Frequently Asked Questions
DESIGN PROCESS
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Our standard design process takes 2 months from measure to ordering. Once we place your order, you will get weekly updates on the status of the items in transit. Custom items will have longer lead times.
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The design fee covers measure, space planning, inspiration images, 3D model (if applicable), design concepts, renderings, product sourcing, and a furniture investment estimate.
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During the first few weeks of the process, we will determine the scope (areas of your home that require design services) and create an estimate of the cost of the furniture to complete your final design.
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Life happens. We can place your project on hold. We charge a “re-start fee” which covers the cost incurred when repricing and possibly resourcing out-of-stock items for your design. A project will also be considered on hold after 4 weeks of unresponsiveness and/or non-payment.
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Yes. New rooms will incur a new design fee and be placed in queue to begin the design process as a new project.
PROCUREMENT
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Most often orders cannot be canceled or refunded. In the event that a refund can be attained, you may cancel the order and receive a refund for the cost of the item minus any other applicable restocking fees. Custom orders are non-refundable.
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There are often small expenses associated with contract labor and installation that occur at the end of the project. A credit card on file ensures the final expenses are paid in a timely manner. We will never charge your credit card without notice.
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Design fees are due and payable to BLD immediately upon presentation of an Invoice. The first payment being due at the execution of this Agreement and the second payment being due prior to the Conceptual Design Meeting. Purchase Proposals & Invoices for Items and Reimbursable Expenses and Disbursements are due immediately upon presentation. No work or orders will begin prior to full payment. Price quotes are good for 7 days.
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We prefer to perform one large installation of all your items. This includes all furniture and accessories purchased. We will store all items until this installation date. If you have not purchased the full service design package, you will order items to be delivered directly to your home.
FREIGHT / RECEIVING & DELIVERY
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In the world of Amazon Prime and free 2-day shipping, we sometimes forget that nothing is actually ‘FREE’ and there are actually human hands doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work (hard work & heavy lifting).
When we make a furniture purchase from a manufacturer, that furniture ships to us via FREIGHT service (a very large semi truck brings it across the country) & freight shipping is calculated at a much lower rate, than say UPS or FedEx. For example, a standard-size sofa might be somewhere around $250 (not a bad price to drive that sofa all the way across the country)
Freight line carriers (big semi trucks) are the only method manufacturers ship furniture. This is the only way your furniture leaves the factory. They do not FedEx a sofa to your doorstep.
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Those large semi’s only drop their goods at a ‘receiving warehouse’, a place that has either a loading dock or a forklift and a team of people to unload that truck. It is the job of the receiving warehouse to do the following:
• Unload the truck & ‘receive’ all of the items (items with visible damage to packaging will be refused)
• All items must be checked against the manifest & logged into inventory
• Our receiving company has an inventory management software & app that gives us live time updates when furniture arrives, photos are uploaded and anything else we need to know about each piece
• Upon arrival, a bar code is assigned to each piece and with a press of a button, they can tell us everything about that piece and where it is located in the warehouse
• Every piece must be unwrapped, unboxed or uncrated & thoroughly inspected for damage, imperfections or defects within 48 hours of arrival
• Our receiver photographs every piece under bright lighting for inspection and photos
• We are notified of damage or imperfections and then BLD works on the back end to rectify any issues with the manufacturer
• They will assemble anything that requires any kind of assembly
• Approved furniture is then re-wrapped, re-boxed or re-crated until we are ready for your install.
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All of your beautiful brand new furniture will be removed from storage, loaded and secured into either the box truck or trailer (or both). This will take at least 2 guys, the forklift and some serious muscle. (it can take as much as 5 hours to load the truck with a large order). They have a pain staking process to ensure your furniture is not damaged on this last leg of the journey.
Then they hit the road and once at their destination:
• They start to unload the truck and un-wrap all of the furniture
• They wear protective booties & gloves while in your home and handling your new furniture to ensure they don’t get anything dirty while they are sweating away doing the hard stuff.
• They patiently place furniture & rugs, sometimes over & over while being directed by a bossy designer who wants everything in just the right place….and yes…there are many times when we ask them to remove all the furniture they just placed, so we can have them move a rug 6 inches…and they never complain …(well at least not in front of you)
And just when you think their job is done….It’s not!
• Now they go back outside and load their truck with sometimes hundreds of pounds of cardboard and packing material and they take it away with them!
• They will take it back to their warehouse, where they will transfer it all to their dump trailer, tie it all down for safety and they generally make about 2 trash runs a week to the local dump with hundreds of pounds of waste and recycling!
CONTACT
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Our office hours are Monday through Friday from 8am - 4pm CST. You will receive the email address and phone number of your assigned designer during the initial design meeting.