A free guide

How a project begins

Every project starts the same way: a house that works, and a family who cannot quite say why it does not. Here is the actual sequence, so you know what you are agreeing to before you agree to it.

A scope board reading light, earthy, tranquil in gold script, with a plan view and a written scope of work — Light. Earthy. Tranquil. That was the entire brief — three words.

The enquiry

You send photographs of the room and a sentence about what is wrong with it. That is genuinely enough to start. A short conversation follows, at no cost, to work out whether the project and I are a good fit — which sometimes means telling you the room needs a builder before it needs me.

The walk-through

In person if you are in Metro Detroit; by video and measurements if you are not. I want to see how the room is used, not how it looks when tidy. Where people actually sit. Which door is always open. Where prayer happens. What the light does at four in the afternoon.

The three-word brief

We agree on the words the room has to answer to. On the project above they were light, earthy, tranquil. A short brief is not a vague one — it is a test you can hold every later decision against, including mine.

The layout, drawn to scale

Before a dollar is spent, you see the room drawn: plan and three-dimensional views, everything to size. This is the stage that stops the conversation being about whether the sofa fits, so it can be about how the room should feel.

A design layout board showing three 3D views of a living room before anything was purchased — What the room looked like before anyone spent a dollar.

Sourcing and specification

Every piece is chosen for what it does in the room, not because it matches. This stage is slower than people expect and it is where the project is won — finding the one console with the right proportions is most of the job. Some pieces are found; some have to be made.

A carpenter measuring a custom arched console mid-build — Sourcing the right piece — and when it does not exist, having it measured to the wall it will sit against.

The schedule and the orders

You approve a written list — every item, quantity, room, price and lead time in one place. Nothing is ordered before you have seen that list. Lead times drive the calendar far more than anything else, and long-lead items go first.

Delivery and install

Boxes arrive, often all at once, and the room looks worse before it looks better. Install is coordinated so trades and deliveries do not collide, and so the room is put together in the right order rather than the order things turned up.

Two people on a ladder during install day, plastic sheeting on the floor — Install week. Plastic sheeting and all.

Styling, and the last ten percent

The final layer is the one that makes it look like the drawings: the hang of a curtain panel, the height of the art, the objects on the console. I still hang the drapery myself — the fall of a panel is not something you can specify from a drawing.

The finished living room, wide view, with green velvet sofa, cream chairs and warm layered lighting — The same room, finished. Troy, Michigan.

What to have ready before you get in touch

None of this is required. All of it makes the first conversation better — and the intake form asks for most of it.

Photographs of the room from each corner, taken in daylight, untidied.
Rough dimensions — wall lengths, ceiling height, window sizes.
Which pieces are staying, and which of those are non-negotiable.
How the room needs to work: who uses it, when, and for what.
A number you are comfortable with. Not a final budget — a range.
A date that matters, if there is one. Ramadan, a wedding, a baby, guests.
Three words, if you already know them.

Four ways to work together

Design consultation

One focused session on a room that is not working, and a plan you can carry out yourself. The right choice when you enjoy the doing and want the thinking.

Virtual design

The same drawings, the same sourcing, the same three-word brief — delivered wherever you are. You handle ordering and install; I handle everything up to it.

Full-service residential design

Brief to install, managed end to end — layout, specification, procurement, trades, styling. For whole rooms and whole homes.

Communal and sacred spaces

Mosques, community rooms and shared spaces, including musallah design as part of a wider home or building.

Which of these fits is usually obvious within ten minutes of the first conversation, and it costs nothing to find out. If a project would be better served by someone else, I will say so.

Six honest expectations

Sourcing takes longer than design. The drawings can be done in weeks. Finding the right pieces is the part that sets the pace.
Lead times run the calendar. Custom and imported pieces are measured in months, not days, and they are ordered first for that reason.
The room gets worse before it gets better. Delivery week looks like a warehouse. That is normal.
Decisions are batched. You will be asked for several approvals at once, then left alone for a stretch. It is not silence, it is procurement.
Something will go wrong. A finish is discontinued, a piece arrives damaged. What matters is having a second option ready, not pretending it will not happen.
The last ten percent takes real time. Styling is not an afternoon, and it is the difference between a furnished room and a finished one.

Questions people actually ask

Do I have to redo the whole room?

No. Plenty of projects are one wall, one corner, or a lighting plan. A prayer corner is one of the most common and one of the most worthwhile.

Can you work with what I already own?

Yes, and I would rather. Every room needs something older than everything else in it, or it reads as a delivery rather than a home.

I am not in Michigan. Is that a problem?

No. Virtual design covers drawings, sourcing and specification anywhere. The photographs and measurements do the work the walk-through would.

Do I need to know my style?

No. You need to know how you want the room to feel and how it needs to work. Style is an outcome of those two things, not an input.

What happens if I do not like the layout?

We change it. That is exactly why it is drawn before anything is bought.

Start with the form

It takes a few minutes: photographs of the room, rough dimensions, and one sentence about what is wrong with it. No cost, no obligation — I read every one myself.

Start your project inquiry Or use the form on illumedesignmi.com

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