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designer toolkit | Jun 6, 2024 |
How one designer turned a budget nightmare into an opportunity

A too-low construction estimate sent the client into a tailspin, forcing designer Melissa Oholendt to rework her approach in order to finish the job.

After a seamless kickoff, a ground-up build of an Iowa couple’s forever home was moving along smoothly. “The clients were very trusting of our vision, and we had very few revisions,” recalls designer Melissa Oholendt, the founder of Minnesota- and Colorado-based firm Oho Interiors. Then, abruptly, the project’s energy shifted. “All of a sudden we started getting a deluge of questions—like, ‘Hey, what fireplace did we end up specifying? How much per square foot was the tile that we picked out?’” Clients whose catchphrase had been, “As long as it fits in the budget, it’s great,” now wanted to know the nitty-gritty details.

How one designer turned a budget nightmare into an opportunity
Melissa Oholendt Judith Kostroski

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