When to Hire an Interior Designer for a Gold Coast New Build
The short answer is as soon as your plans are approved, and well before your builder's selections are due. The longer answer starts with a sofa.
It starts with a sofa
Picture handover day. You've waited a year. The keys are in your hand, your beautiful timber floors are gleaming and the afternoon light is doing exactly what you hoped.
You sit down to celebrate. On the floor. With a pad thai.
Your sofa is due in two months.
Here's what nobody tells you when you start building. Almost everything that makes a house feel like a home, when done properly, is made to order. The sofas, the dining table, the rug woven to the perfect dimension for your living area. The process of manufacture takes place on each piece after you order it, and that takes anything from two to five months. Not weeks. Months.
Your build has a finish date. Your furniture has one too, and it's usually later.
So, when do you start?
At the beginning. Before the slab is poured, if I had my way.
Once your plans are approved, we talk about how you live and how you want your home to feel, and the furnishing plan begins right there. When your selections come due, tiles, stone, tapware and lighting are locked in on your builder's timeline, with the furniture developed alongside so everything speaks the same language. Halfway through the build, all the furniture, rugs, feature lighting are ordered, so the makers start work while the builders are still on site. In the final months, deliveries are scheduled to land just as the last trade leaves.
Furnishing a whole home has a lot of layers, and I'll save that subject for another day. For now, take my word for it. It needs time.
Then there's the fine print
Your building contract will mention allowances, sometimes called provisional sums. It's a polite way of saying ‘an educated guess’.
Allowances for tiles, tapware and lighting are usually set for a standard product. Fall for something a little more special and you pay the difference, and across a whole home it adds up quickly. So, I get there first. If we're choosing natural stone, I'll have visited four showrooms before you see a single sample, and what I bring you is the shortlist, already checked against your allowances. I’ll guide you through where to spend and where to save, without losing a single Saturday to the search. No surprises, no awkward phone calls.
On the Gold Coast, all my selections are made with salt air, humidity and strong sun in mind, so your home looks as good in five years as it does on day one. I want you get longevity out of every piece of furniture.
The moment the door opens
Handover is my favourite day.
Everything has been ordered, delivered and checked, and I've placed the last piece and styled every space right down to the fresh flowers.
Soft light. The sofa exactly where you pictured it. The perfect rug made for your living room. The home you've been carrying in your head for a year, finished and waiting.
You go quiet. Then you smile.
Almost every time, the same words follow. "How did you know what we wanted? We didn't even know."
You never see the work behind this moment, that’s what I’m there for. You simply feel as though the house was expecting you.
Who's holding it all together
Building a home involves a lot of people and a long timeline. I'm the calm one in the middle. I talk to your builder, chase your suppliers (I'm very good at this, and it's underrated) and keep every decision moving. After 25 years in this industry, I know who delivers when they say they will, and what to do when they don't. I'll also tell you honestly when something isn't a good idea.
You make the choices that matter to you. I look after everything around them.
If you've already broken ground
Don't panic. It's not too late, though options narrow once things have been ordered or installed, so sooner is always better. If your builder has a selections service, it's a good starting point. I help you decide what suits how you live, and where it's worth going beyond the standard range.
As for what it costs, that depends on the size of your home and how much you'd like me to take on. I walk you through exactly how my fees work before we begin, so there are no surprises.
Building on the Gold Coast?
I'm based in the Byron Shire and work across the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and the Northern Rivers. Tell me where you're up to and I'll tell you what needs deciding now, what can wait and how I can help you. Simply head to https://www.mandyalice.com.au/contact-interior-designer