FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE:

INTERIOR DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

GRAB VIRGINIA’S FREE RESOURCE, “THE IRONWOOD DREAM HOME GUIDE BOOK,” INCLUDING EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN PREPARING FOR YOUR NEW BUILD

FOLLOW HER ON SOCIAL MEDIA HERE:

INSTAGRAM

LINKEDIN

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT SETTING FEE STRUCTURES 

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT DETAILS IN MAKING SELECTIONS

FACTORING IN WEATHER FOR YOUR PROJECT

WORKING WITH NEW TRADES

---

‘Mistakes’ area really just things that happen. The word mistake tends to have such a negative connotation to it. I like to think of them instead as teachable moments that any of us can learn from and get the curtain pulled back on a different perspective.

My guest today is Virginia DesRoches, who is here to talk about some of, what she called, rookie mistakes she has made and the lessons she learned from them.

Virginia DesRoches and John Foran are the dynamic couple and trailblazing visionaries behind Ironwood Studio, an all-encompassing firm that seamlessly merges construction and interior design along the South Coast of MA. Rooted in strong family values, they have earned a robust reputation for their work in designing, building, and renovating family homes from floor plans to furnishings of extraordinary quality and character. 

Drawing inspiration from the beauty of nature, their designs always blend modern and rustic elements, creating a luxurious and welcoming atmosphere ideal for family living. Their dedication to their craft has been recognized in publications such as The Boston Globe, DIY Network, and The Nest.

When Virginia and I first met in my course, Interior Designers Guide to Construction Management, she shared a large new build she was working on, and couple of weeks ago she emailed me to tell me the job was finished and that while it ended well, she encountered a lot of what she called, rookie mistakes along the way. She thought other designers could also learn from them and wanted to share the high’s and low’s of this project. 

Her Story

Virginia grew up in a family of eleven siblings, and her dad ran a home improvement business. Before labor laws were put in place, her dad would grab a handful of them and put them to work. She learned a lot of hands-on skills. Sometimes, they had the luxury of missing school. If we didn’t have a test, their dad would take them to work with him! Virginia says she has never really been the academic type. She’s always enjoyed working with her hands and the entire skill set and industry itself she really enjoyed. 

By the time she got to college, she knew she wanted to do something very creative, so she went to art school and got a degree in Fine Arts. 

By the end of her college years, she paid her way through college by taking on paint projects. Contractors in the local area knew she was a painter and had certain skill sets that they were looking for. She did that for twenty-five years! So her first career was as a paint contractor and decorative painter. 

It was during COVID-19 that she decided to take a turn in her career. She says it was partly due to aging and the physical side of it, lugging around paint and ladders and everything that comes with that. “I was kind of over it,” Virginia says. 

So naturally, she was already taking on design projects, it seemed like the natural next move. She took the opportunity during COVID-19 to make that transition. She had an opportunity to do a new build where she was brought to help the clients make all of the selections as well as some for the customizations they were looking for installers. So that got the ball rolling to where she is today.

The Project

This new build Virginia is sharing about started in 2022. It took nine months for the planning phase.

“Our clients found us on Instagram. That never happens. But we were very grateful they took a chance on us.” say Virginia

Virginia shares how the clients bought a cottage they were going to use as a vacation home. But after having the consultation and doing some more exploratory Virginia and John felt it was not worth the investment to renovate a house. It was structurally not in good standings, so they proposed to knock down and rebuild, in which they agreed.

The project was just completed this past June of 2024

The first mistake they made was structuring the fee.

At that time they weren’t working long enough to have those data metrics to go by for a new build. Since it was their first one they didn’t know how to price it and how long it would really take, so they signed on a contract for it to be hourly. However, it’s more risky for the client because they really don’t know how long those hours are going to go. 

The planning phase alone took 230 hours. “We had no idea it would ever have taken that long, so in the end, being hourly really did save us,” says Virginia. 

In today’s episode, she goes into all the details about why it took so long and the different variables they had to overcome, explaining that on another project, it might have taken half the time. 

Part of this was the township they were in and how they worked with permits, etc. Even if you aren’t the one going to the township or city building, you have to consider every single thing that will be involved in that project, especially if it’s a new build. 

All of this work that needs to be done, even before the permitting, can seem overwhelming, but once you learn and can take those things to the next one, your confidence is already boosted,, and you can then go to your next project with a little more confidence. And I think confidence is really the key to gaining their trust.

For execution, they had 130 hours. 

As soon as they got over the hump of the planning and permitting, things went very smoothly. 

It really is about setting expectations and talking through the process. But things happen and fall out of place on every project. So, no matter how much you try to plan, structure, and schedule, it very rarely works out the way you intend it to. 

But this is why constant communication with your client is so important. Designers get afraid, understandably, of sharing what’s really going on, but in the end, it’s going to come out. 

For construction they went in as a fixed fee.

“There were some coverages written in the contract, but anything we did not think of prior, we had to pay for,” says Virginia. “For example, building materials that we ran out of because Ironwood supplied the building materials, so the subcontractor was not responsible for it, it became phone call after phone call. We’re short on this. We’re short on that. So those were all losses that we had.”

Now they know to cover themselves and to cushion that because there will always be additional items needed. 

Another example was accounting for a cleaner. “I know you’ve talked about this! I had listened to your course after we got past that point, and I was like, darn it! That is the beauty of your course, Renee, because I was able to implement certain things to keep us from making further mistakes, so I so appreciate your course. I found it so valuable.” 

Virginia shares that they actually had a loss of $20,000 that they had to eat. 

Selections

Virginia shares how, next, she let her very kind clients make some selections—which we all do, by the way. We want to make them happy. It’s their house. You want to give them what they want. 

“I think the learning lesson in this mistake was to be more vocal on why you disapprove, or why you can see it being an issue down the road. Just don’t be so quick to say, ‘yes that’s what you want, we’ll give it to you.’” says Virginia. This resulted in many lost hours and another company loss. 

Under pressure

You never make good decisions under pressure when you’re in a hurry. I share an experience where I know I would have made a mistake years ago because you are trying to place an order as quickly as possible. When you have too many things going on, it’s so easy to let a small detail slip by, and that can cost you. 

Another example of this is during this project, Virginia shares how they cut the opening for their client’s built-in oven slightly too large. And that was not the client’s fault. She shares how that was simply a miscommunication, but in the end, it was their responsibility, so the client got an upgraded version. Thankfully they could resell the other one to another project, but that’s another thing that could have been avoided if they had taken their time and not rushed it so fast. 

New Trades 

Virginia also mentioned the trades and not always knowing the level of quality that they bring. That is a really, really tricky one for anyone if it’s a new trade. 

A way around that is to ask how it’s going and how they feel about the product. During the first day of installation, you can go over things again. You may have had this conversation three months before, so they don’t remember everything. Just review the process right before the start and ask what they see and if there are any problems.

Weather

Weather can also be something that you need to account for that often designers don’t think about. 

The house Virginia was working on had water coming into the basement. So all the water comes down into the ground coming into the floor. “We were able to remedy it, and we knew how to remedy it, but it had to be completely dry, and we just weren’t getting that chance to get it dry. It was extremely frustrating and that was something we hadn’t anticipated. Also, with snow, we were down a dirt road, and our subs had to get down there, and if we don’t plow the road, they’re not coming to work. So we had to pay for the costs for a plow to come and plow the road. So those were all things we hadn’t accounted for, and we didn’t feel right putting in our billable hours or extra costs. So that was a learning lesson for next time.”

That can be up to the designer to explain that the contractors may come with some extra overages so that they can actually get from point A to point B. Rain, mud, snow, parking in the front yard, those things can all cause extra costs. 

I hope you find so much value in today’s episode! As always, if this episode leaves you with more questions than answers, please feel free to reach out to me at renee@devignierdesign.com or shoot me a dm on social media!