team of dedicated creative professionals and their decades of design experience on our team page.
Have questions about designing your home? We’d love to help. Start here at our contact page. Or, feel free to just give us a holler over at hello@catfrenchdesign.com. We’d love to hear from you.
If you’d like to follow along for more in-the-moment happenings and goings-on of this bustling design team, you can also find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest!
