The level 4 lockdown was far from a holiday for Nicola Manning of NM Design.
What was downtime for some proved a particularly busy yet gratifying period for Nicola and her colleague Katherine Lightfoot. The restrictions meant they couldn’t physically visit clients – which created time for Nicola to look at new opportunities provided by the wider uptake of online technology.
As they emerged out the other side of lockdown, they were ready to launch some exciting options to make their successful design service more widely available, particularly geographically.
Nicola now has three distinctly different ways clients can access her service, depending on the scale of the project, geographical location, and the amount of hands-on involvement a client wants. She says that an important part of this offering is potential clients like to understand, in advance, the cost of using their services.
NMDesign. Interior Design, Nicola Manning
1. There’s the original Full Service option
The core of the business. This involves taking a brief from the client to fully scope the project and providing a detailed proposal of the work involved for a fixed fee. These full service projects focus on new house builds, more substantial renovations, significant refurnishing of a new apartment or house.
New options include:
2. Designer for a Day
A new service where clients pay a fixed fee for four to five hours of the designer’s time. This initially involves a phone call to plan the best use of the allocated time to be spent together. “If someone has bought a home, we might go through the existing furniture and talk about what they’d like to keep and gaps they need to fill. We can go into their home and check what the client should do to improve a space. Or we might accompany them to stores to help source new furniture, accessories, art, tiles or any other design elements. It’s highly tailored to the specific needs of the client.” It has proven popular, she says, particularly as an introductory step, for those who have never used a designer before.
NMDesign. Interior Design, Nicola Manning
3. The Online Design Service
For those who love interior design and enjoy doing it themselves, but need professional advice from an expert. “Clients need to photograph the space, take the measurements of their room and send it in. From there, we’ll do a detailed design with a floorplan, one elevation, a mood board, and prepare a shopping list, so they can put it all together.”
Initially Nicola began a career in the finance industry, progressing to her role as a marketing manager of a bank after graduating with a commerce degree.
She always had an underlying passion for design and decided to pursue this career change. She completed an online diploma in interior design at Rhodec in the UK, and in 2002, Nicola was ready to launch her business.
Problem solving and adapting to changing circumstances is something she has always been good at. In 2004 Nicola completed her NKBA Kitchen Design certificate, gaining a plethora of knowledge and expertise.
Katherine Lightfoot, who has a spatial design degree, has been working closely with lead designer Nicola for the last four-and-a-half years. They have created a very tight, collaborative design team.
Looking back, Nicola says she’s seen huge changes to the industry since she started nearly 20 years ago.
“Technology in terms of CAD and other presentation tools make it easier to show clients design concepts. Many clients find it difficult to visualise spaces, so any technology that can help them with this is very useful. The ongoing development of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) is exciting as this takes visualisation for clients to the next level.”
NMDesign. Interior Design, Nicola Manning
Then there’s the wide variety of interior products available. With Instagram, Pinterest, magazines and websites like ArchiPro and Houzz, clients can easily search and access images from around the world. But the huge variety all adds to the sense of being overwhelmed for people.
“One of our functions is to simplify the process for clients. We take a detailed brief then give the client a few suitable options so they don’t feel overwhelmed.”
One of her favourite aspects of the job is spatial planning. She thrives on the challenge of taking a brief, looking at the space with all its constraints, and working out how to achieve the plan. But she also loves the softer, tactile aspects of working with fabrics and colour too.
Unlike many designers, Nicola and Katherine provide a one-stop shop for everything interior design-wise, from spatial planning whole projects to kitchens, bathrooms, designing custom cabinetry, furniture sourcing and selecting soft furnishings.
”From a client’s perspective, it’s much more efficient than having to coordinate all those trades. The client only has to deal with us. Our skill is in listening and interpreting. The clearer the brief, the better,” she says.
“It’s all about professionalism. We offer a quality service using a quality process to be consistent in how we work. Communication is the key. It’s very collaborative.”
Her Top Tips on Working with a Designer
- Do your homework first and think about what’s important to you.
- Work with your designer to create a complete plan for your whole house. You can split it up into phases and do a section at a time. Without an overall plan you may need to rework spaces later for a cohesive look.
- Create a wish list and prioritise.
- If you have collected inspiration images on Pinterest, think about why you like them, is there a pattern or a theme about what you like coming through.
- Invest in quality pieces especially beds, sofas and chairs. As well as looking good, they have to be comfortable.
