The truth is yes and no. Getting interior design advice can be an extra expense, but it’s an investment that offers great value. There are an overwhelming number of design choices to be made for even the smallest of projects. Aside from getting expert design advice, an interior designer can help you avoid costly mistakes, access the best local suppliers and manufacturers, negotiate sharper prices, and help you allocate your budget in the right places, for maximum effect.
Not often. Knowing our clients and understanding who they are and how they do things is an important step in the design process. Bringing a design to life and seeing it through to the end is what we’re great at. Using an interior designer to source products, negotiate pricing and manage the project through to completion can save you time and money, and make the whole experience easier and more enjoyable.
I’m an independent interior designer and I enjoy working with other professionals on projects. In fact, many of the architects, builders and joiners I work with really appreciate having the expertise of an interior designer on board to add a specialist perspective to the team.
Never. Aside from sounding dreadful, we don’t believe good interior design is about spending lots of money buying expensive objects, furniture and furnishings. Good interior design is about so much more. Having an overall vision and then creating a design that reflects our client and works within their budget is the way we prefer to do things.
Our fees are set on a project-by-project basis to suit our clients and their budgets. We can charge an hourly rate, a fixed fee – or a mix of these, if that works best. Once we have a better understanding of your project and requirements, we’ll give you a detailed estimate of our fees and the work we’ll do.
We love to meet new clients and hear about their project and their aspirations. We’ll happily sit down with you or chat over the phone if you’re considering working with an interior designer, and we don’t charge for that. A good relationship between client and designer is key to a successful project, so it’s worth taking the time to get to know each other from the start.
Over the last 12 months we have undergone renovations within our home and we asked Frances if she could be the interior designer for these. From the very first meeting with her, Frances did an excellent job of listening to what we wanted, steering and guiding us on both the big picture and every intricate detail, and yet always making us feel like we were very much a part of the process and yet able to own the results.
This was an extensive renovation and Frances’ commitment to the project never wavered. Her ideas are clever and she uses a mix of architectural design and interior decorating flair that make for a very exciting end product. She is innovative and creative, but not at the expense of what our particular place and style required. She pushed us outside of the box, and we trusted her to do so, knowing what we would get would be an outstanding outcome.
I have had the pleasure of working with Frances to create a great office space for myself and my team members which has met all our expectations. What makes Frances so talented is her ability to take ideas and expand them into something great! Frances saw the challenges with our vision for the small reception area and tactfully and with the confidence of a true professional moved us to a much better solution. The colours of our space are peaceful whilst still feeling fresh and modern which is exactly the atmosphere we wanted to achieve. I would recommend Frances to others as a truly professional and motivated individual with great ideas and confidence to meet the task at hand.
When construction of our new 34 bedroom Ronald McDonald House began in 2011 we selected Frances Fraser to lead our interior design team. At a very early stage of seeing Frances’ concepts we knew she fully understood our complex needs and desired results. We believed she was competent, and would be instrumental in bringing our blank canvas of empty space, walls and floors of our new House to life. The project was large and varied in our requirements and outcomes. One of the biggest challenges was delivering a high end product by securing products at discounted rates and having to incorporate donated product into the concepts to ensure everything was delivered under budget, without compromising on quality or visual dynamic. Another challenge Frances faced was certain areas not only had to meet the needs of the diverse range of end users, the products needed to be commercial but the overall effect had be like a home.
Certain areas were then complicated further when they had to reflect the individual donor or sponsor of the space, literally we had to merge commercial representation with homely décor. Frances worked diligently and passionately to ensure every box on our very long list was ticked for us. Our Trust now has a wonderful facility which meets our original design brief and our ongoing and future needs, our donors and sponsors are delighted to have space which they are very proud to have their name associated with.
All was achieved well under budget without concession. Thanks to Frances’ creative ability and talent, our families now have a place, which is not only light, bright and welcoming but is also visually inspiring and rejuvenates their spirit, giving them the energy to face the next day with their sick child. A place they are proud to call their home.
From the very first meeting with Frances we knew she was the perfect person to guide and help us decorate our new apartment. It was a great pleasure to work withsuch a talented designer whose creativity, passion and special understanding and caring of our needs encouraged us to be more adventurous. Nothing was ever too much trouble for her. My husband remarks frequently when he walks in that he loves our home and everything Frances has created for us. We now have a sophisticated, stylish and very liveable apartment which we just love and enjoy greatly. We unreservedly recommend Frances.
We began the process of completely remodelling the bathroom and kitchen in our 1910 Villa ourselves and realised we needed a fresh perspective. We chose Frances because of her willingness to listen to our initial thoughts and incorporate our ideas throughout the design process, her high energy level, enthusiasm for the job, creative design ideas and obvious commitment to quality.
We had a small bathroom with limited design options and we got a bit lost working out functionality and design. Frances came up with creative ways to maximize the space, both functionally and aesthetically. People walk into our bathroom and their breath is taken away by what has been accomplished.
Frances gave us different design options for both the bathroom and kitchen and we were able to transform them into new amazing spaces together. We couldn’t have been more pleased with the entire process.
We talked Frances through what we were after, showed her some pictures and then walked through the existing space. Frances took all this information away and came back quick quickly with a design pack that gave us clear direction on colour schemes and design options for each space. Included were interesting design elements we had not thought of, which ended up being firm favourites. This was the real value add for us. The pack turned out to be invaluable as we often referred to it when making purchasing decisions and construction decisions with the builder. We also appreciated Frances setting realistic expectations about what was and what was not achievable on our budget. Frances listened well, responded promptly and was genuinely enthusiastic about our project.
We also felt that our experience working with Frances was one of the best across all the building tradespeople we dealt with during the renovation.
We are delighted with the result of the design, advice and project management work Frances from Honour Creative did when we undertook a renovation of our villa. Frances guided usto identify the look and feel we wanted that would also work with our style of house, and then provided advice and options for products that fitted with our vision. Frances is professional and pleasant to work with, and communicated really well and transparently with us. Frances worked effectively with a range of other tradespeople involved in our house renovation which helped itgo more smoothly. It is obvious Frances has high standards and cares about customer satisfaction and the quality of the end result. Frances is practical as well as creative, so our house not only looks good, but it’s also very functional.