Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Cherne.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kathryn. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
While just dating, we formed in December 2006 after I was complaining to Bill about my day at my design job. Bill told me, “if you want to make a difference, let’s make a business.” Later that night, without me knowing, he filled out the registration paperwork and surprised me with the beginnings of our company. Our first client was on Craigslist and then we started to get some recommendations on Yelp! Then we grew as referrals came in and our portfolio began to fill out. We weathered the recession of 2008 and were able to get direct relationships with furniture manufacturers, giving us a leg-up on other design firms since we were able to provide a wide variety of lighting and furniture for less than the Merchandise Mart. Our attitude has always been to provide value and sound judgment to our clients’ designs and our Mid-western upbringing keeps us very down to earth. Our personalities and approach to design puts our clients at ease. This gives our spaces a comfortable yet pulled together look, combining the needs of the client with the skilled use of proportion, balance, and other design elements.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Before we invoiced every two weeks, we would take half of the estimate up front and the remainder at completion. Unfortunately, we had a situation where a contractor abandoned a client and we were left filling in the gaps for over a year. We learned to bill hourly instead of as a flat fee per project. Our clients have enjoyed the flexibility this gives them.
So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Design Inside story. Tell us more about the business.
We are proud of two things: first, that we can design for any style and almost any budget and second, that we have a deep understanding of remodeling. We are known for being fun to work with since we are quite playful (I did improv at the Second City) and for being trustworthy since we don’t always recommend the most expensive item. We are different from other firms in our stage gate process. Instead of presenting a full design, that a client may not like for various reasons, we design in batches of items and our designs evolve, building from one set of decisions to the next. This makes us flexible and means that the clients never feel like they had to approve something because the designer intimidated them in some way.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We’ve had some good luck with a number of great clients and we tend to be pretty optimistic as a team. We had good luck with the recession and our positioning. We were rare in our open posting to pricing. Not many design firms posted their hourly rate on their sites. We want interior design to be approachable so, we believed in making ourselves easy to approach! People were tired of the mystery and the requirement that all purchases be made through the designer, so, a lot of our luck and success has had to do with our open-book policies that allow the client flexibility. I think we offered people what they wanted at the right time and that was the ‘luck’ of our growth in the past 11 years.
Pricing:
- Projects are 150/hour with a 5 hour minimum
- Hourly Consultations are 175/hour with a 2 hour minimum
Contact Info:
- Address: 910 W. Van Buren Ave., #240
Chicago, IL 60607 - Website: https://designinside.com
- Phone: 773.304.4133
- Email: info@designinside.com
Floating mirror with wall mounted Kohler faucet
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