On the Ask Us Anything podcast, BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen taps former Trade Tales guests to answer real, confidential designer questions, offering a safe space to discuss business challenges. Have a question of your own to ask? Send an email to start the conversation.

This week, we’re fielding a question from a designer whose firm has recently reached a new level of clientele—opening up the doors to a higher caliber of options for sourcing art. When it comes to defining his firm’s role in that process, however, he’s now looking for a roadmap to navigate the art market.

Designer Zuni Madera, a partner at New York–based firm MC Interiors, jumps in with advice on setting a room-by-room budget from a project’s outset, where a consultant can help with price education, and how to gauge a client’s desire for art discovery.

Crucial Insight: For MC Interiors, art plays a role in design presentation meetings from the very beginning. In an early phase of design development, the firm shows clients several mood boards for each room to gauge their preferences and taste—information that will set the direction for the project. In addition to a few key pieces of furniture and lighting and some textiles or color swatches, those early presentations always include art. It’s a choice the firm has made to clearly establish that art is part of a finished room, not an afterthought.

Initial conversations about the client’s overall level of investment in the project also help set the tone: “We think very comprehensively. [When] we’re outlining a budget for their project, we’ll start to input a budget for art in the very beginning,” says Madera. “That’s a really good way to start the conversation—if they see an outline of everything that’s required for the project, they can see everything on here, that’s what makes your home livable and wonderful.”

Key quote: “In terms of what they’re willing to invest, [it’s important that designers are] adding to the conversation, ‘Do you want to build a collection, and how important is that to you?’ versus [clients who] just want [their] home to look finished, and feel layered and be fabulous, but aren’t willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars—or hundreds of thousands of dollars,” says Madera. “That is part of the conversation in the beginning, when the client may have no clue where to start, where to look, where to begin.”

This episode was sponsored by Four Hands. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.