Taking The Strain with Christian Bense and Helen Bygraves

Taking The Strain - How To Be a Safe Pair of Hands. The only things in life more stressful than building or renovating a home are bereavement, divorce, and redundancy. And yet the finished result should be life-changing for the client and worth all the pain of the experience. To assist their clients, interiors designers must act as a safe pair of hands, ready to support and guide through the ups and downs of the design and project process, skilfully managing any unforeseen dramas, problems, or delays enroute. So, how can we best prepare and manage our clients to minimise the stress for them – and for ourselves, and emerge successful and feted at the finish line? Jeff and Susie are joined by two acclaimed interior designers Helen Bygraves, Co-Founder of Hill House Interiors and Christian Bense, Founder of Christian Bense to find out the best strategies behind achieving a stress-free project. This episode was a recorded in front of a live audience of designers at Decorex 2025. Thanks to Decorex and to our episode partners, Sofas & Stuff for their support.

Chapters

• (00:00:00) - Welcome to the Interior Design Business
• (00:01:40) - Interior Designers
• (00:02:54) - Interior Designers on Vandalising a Home
• (00:04:51) - Having a career change in interior design
• (00:06:50) - Interior Design: The Client's Issues
• (00:09:24) - Does a stressy client affect your fee proposal?
• (00:11:43) - Project budgets and timescales
• (00:18:23) - Clients' emails and WhatsApp
• (00:22:41) - What do you do about clients' fear of making decisions?
• (00:24:51) - How should designers go about managing their clients expectations?
• (00:27:31) - Setting guidelines for the build phase
• (00:29:42) - Projects and the stresses of designing
• (00:32:42) - Interior Design Report
• (00:34:43) - How to Win the Client's Trust
• (00:36:41) - The Interior Design Business