BUILD July 2017

28 BUILD / July 2017 , A Luxurious Shopping Experience Touched Interiors are the market leaders of the world’s most luxurious furnishings, luxury furniture and interior design. They have been successful in receiving the 2016 Interior Designers of the Year Awards. Firstly, can you introduce the firm’s work? Our vision from the outset was to have two aspects to our business, we wanted to offer our clients a luxurious shopping experience which catered for exclusive, stylish and unique designs that could be tailored specifically to their individual taste and requirements, as well as offering an opulent design service which works intimately with the client to gain a deep understanding of the desired look and path that they wish to take. When undertaking a new client or project what approach do you use to ensure the best possible outcome? Our approach is to get to know the client inside out, as what a client states they want, to what they may want can be two different things. We therefore don’t rely on impersonal lengthy questionnaires but focus on spending time with the client prior to the project commencing to find out all those important details. We also heavily concentrate on their dislikes, as ruling these out early on are paramount to client satisfaction. Desired look, timescales and budget are key elements which must be addressed at the start, as these will determine the path the project takes. We also ensure that the client is involved all the way as the design executed must be one that they love even more then we do. What sets you apart from other companies in this industry? What marks you out as the best option for your clients? From the knowledgeable interior design experts who comprise our interior services division to the skilled craftsmen who produce our furnishings in our production houses across Europe; Touched Interiors works on the aim of delivering a service which provides a 200% level of customer satisfaction. With Touched Interiors being both a retailer and interior designer, we have access to the worlds freshest materials and often can deliver trends to our clients’ years prior to them becoming widely available. With our knowledge of both fields, our expertise allows us to create, source and customise pieces to work perfectly in any desired room, space or dwelling. What qualities do you believe make you an award-winning interior designer? Our experts live and breathe design, we’re constantly learning and developing our skills, knowledge and expertise. While we personally may have a preferred style and taste, we always put that aside and appreciate each client’s personal preference as it’s critical that the chosen design space is loved by the client at the end of the project. We love what we do and it shows in the project we complete; we operate without the smoke and mirrors which many other designers hide behind and believe openness and honesty is one of the biggest ways to achieve a strong and meaningful relationship with our clients. Unlike other designers who may simply nod and agree to avoid unsettling the water, we find clients prefer receiving our honest opinions and expert knowledge and often thank us for speaking out and building on their original ideas. While we work proactively to prevent problems from arising, if something goes wrong we fix it. It’s the level of service our clients expect and a philosophy we deeply believe in. What are your overall aims and what strategies do you employ to achieve these? As cliché as it may sound, we want to be the best. We ensure this by educating ourselves with new concepts, designs and furnishings constantly. We can only execute a design to admirable levels when we are the experts within the luxury interior market and of course this must also be paired with the experience of how to use and collaborate those available materials successfully. We travel the World to ensure that our knowledge base is the most up- to-date and that we think outside of the box always. How do you make sure you create innovative solutions to maintain your success as an interior designer? We travel the world, whether that be attending exhibitions or educational seminars to keep up to date with the latest innovations in the design, manufacturing and installation process. We invest a large proportion of our time into exploring the changing market, searching for potential growth opportunities such has home automation, audio and new sustainable manufacturing processes. Home cinemas and luxury theatre design are innovative areas Touched Interiors has recently expanded into, with us offering our clients the industry leading innovations which push the barriers of design, manufacturing and comfort. What has been your most successful project to date? What has been the most important thing you have learnt from working on this? To name one is extremely difficult as all our projects are successful but if I was to narrow it down to a few of our favourites then it would have to be some of the private residences in Cheshire. 1701BU14