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In 2021 we changed who you talk to first.

Why we changed who you meet first

Most renovation companies put a salesperson in front of you at the first meeting. We took a different route. We brought our first two designers, Cici Zuo and Dorothy Li, into the sales process itself. Both came from a background in design. From the first conversation, you’re sitting with someone who can think about how the space will actually work, not just hand you a price.

The reason is simple. Renovations are won or lost on the decisions made early: layout, light, how a kitchen opens onto the living area, where the walls really need to move. Sort those at the first meeting and the rest of the project gets easier. Get them wrong and no amount of good building fixes it.

What a design-led consultation looks like

Putting design-capable people in that first seat changed the tone of the whole thing. Less pitch, more planning. You’re talking through what your home could become with someone who understands both the look and the practical constraints, rather than being sold to and handed off later.

In practice, that means the first conversation is about your space, not a quote template. How you use the rooms now. What isn’t working. Where the light falls through the day. Whether the wall you want gone is doing a structural job. The person across the table can sketch the possibilities and flag the constraints in the same sitting, so you leave with a sense of what’s realistic rather than just a number.

What this means for you

You get design thinking from day one, at no extra step. The ideas and the practical limits land on the table together, early, when changing them costs nothing more than a conversation. That’s a very different starting point from being sold a package and working out the design later.

It’s how we’ve worked ever since, and it shaped a lot of what we built afterwards. When Scoop covered our Wairau Valley showroom launch in 2022, it described Cici and Dorothy as senior designers; by then the design side of the business was well established. It later grew into our in-house design team and the appointment-only Design Studio at our showroom, where those early conversations now happen in person around real materials and finishes.

Common questions about our design-led approach

What does design-led mean at the first meeting?

It means the first person you sit with is a designer, not a commission salesperson. Since 2021 we've put design-capable people into that first conversation, so you're planning how the space could work from the start rather than being pitched a price.

Do I pay extra for design input this early?

No. Bringing design thinking into the first conversation is simply how our consultation works. You're getting a designer's read on your space as part of talking to us, not as a separate add-on.

What decisions matter most early in a renovation?

The big structural and spatial ones: layout, natural light, how rooms connect, and which walls can actually move. These shape everything that follows, and they're far cheaper to get right on paper than to change once the build is under way.

Does a designer stay involved after the first meeting?

Yes. What started as design-led sales grew into our in-house design team, so design carries through from that first conversation into concept, materials and the finished room rather than stopping once the job is won.