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| Oct 17, 2014 |
Décor Aid matches designers with budget-conscious clients
Boh staff
By STAFF

After finding it difficult to engage basic design services for their own homes, Sean Juneja and Markus Weber founded Décor Aid to transform a service that has always been a luxury into one that’s more accessible.

Can you tell us a little more about the name Décor Aid and what it represents?
Décor Aid is about ease and simplicity. Our mission to make high-end interior design accessible, not intimidating, we think is captured by the name. Additionally, Aid in Décor Aid is an acronym for Affordable Interior Design.

How do you go about vetting interior designers for Décor Aid? What characteristics are you looking for?
Quality and customer service are of the utmost importance to us, which is why we are very rigorous with our hiring process. The goal is not only to employ designers who are experienced and talented, but those who [also] believe in our vision and want to make a difference.

What is the Decor Aid business model?
It couldn’t be simpler.

Step 1: Design Consultation—This takes place in person, within the space you want help with. We charge an hourly rate for this step ($100-$150), but there’s no minimum purchase, so if you only want to invest an hour, that’s no problem: Our designer can spend that time listening and offering customized advice.

Step 2: Designer Matching—We’ll match you to a specific designer from our team—the one best equipped to tackle your project’s scale and [that] understands your style.

Step 3: Décor Aid Menu—Your designer will develop a menu of options for you, regarding the number of hours required to execute the project, the overall budget, and a proposed timeline. Once you’re happy with those three variables, the work begins.

Our design team is highly skilled, professional and well-rounded. Although each designer has their own personal preferences, they pride themselves on tailoring their designs to the client’s needs and aesthetic. To us, it’s all about the client and fulfilling their vision.

How does Décor Aid differ from its competitors?
It’s our emphasis on service for all clients. It may surprise some clients to learn that it’s impossible to secure the services of many top designers unless you’re working with a six-figure budget, or unless you have a longstanding professional relationship with them. We're not interested in discriminating among clients; we’ll turn the spare room into a nursery, or renovate an entire townhouse—our interest is in providing design to clients who care about style.

This is part of the reason we bring our designers in-house; that way, we’re truly able to manage the important business of service, while our designers do what they do. And of course, it’s our technology that’s changing the way this business is done. The web platform (as well as our traditional, real-life customer service team) makes the interaction between client and designer so simple; internally, we use technology to streamline the design process as well.

How can interested designers get involved?
We are aggressively looking to hire additional top talent. Interested designers can email their resume and portfolio to careers@decoraid.com.

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