Where the budget begins and ends
The budget covers everything that transforms the space, from building works to systems, from supplies to installation, through to labour, charges and taxes. It leaves out the studio’s fee and third-party professionals such as structural engineers or specialist consultants, while the purchase of the property follows a logic of its own. The budget should be defined first, because it sets the measure within which materials, bespoke solutions and the depth of the intervention are calibrated, and it keeps investment and expectations on the same line for the duration of the work.
What a complete budget includes
The visible cost of furniture and finishes is only the surface. An accurate estimate also includes the following items:
- Preliminary consultancy from other professionals: feasibility studies, structural checks, building permits and everything that precedes the opening of the site;
- Building works: demolitions, new partitions, screeds, skim coats, consolidations, plus permits, public land occupation, scaffolding and disposal;
- Systems: electrical, plumbing, climate control, mechanical ventilation, any special installations;
- Windows, claddings and finishes: frames, floors, wall coverings, painting, surface treatments;
- Labour and installation: the trades’ time on site, from carpentry to joinery to systems installers;
- Furniture and furnishings: bespoke elements, serial furniture, technical equipment, seating, tables, storage, planting;
- Textiles and decoration: curtains, rugs, wallpapers, decorative elements;
- Lighting: technical and decorative fixtures, control systems, accessories and installation;
- Transport, deliveries and logistics: difficult access, deliveries to upper floors, lifting platforms, extra handling time;
- Contingencies, adjustments and sundries: what emerges from demolitions and surveys, regulatory updates, small corrective work the site makes necessary.
Works of art and collectible pieces constitute a separate chapter.
Hidden costs and awareness
The most serious overruns rarely come from an obvious choice. They tend to hide in quiet items that early estimates overlook, such as site charges, disposal, temporary works, special transport or complex installation, which multiplied across the number of supplies take on real weight. The larger surprises concern structures and systems, above all in historic buildings, where the real condition only reveals itself once the site is opened. Part of our work consists in bringing order to these variables and building with the client a realistic budget, grounded in current prices.
A shared method of control
Control of spending runs through a document shared between studio and client, essential in form and precise in content. Each entry carries amount, supplier, quotation status, confirmations, payments and notes, and, updated at every change, the document reflects at every moment the present state of the investment. The client can annotate and comment, while the financial entries are edited only by the studio, for accuracy and traceability. The effect is felt daily, because every choice reveals its weight at once and decisions rest on real figures, with a client at ease and a studio free to propose what the project deserves.
The contingency margin
We consider a variability of 15% on the overall budget physiological. It is a safety margin that remains in the client’s hands and serves to absorb requests that arise once the project is under way, structural adjustments impossible to foresee, and price movements on raw materials and supplies. Requests during the works follow our variation management criteria, and every adjustment leaves a trace in the shared documents. We work to close within the agreed budget; what matters most is that the possible variation is declared at the outset, rather than discovered deep into the works.
Investment ranges and budget distribution
Every project has its own scale. For a turnkey intervention of the first order, these are the indicative ranges:
- Light refresh: around €500/m². Surfaces, colours, some systems, part of the furniture, without touching the layout;
- Partial renovations: around €1,000/m². Several rooms, targeted building work, revised systems, bespoke and serial furniture combined;
- Complete renovations: from €1,500/m² upwards. The space redrawn, new systems, many bespoke elements, the project followed through to the handover of furnished rooms.
Within these ranges, a broad criterion for distributing resources:
- 25% for building works and systems;
- 35% for serial and bespoke furniture;
- 15% for finishes, claddings and decoration;
- 15% for technical and decorative lighting;
- 10% for ancillary costs, contingencies and adjustments along the way.
These are indicative values, to be adapted to the character of the building and the habits of those who live in it. Someone who treats the kitchen as the heart of the home, for instance, may concentrate resources there and lighten the less frequented areas.
The errors that distort an estimate
The overruns hardest to recover come from three recurring mistakes. The first is underestimating building works and systems by looking only at the furniture; the second is ignoring transport and installation, which in complex settings carry real weight; the third is concentrating the budget on a few iconic pieces at the expense of overall quality. A lucidly built budget avoids all three, and the benefit shows over time in the value of the property. Planning first means not stopping halfway and not deciding under pressure.
The budget as the foundation of the result
A carefully defined budget settles all the work that follows. Contingencies are absorbed in good order, aesthetic choices rest on real figures, and the project reaches completion with the quality imagined at the outset. Without a clear financial base come forced pauses and compromises instead, and they are paid for over time.
