Designer-Led Design-Build in Denver
Most remodels in Denver are split between two companies. A designer draws something lovely, hands it to a contractor who was never in the room, and you spend the next six months translating between them.
We work differently. Trish Bonney is an interior designer and a licensed general contractor, so the design and the build come from one team on one contract. If something goes sideways on site, the person who chose the tile is the person who fixes it.
What that covers
- Space planning, finishes, lighting and furnishings
- Permit-ready architectural drawings, produced in house
- Cabinetry, flooring and custom furniture, supplied as a dealer
- Demolition, construction and installation, managed by us
Why Hire an Interior Designer Who Is Also Your Contractor
Handoffs are where remodels lose money. Every time a drawing passes from one company to another, someone has to interpret it, and interpretation costs time, change orders and patience.
- A designer on site. Questions on the job are answered by the person who drew the plan.
- Fewer change orders. The plan is drawn by the people who will build it, so it gets built the way it was drawn.
- Products ordered early. Cabinetry and finishes are ordered before demolition, so your house is not sitting open waiting on a delivery.
- Someone accountable. No finger-pointing between a designer and a builder. Our name is on both.
Six Steps to Keep Your Project on Track
Remodels go wrong when nobody can tell you what happens next. Here is the whole sequence, start to finish, so you can see where your money and your time actually go.
A short conversation about what you want to change, roughly what you are prepared to spend, and when you need it finished. If we are not the right studio for the project, this is where we say so.
We come to you, measure, and look at how you actually use the space. This is also where a licensed contractor's eye matters, because it is when we find the things that will affect the budget later.
You get a signed scope and three genuinely different directions to react to, not three versions of the same idea. Reacting to something concrete is far easier than describing what you want from nothing.
Maira builds the renderings so you can walk the room before anyone orders a cabinet. Permit drawings are produced here too, in house, rather than sent out and waited on.
We order the cabinetry, flooring and furniture as a dealer and track every lead time. Long-lead items get ordered first, which is the single biggest thing that keeps an install date from slipping.
Our crews build it and we style it at the end. You are not left with a finished room and a pile of boxes to figure out yourself.
Design-Build vs. Hiring a Designer and a GC Separately
Hiring separately can work, and sometimes it is the right call, for instance when you already have a builder you trust. Here is how the two routes compare.
- Contracts. One with design-build. Two or more when you hire separately.
- Drawings. Ours are drawn for our own crews. A separate designer's drawings get re-read and re-priced by the builder.
- Schedule. Design and ordering overlap instead of running one after the other.
- Budget. The person pricing the work helped design it, so the numbers are known before anything is ordered.
Is TAB the Right Fit?
We do our best work with people who want the whole job handled well, and who will trust us to handle it.
- You are planning a kitchen, bath or whole-home remodel, not a single piece of furniture.
- You want to stay in the home you love and make it work for your next chapter.
- You have a realistic budget for the scope and want it spent carefully.
- You value good design and want it carried all the way through the build.
If that sounds like you, we would like to hear about the house.
Call 720.532.6833
What Design-Build Clients Say
We visited a few vendors but TAB were the only ones who offered a one-stop shop that included the GC. The project probably took five months in all and came in on the budget we agreed in 2022.
Stewart L.TAB Interior Designs came in ~$5,000 below budget, in spite of the warehouse error. Eight weeks from completion they came back, after being paid in full, to address some minor defects in baseboard caulking.
Dan S.Trish’s design eye is exceptional, and her construction background gives her a technical edge that few designers have.
Max G.
Design-Build Projects Around Denver
A design-build firm handles both the design and the construction of a project under one contract. Instead of hiring a designer and then finding a contractor to build what they drew, you work with one team from the first measurements to the final punch list. At TAB that team is led by an interior designer who is also a licensed general contractor.
Usually not, and it is often less. You pay one team instead of two companies' overhead, and the drawings are priced by the people who will build them, which cuts down on change orders. The design itself is not discounted, but the money normally lost to rework and delays tends to stay in your pocket.
Yes. We produce the architectural drawings for permits in house as part of the project, so you are not hiring a draftsperson on the side. Permit timelines vary from city to city across the Denver metro, and we build that wait into the schedule from the start.
Yes. Some clients come to us for design and permit drawings only and bring their own builder. We prepare the drawings and selections so your contractor can price and build them, and we stay on call for questions during construction.
It depends on the scope. A bathroom is a matter of weeks on site once the products arrive. A kitchen usually runs a few months from the first call to the finished room, and a whole-home remodel takes longer. You get a written timeline once the design is settled.
Design-build projects are in the Denver metro, including Centennial, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Parker, Lakewood and Wheat Ridge. For design-only and virtual design we work with clients across the country, with products shipped direct from the brands we carry.
Tell Us What You Want to Change
No forms to fill in and nothing to book. Call the studio or send an email and you will speak to someone who actually works on the projects.
