Furniture & charging for extras??? Advice please.

[dlparisi]

Hi everyone,

I've got this client right now that's super picky about the furniture that is being used on an interior. His first suggestion was "British Colonial" style and he provided me with a couple of photos of the feel of the furniture but not the exact pieces (Dark woods with some whitish walls). I did my best to accommodate this and came up with some nice pieces. He felt that some of the pieces (predominately the sofas and dining room stuff) wasn't the right feel and we've been going on for several weeks now trying to get the furniture "right" but it is taking a huge chunk out of any profit I may have been making. Since my contract doesn't specifically state at exactly what point I'm done with the interior design, I feel like I'm out of luck until he's happy. Usually I have no trouble changing for changes but in this case they aren't Tully changes like I'm used to. (walls moving, changed windows, etc). Oh well, on this job I think I'm SOL but hopefully I can protect myself in the future.

So my question is how do some of you handle "furniture" selection and interior furnishings and how do you write this into your contract? I've yet to work on a job where the client actually has an interior designer with all of the furniture/finishes selected so I don't think I can just insist that every piece of furniture be selected prior to the start of work. I think this would be bad for me as well since it would mean I'd have to model each piece for each job rather than relying on some library pieces which would drive up costs (for me and the client) considerably. Anyone have any suggestions on how to address this?

Related to this, how do you setup reviews with the client of the images in progress? I tend to render out a alot of test images for client review prior to the finals to hopefully avoid surprises at the end. But I have also been advised by others to produce very few images for review and basically they get the final product at the end and if they don't like it, changes are extra. This seems rather unprofessional but would probably help the bottom line. What do you think?

Thanks for any advice,
David

[Dynedain]

If you are including it in the cost of the image, after the first pass, and one revision, state that it's additional services, and charge extra. You're not an interior designer.

[jujubee]

Charge hourly rates past first revision and let them know before proceeding. That will make them reconsider too many changes at your expense. From their perspective, it's probably just a push of a button.

[teabag]

I second what juju said...

furthermore you could build a collection of furniture and sell it on turbosquid to get some money back

[tricky]

If possible, my opinion is talk about this issue with the client and explain what you have said above. If they are 'decent' they may put on less pressure. Hopefully.

[ShaunDon]

We never play interior designer ourselves. We're 3D graphics professionals who specialize in architecture -- furniture styles, fabrics, and paint colors are not our strong suit, and it's exactly those details that make a great interior. When a client comes to us without an interior design, we ask that they either agree to hire a freelance interior designer who works with us regularly or find one of their own to put together a finish/furniture package before we start an image.

At this point we don't make exceptions to this rule in order to avoid precisely the headaches you're describing. The truth is I've found that most clients are more willing to spend their money on a design professional's input than paying you more to revise and re-revise.

Shaun

[gilpo]

We went through exactly what you're describing on the first interior shot we did. We lost our shirt but it was a learning experience. Now, we write the contracts exactly as juju said. We will match a style of photos or samples the client provides, after that, it's hourly work. It really cuts down on the pickiness of revisions.

[Da_elf]

the problem with things like the evermotion collections is that its all nice modern stuff however for more antique look or specific to other cultures will not be available. i feel your pain since most of my work is done for people who are into british colonial style since Barbados was a british colony. Ive had to custom design most of my stuff
can you show me some images and i can check and see what pieces i might be able to help you with?

[mikeeee2]

I would also caution you about bringing too many shots to a review. My expierence has taught me to identify the views that you are delivering early on and only show those rendering to the client. This helps out in two ways, first you only model what you have to model for the final views and second you are not showing the client extra things that he can change that won't affect the final output.

example. You may have a rendering in wich you have a couch. In the final rendering you will only see the side of the couch. THe client may be satisified w/ the side presented in the final rendering but when you show him an "extra" rendering he might notice something about the cusions of the couch thath he doesn't like. Now he has a bee in his bonnet about the couch as a whole and will possiably make you change out the couch or make alterations to the couch that won't affect the final view but if you do not show these changes they will never be happy. So now you have comitted to making changes and delivering an essentially free "extra"image.

As for your situation. You are no longer providing visualization you are providing interior design. It is a trap that we all have fallen into. Mark this one up to expierence and write future contracts to cover hourly changes after the 2nd/3rd review. Once the meter is running a client quickly become satisfied with a rendering that they felt needed tweaking when the changes were free.

Good Luck
Erickson

[dlparisi]

Everyone:
Thanks for your suggestions. I've got to get out of the mode of sending a lot of preview rendering for review. I think this comes from my arch background were of course we'd look at the design regularly and repeatedly tweak it. I'll need to work on my contracts a bit to try to include a set number of reviews. Do most of you do a clause such as Dynedain suggested (after the first pass, and one revision...) or something else?

i feel your pain since most of my work is done for people who are into british colonial style since Barbados was a british colony. Ive had to custom design most of my stuff
can you show me some images and i can check and see what pieces i might be able to help you with?

Thanks for the offer but he wasn't really after the British Colonial look after all. I knew this from the start as this is what he said but the images he gave me weren't BC, just sort of looked a little like it. What he was really after and what I THOUGHT I gave him was a nautical islandy feel: soft couches, dark woods, driftwood tables, etc.

Thanks,
David

[Da_elf]

yeah we tend to use alot of mahogony, green heart and purple heart woods down here (purple heart looking the best but is near impossible to work with its so hard) lots of cane weave as well or ratan as other call it as well