INSIDER TIPS
Six Proven Ways to Get the Best From Your Workroom

By Margie Nance

There are a few things designers can do to ensure a healthy relationship with workrooms. You will find that if you follow the guidelines below, workrooms will strive to keep you happy because you will be making their job a little easier.

1. Use proper work orders and put everything in writing. This is SO important. Take nothing for granted—put everything you can in writing, and whenever possible, include sketches or photos. Ask the workroom if they prefer a particular format or style of work order. There are companies like Minutes Matter that sell work order forms for just about anything that is fabricated in a workroom.

2. Give the workroom a realistic deadline. Working with a designer who is always on a last-minute schedule can be very frustrating to a workroom. Give the workroom enough time to properly make your treatment. Making someone hurry to get it out the door only creates problems and errors with the final product. It’s OK to give the workroom a deadline that is a day or two earlier than what is actually needed, but don’t give them completion dates that lead to the product sitting in their workroom for several days at a time—especially if you have asked them to turn it around it a very short amount of time.

3. Make sure all materials are delivered to the workroom on time. A workroom should not be expected to start a job before all items have arrived. It is frustrating to begin the workflow of a job on the scheduled day only to learn that something is missing. Take time to follow up with your vendors to ensure the items have been shipped to the workroom, or check the items yourself before delivering them.

4. Confirm the installation date with the workroom one week ahead of time. Let them know things are still on track or if your client’s installation date is delayed—the workroom appreciates being informed. Also, check in to see how things are progressing with the workroom. Problems will arise and knowing this one week early can often head off delays.

5. Listen to the workroom. If a workroom sees an issue with the design during fabrication, be open to letting them discuss it with you. Many problems can be avoided in the workroom prior to completion as long as the workroom feels they can pick up the phone and discuss an alternative solution. Many times issues will not reveal themselves until the fabrication process begins. A good workroom professional is just as much an engineer as she is a seamstress. Be open to their solutions or alternative methods.

6. Pay promptly. Workrooms may have spent many hours, days or sometimes weeks on your project, so be sure to pay them in a timely manner. Most workrooms will expect final payment at the time the treatment is released to you or the installer.

Having a good workroom as a part of your team can mean a profitable window fashions business for your design studio. Following these tips can help make the relationship last a very long time. Next time you meet with your workroom, go over these items with them—I guarantee you will become their favorite designer.

Margie Nance is the owner of the Custom Home Furnishings Academy in Charlotte, N.C. Reach her at margie@chfschool.com.

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