INTERIOR DESIGN

Design is the part that makes the price real

Michelle Edwards leads design at Olympic City. Her work is the reason we can hand you a fixed price instead of a guess.

Schedule a Discovery CallSpeak with the owner, Jonathan Edwards

Why we charge for design

A lot of contractors will come to your house, look at the room, and give you a number that afternoon. It feels generous. It is also the single most common reason renovations go wrong.

That number is a guess, because nobody has decided anything yet. Nobody has chosen the tile, or worked out whether the island fits with the drawers open, or checked what is inside the wall you want removed. When those decisions get made later — and they always do — the number moves. That is not dishonesty. It is arithmetic catching up with optimism.

Design is how you avoid that. Michelle works out what is actually being built before anyone prices it: the layout, the selections, the specifications, the details that make a room work. Once that exists, a fixed price is possible. Without it, all anyone can honestly give you is a range.

So we charge for design, we tell you what it costs before you commit, and the work is yours regardless of who ends up building the project.

What design buys you
  • A layout that works before it is built
  • Selections made and specified
  • Drawings your project is built from
  • A genuine fixed price
  • No decisions being made in a hurry mid-build

The design package is yours to keep.

Meet Michelle

Michelle is the design half of Olympic City — and the half most clients end up spending the most time with.

Her job is to turn "I hate this kitchen and I do not know why" into a plan. That means asking a lot of questions about how you actually live: where you drop your keys, which side of the sink you stand on, whether anybody genuinely uses the formal dining room. The answers change the design more than any trend does.

She is honest about selections in a way that saves people money. If a tile you love is going to be miserable to keep clean, she will tell you. If the expensive option and the sensible option look nearly identical once installed, she will tell you that too.

Between Michelle and Jonathan there is roughly forty years of combined experience in this trade, and Olympic City has been renovating Calgary homes since 2003.

More about Michelle and Jonathan →

Michelle Edwards, Design Lead at Olympic City Renovations

What the design phase looks like

Step one

Understanding the space

Measurements, photographs, and a long conversation about how you use the room now and what is wrong with it. Most of the useful information comes out of the second half of that.

Step two

Layout and drawings

Options for how the space could work, narrowed down with you until one is right. This is where walls move on paper instead of expensively in real life.

Step three

Selections and specification

Every finish, fixture and fitting chosen and documented. When this is finished, the project can be priced properly and built without stopping.

Design and build, or design only

Most people who go through design with Michelle go on to build with us, and the whole thing runs as one project with one point of contact.

You are not required to. The design package belongs to you and you are welcome to take it elsewhere. We would rather do good work for people who want us than hold anyone hostage to a drawing set.

What we will not do is build from someone else's incomplete design and then be held to a fixed price on it. If a design is not specified properly, we will say so before we quote rather than discover it in week three.

Also available

New-build selections
Choosing finishes for a home someone else is building, with someone in your corner who has no stake in the builder’s catalogue.

Selections only
For projects where the layout is settled and you need help deciding what goes in it.

Design questions

How much does design cost?
It depends on the size and complexity of the project — a single bathroom and a whole-home renovation are not comparable pieces of work. We tell you the number before you commit to anything, and it is a separate agreement from the build.
Do I have to build with you afterwards?
No. The design package is yours. Most people do, because by then we know the project better than anyone else could, but there is no obligation and no penalty.
I already have drawings from an architect. Do I still need this?
Possibly not for layout, but usually yes for selections and specification. Architectural drawings rarely go down to the level of which tile, which fixture, which cabinet profile — and that level of detail is what a fixed price requires.
What if I change my mind halfway through design?
That is exactly what the design phase is for. Changing your mind on paper costs a conversation. Changing your mind after the cabinets arrive costs considerably more.
Can Michelle work with things I already own?
Yes, and it often makes for a better room. Existing furniture, a piece you inherited, artwork you are building the palette around — bring all of it into the conversation early.
Do you do design for new builds?
Yes. Choosing selections for a home someone else is building is its own service, and having someone independent in your corner during that process is worth a great deal.

Start with a conversation

Tell us about the room. Michelle and Jonathan will tell you what it would take to get it right.

Or call us directly at 825-425-4119