Behind the Scenes at RCID
When you see our work, chances are you see a beautifully designed room, but did you ever think about all the inspiration, planning and installing that goes into that room? At RCID, we’re a full service interior design firm, so we’re with you every step of the way. Chances are, you’ve done your finishings selections with Rochelle. Or maybe you’ve been treated to a design presentation going over all the stunning details of your new home. You’ve probably seen members of our team installing every piece in your home along with our extended team of trades people who help contribute to bringing the final design together. All that to say, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes here at RCID, so we wanted to give you a look into everything that we do!
We’re Always Learning
Part of being a good designer is keeping up with innovations in our industry, learning about newly available products and researching the latest trends. Over the years, we’ve built relationships with hundreds of suppliers in Calgary, so we regularly have product info sessions with a lot of them. By going to these sessions, we’re able to pass our knowledge onto you to give you more, and sometimes better, options when it comes to choosing what’s best for your home. We keep up with trend reports throughout the year and are always tuned into all of the colour trends from the major paint suppliers. You’ll often see pops of Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams and Pantone trending colours in our designs. In the below photos, we’re attending info sessions from our drapery and wallpaper suppliers to see what’s new in each of these industries.
The Big Presentation
Design presentations and selections meetings might be more familiar to you if you’ve worked with us before. Each of these meetings are crucial steps in the design process and it’s really important that we have these face to face meetings with our clients to ensure that they love the design every step of the way. After an initial meeting to gauge the scope of a project, we put together our ideas into a design presentation and share it with the client as seen in the photo on the right. After that meeting, we make any adjustments and then the selections start! Rochelle will take clients around to all the showrooms to make selections for the project. This includes everything from flooring, paint colours, cabinets, hardware, tile and more. These appointments can be lengthy, but they’re a great way for a designer to get to know your personal style. Once all the selections have been chosen, we’ll present them to the client similar to the photo on the left. This allows the client to see the selections as a whole and for our team to ensure that everything works cohesively.
It’s All In The Install
Installs are by far one of the most labour intensive parts of the job, as our team installs each and every piece ourselves! Depending on how big your project is, the install can take place over a few days and can involve several people from our team as there is always a lot of furniture to build and often a number of beds to make. We coordinate all of the logistics from the moving trucks, to delivery to assembly and finally photography. It’s incredibly gratifying as a designer to see the space make its way from a 2D concept to a real 3D space. That gratitude is multiplied ten-fold when we see the look on our client’s faces once they have a home that they truly love. Being a part of that process is always an amazing experience. In the below photos, you can see Rochelle and Danielle installing pieces in two different client homes.
Tricks of the Trade
We work with a lot of different trades people to pull our projects together and have a great network of trusted businesses that we use for all our projects. While we’re the pros in the overall design of the space, we leave the install of wallpaper, art hanging, drapery and tile to other amazing professionals. You’ll notice in our designs that there is often statement wallpaper, interesting wall treatments or bold tile. The reason these elements look so good is because the people who install them are truly masters of their craft. We work to schedule the trades people a few days before our install so that their work is all done to set the foundation for the design and then we come in with all the furniture and accessories and really bring it to life!
