FREQUENTLY
ASKED
QUESTIONS

Our fee for full-service and construction start on average around $3,500 and go up from there depending on what clients need.

Clients typically spend anywhere from $20K-50K to fill an empty room start to finish. Go into the most complete room in your home and add up what you spent on every single piece down to the last accessory, and you will be surprised how quickly you arrive at these numbers.

You can hire us to design one room. However, we do work best, and the outcome is much more cohesive for the overall vibe of your home, when we get to reimage multiple rooms in your home at one time.

Sometimes this means saving and waiting and sometimes it means that we do full-service for a few rooms, and you use our DIY service to complete a few other rooms.

We prefer to do whole-room projects. We don’t mind if the client already owns a few pieces, but we typically do not get involved for less than our $3,500 starting fee.

We can source paint colors, give advice on builtins, or pull together a room through our DIY Service option, which comes with a virtual consult and 15 links, any of which could be used to source paint.

If you have a new build or are about to begin a renovation, sourcing paint is a large part of the selection process we help with during the project as part of the Construction Service.

We begin all of our processes (with the exception of DIY) with an in-person consultation. Our consult fee is $350 plus travel if outside of Columbia. This consultation includes an hour discussing general ideas for your space, a consultation report sent afterward for construction, and a proposal detailing our design fee to handle the project.

Following your initial consultation, you will receive a consultation report detailing various options for how you might reconfigure your space, questions you should ask your contractor, and a list of designer-approved standard costs for lighting, counters, etc. This will help you interview contractors and will help you gauge the accuracy of their pricing since often, their ideas on builder-grade lighting and other selections may cost less than the Pinterest and Houzz-worthy inspiration pictures you have in your head.

However, that said, we are not married to any specific contractor. We will provide you a list of contractors in your area with whom we have worked before or who come recommended by previous clients, but we do not take part in your choosing.

The contractor-client relationship will be involved, complex, and often will last the span of a year. Therefore, this is a decision we want you to interview multiple people for and choose someone based not solely on the bottom line but on your chemistry with them in terms of personality and process.

Once the selections design is complete, our service for construction comes with four built-in site visits to weigh in during the building process. However we do not offer full project management and any consulting past the four visits would be billed by the hour.

We are happy to and love to incorporate into the design a few family heirloom pieces that make the space and tell your story. We are also willing to work with a newer purchase if it fits the overall look we have agreed to create.

However if you ask us to create an elegant, classic space, but insist that we keep your husband’s lazy boy, or an oversized, off-color sofa, that may be a deal breaker for whether we can work together.

We can always work into the new design, a tailored recliner or a comfortable sofa that fits everyone’s needs, but we cannot work around the biggest, bulkiest piece of furniture in the room if it does not fit our typical aesthetic because the end result will not be the look you hired us to create.

Style Consult

In the beginning, we invite you to tell us everything. Once you have hired us, we use the style consult to really get to know your style.

• We ask a million questions about your likes and dislikes, how you use your home, what is most important to you about the final outcome, etc.

• We go over everything down to the style of handle on your faucet and whether you like a knob or lever on your door.

• We welcome as many inspiration pictures as you can provide. The more you can show and tell us what you like and dislike about a space, the more we can nail what you may not even be able to voice that you want. This is the time where we like for your significant other to be very involved as well if they want to be.

Conceptual Design Phase

We will use the above info to create an initial design – the conceptual design, and this is where you get to make edit requests.

• We will be totally up front and honest however about the clients with whom we work best: If you are someone who needs to see an in-hand sample of most everything vs the picture of the item, if you need to mull over a paint color at 50%, 75%, and 125%, if you need to approve the exact placement of the curtain rod, and sit on everything before you purchase it, then full-service with AMI may not be the best fit for you. You might do better with our DIY service option, or with a more collaborative firm.

Detailed Design Phase

After this initial collaboration, your input will be limited.

• Once we begin to get detailed we go off what you have told us.

• Once we begin sourcing specific items and price pieces and pull a whole look together, we ask for very little collaboration.

• We ask our clients at that point to pull out of Pinterest, step away from Houzz, pause their online browsing, and not stroll through HomeGoods. Because at this point, although you may not be able to see the whole vision and you may think changing one or two things is no big deal, it is our experience that this is a slippery slope that can erode the full effect of the design. This is where we ask that you lean in and trust us, remember why you hired us, look back at our finished projects on our website, and remind yourself how amazing the final product is going to be.

We have multiple options for this:

• For complicated construction, depending on how detailed the reconfiguring and reimagining is of the space, and always if it involves moving walls, we love to involve the talented spatial design firm, Phase One Designs.

• If you already have a contractor in mind, they may insist on having their draftsman or carpenter complete their own renderings.

• For every project, you will receive 2D images showing you a floor plan and a detailed design of your space. However also for an additional fee, we are certified in CAD and can provide a 3D rendering when the design involves cabinetry for builtins, kitchens, pantries, etc.

Yes. Our to-the-trade furniture/accessory accounts are what provide us the ability to create a unique, custom look for you that you will not find on Wayfair or in HomeGoods and that your neighbors won’t be able to recreate.

We work hard to curate a network of vendors who provide quality, beautiful products. We go to market to seek these out, sit on them, test them, learn about them in order to provide you with the best, most durable options out there.

Our business model provides two streams of revenue, one from our design fee and one from product sales. The ability to sell product is what allows us to keep our design fee to a minimum. We are essentially like a brick-and-mortar furniture store with an in-house designer on hand, minus the brick-and-mortar. Therefore, we do require that for full-service design, clients purchase furniture through our firm.

Occasionally, we will pull from retail sites if we cannot find a similar product elsewhere. We vow to sell at or below MSRP, but we do not honor sale prices. We are not at liberty to stalk products until the timing is perfect to catch a sale. By the time you pay us to do that, you will have paid above the original price.

Absolutely! References are available upon request.

Our most unique asset is our aesthetic. We provide a look that is fresh and different from most other local designers.

• We are bold and vibrant and provide a very specific look that you kind of know right away whether is for you or not.

• We can create an experience within your home that we hope will perfectly represent your individuality and personality.

• Many people tell us, we love what you do but I could never do that in my home and we say, WHY NOT? Maybe our funky style is “too much” for your whole home but maybe you want to test drive it in your powder room, or pantry, laundry room, or primary closet. Let us add a little flavor to your life.

• We encourage you to take risks and be bold, but we promise to leave you with just the right amount of classic, timeless, tradition to ground the fun.

In addition to a beautiful product, we provide down-to-earth, approachable service.

• We strive to treat our clients, vendors, and tradespeople with equal kindness and respect.

• We have been diligent since our conception about building relationships with highly-skilled tradesmen and women so that we can deliver a luxury-grade, quality product.

• We are calm, problem solvers who troubleshoot and pivot when necessary.

• We listen carefully and aim to give you exactly what you envisioned and so much more.

• We are committed to exemplary customer service and hope to provide our clients with a high-end experience the whole way through.

CONSTRUCTION

Construction is anything that involves in-depth construction where you are going to hire a contractor. This is where we help you choose hard finishes like countertops, tile, hardware, lighting, stain for hardwoods, paint, cabinet style, etc.

The only construction you might use us for but not need a contractor would be something minor (IE: half-bath which would may only involve very little demolition and some cosmetic updates).

FULL-SERVICE

For the trusting, busy client who wants initial input but who is fine handing over the reins. It is perfect for the client who wants to step back and have AMI coordinate all of the installs, make final decisions, order all the pieces, and manage everything down to the last detail.

DIY

For the client who wants inspiration and answers on perhaps items the client already has in mind. But then the client is responsible for ordering, placing, and finishing.

FULL-SERVICE VS DIY

Both of these are decorating services where we choose the soft finishes and furniture for a space.

However, there are a few reasons why someone might be better suited for DIY:

• Limited budget

• Distance from SC but cannot afford to pay AMI to travel

• Someone who wants to be super involved.

We will be totally up front and honest however about the clients with whom we work best:

• If you are someone who needs to see an in-hand sample of most everything vs the picture of the item

• If you need to mull over a paint color at 50%, 75%, and 125%

• If you need to approve the exact placement of the curtain rod, and sit on everything before you purchase it, then full-service with AMI may not be the best fit for you

• You might do better with our DIY service option, or with a more collaborative firm.

The answer to this depends on the room, but for the most part, we operate best with color and the eclectic mix of new and old furniture and accessories.

We love to use pattern-on-pattern and layer in texture through wallcoverings, fun fabrics, rugs and tailored furniture.

We are most in our element and at the height of our creative confidence when a client’s style aligns with our maximalism, love for tradition meets trend, a mix of high and low pieces, and funky color grounded with classic antique accessories.

We’re not afraid of floral, geo, stripes, plaids, or a good chinoiserie print. We’ve never met a chartreuse we didn’t like nor many of his bright-tone friends. We love the timeless touch of black and white, and we welcome all shades of gold.

We value the energy that custom art can bring to a room and how the right piece can tie the whole look together. We believe decorative lighting and pillows are a must; they are the difference between fine and fab.

We think through every detail from the contrast welting on your pillow to the plants we layer into decorative pots.

With that said, we don’t mind working with white walls if we can layer in ALL THE COLOR. Specifically with kitchens and primary bathrooms, we respect a crisp white space, but you know we want to bring in some excitement with art and textiles at the very least.

You can see our range in the pictures we showcase on our site. We cannot tone ourselves down much outside of what you see there. We want the end result to be interesting, charismatic, inviting and SO YOU!!!