As much as we all love IKEA, their mass-produced products can sometimes feel a little ordinary. However, that does also makes the familiar furniture a perfect starting point to transform them into original and unique pieces as this IKEA Kallax hack proves.
Keeping Swedish roots intact, this creative and cosy IKEA hack by Kate Hewitt, owner of @our_bears_home has turned a plain white Kallax unit into stylish low-level storage that will suit on-trend neutral room schemes.
IronmongeryDirect / @our_bears_home
Kate collaborated with Rothley Ltd. and Ironmongery Direct to add funky hair-pin legs to the assembled unit. Then, she added ‘Iron on oak veneer’ to IKEA Kallax inserts with doors to create the natural warm wood feature. An old worktop finished the piece with a smooth wooden surface.
On her Instagram feed, Kate says ‘I absolutely love transforming furniture into something bespoke and unique. So when @rothlyltd approached me to work with them to transform a piece of furniture using their NEW hairpin legs via @ironmongerydirectuk I couldn’t resist an IKEA hack.’
IKEA Kallax storage hack
If you love this Scandi- style IKEA hack as much as we do – read on for a full step-by-step guide on how Kate created it.
A wooden worktop – we’ve used one from an old desk
Tape Measure
Pencil
Drill
Screws
Iron
Sander / Sandpaper
Glue
1. Assemble the IKEA Kallax unit and attach the hairpin legs
IronmongeryDirect / @our_bears_home
Kate started by building the Kallax unit according to the instructions, she then used a pencil and tape measure, to mark where the hairpin legs would sit. Once that was all marked out she attached the Rothley hairpin legs using a drill and screws to secure them in place.
2. Create the faux wood closed door storage
IronmongeryDirect / @our_bears_home
For the wood effect on the doors, Kate cut and ironed Woodpress White Oak Real Oak Iron-On Edging onto the two Kallax door inserts. She then attached the IKEA Begripa handles to each door.
3. Install the worktop and fill
IronmongeryDirect / @our_bears_home
Finally, she sanded down the worktop and attached to the top of the cabinet using strong glue before leaving it to dry.
With over 10,00 likes for this IKEA hack, we can see why it’s so popular. Set next to Kate’s real wood burner and fluffy sheepskin rug, the low-level unit looks suitably Scandi filled with decorative logs.
‘I am still so overwhelmed with the response and to my Kallax upcycle. My mind is blown with the amount of love and kindness,’ says Kate.
Looking for the best chair beds? If space is tight, then a single sofa bed or futon for one makes a great solution for putting up the occasional overnight guest, and the best designs will also double up as a stylish accent chair the rest of the time.
Just like the best sofa beds, chair beds come in two main designs; pull-out models where a mattress is pulled out from under the chair’s seat cushions to form the sleeping surface, and click-clack models where the backrest and chair seat fold down into a flat surface that becomes the sleeping area. A futon by contrast tends to be formed of simple cushions that fold flat to offer a padded surface to sleep on, although often terminology is used interchangeably.
Pull-out chair beds tend to be the more expensive option, although often come with greater choice of upholstery and matching furniture, and tend to offer guests a higher sleeping surface, whilst click-clack and futon models tend to be lower to the ground, but offer affordability and – more often – shorter lead times if time is of the essence.
Most chair beds will only offer a single mattress’ worth of sleeping space, but their small footprint makes them a great addition to a small living room, a home office, playroom, children’s room, or teenager’s bedroom as an easy sleepover solution. If you have a little more space to play with then a loveseat chair bed can squeeze in a little extra sleeping space to make room for two.
We’ve rounded up the best chair beds, single sofa beds, and futons on the Ideal Home team’s radar below, with options for all budgets, room sizes, and decor styles.
Interest-only mortgages are not as prevalent today as they were before the credit crunch, and have been the subject of mis-selling scandals of the past. But for some borrowers on the hunt for the best mortgage rates, this kind of mortgage offers flexibility and the opportunity to better manage their money.
What is an interest-only mortgage?
As the name suggests, borrowers who take out an interest-only mortgage only pay the interest that accrues on the debt each month. They make no payment towards the actual debt itself.
As a result, at the end of your mortgage term you will not have repaid any of the debt. The balance you owe remains the same.
Once you reach the end of your mortgage term, you are then required to pay off the sum you initially borrowed.
Borrowers with a repayment remortgage pay towards both the interest and their outstanding debt each month. As a result, when they reach the end of their mortgage term, there is nothing left to pay; the debt will have been repaid in its entirety.
Image credit: Future PLC/ Polly Eltes
What are retirement interest-only (RIO) mortgages?
RIO mortgages are a relatively new form of interest-only mortgage, and as the name suggests, are aimed at older borrowers.
As you get older, it can prove tougher to get a standard mortgage. With some lenders insisting that the entire mortgage is paid off by the time you reach retirement. They are basically concerned that once you give up work, you won’t be able to make the necessary repayments.
However, there may be times when you still need to borrow as you approach retirement. In this instance a RIO mortgage could be the answer.
With a RIO mortgage, as with a regular interest-only mortgage, you make monthly payments which cover the interest being charged on the sum you have borrowed. Usually the capital is repaid when you sell the property, move into residential care, or die.
How do interest-only mortgages work?
Let’s say that you apply for an interest-only mortgage of £200,000, at an interest rate of 3%, over a 25 year term. Each month you will pay £500.
Then, at the end of the 25 year term, you will need to repay the £200,000 which you initially borrowed, and which is still outstanding.
Unlike a capital repayment mortgage, stretching the mortgage term does not lower your monthly payments.
For example, if you choose a 30 year mortgage term rather than a 25 year mortgage term, you’ll still have to pay £500 a month in interest. The longer term means you will have five more years before you must repay the initial £200,000 debt, but equally you will also be paying interest on that debt for an additional five years.
How do I get an interest-only mortgage?
Mortgage lenders do not offer separate products which are only available on an interest-only basis. Instead, when you apply for the home loan, you’ll be able to tell them that you want to take it out as an interest-only mortgage rather than a repayment mortgage.
However, it’s important to note that lenders employ different rules when assessing an interest-only mortgage application compared with a capital repayment mortgage. This can make it tougher to get one than a regular repayment mortgage. This may mean that it’s not suitable as a first time buyer mortgage.
For example, you are likely to need to put down a larger deposit ‒ often of at least 25% ‒ in order to secure an interest-only mortgage. By comparison, you can get a capital repayment mortgage with a deposit of as little as 5%.
Other examples of potentially tougher criteria on interest-only mortgages include:
Age restriction at the end of your mortgage term, e.g. 70 years old
A higher minimum of salary, sometimes of between £50,000 and £100,000
Lower loans offered in relation to earnings
Perhaps the most crucial criteria though is the requirement to have a credible way of repaying that initial loan when you reach the end of your mortgage term, known as the ‘repayment vehicle’. Different lenders will accept different forms of repayment vehicle, such as the sale of a property, proceeds from investments, or a lump sum from your pension.
It is vital to have a repayment plan in place with an interest-only mortgage. If you do not have the means to repay the mortgage in one lump sum at the end of the term, the lender is within its rights to repossess your home to repay the debt.
Image credit: Future PLC/ Liam Clarke
Has it got harder to get an interest-only mortgage?
Before the global financial crisis in 2008, mortgage rules were much slacker.
Borrowers who might not ordinarily be able to afford a capital repayment mortgage were able to buy through interest-only mortgages, while lenders often did not ask what the repayment plan was.
If there was no plan, the borrower could simply state they would sell the property at the end of the mortgage term.
“Times have certainly changed,” says Colin Chapman, director of mortgage broker Genesis Financial Services. “Interest only is now the preserve of the wealthy who have lots of equity in their homes and high salaries. Only credible repayment plans such as the sale of investment properties, a pension pay out if your savings are big enough or bonuses if you have a job such as city trader will be accepted.”
Selling your home to repay the mortgage is still allowed, but lenders may stipulate you must have between £200,000 and £300,000 equity in your property before they grant the mortgage.
The thinking goes that by the time your mortgage term expires, your property will have risen in value enough to allow you to sell up, clear your mortgage debt and still have enough money left over to downsize.
Interest-only mortgages vs repayment mortgages
Before you decide whether to take out an interest-only mortgage or capital repayment mortgage, it’s useful to compare how much each of them costs to pay back overall.
A borrower who takes out a £200,000 mortgage over 25 years on a rate of 2.5%* would pay £897.23 a month for a capital repayment mortgage or £416.67 a month for an interest only mortgage
As you can see, on a monthly basis, the interest-only mortgage would mean much lower repayments. However, it’s important to bear in mind that as the debt isn’t going down over time, you will continue to be charged interest on the full amount, for the entire term of the mortgage.
As a result, over 25 years, the total interest payable would be £69,169 on a capital repayment mortgage. But £125,000 on an interest-only mortgage. In other words, an interest-only mortgage will mean paying almost twice as much in interest overall, in return for those smaller monthly repayments.
Are interest-only mortgages the same as endowment mortgages?
You may have heard of endowment mortgages, which were a type of interest-only mortgage that was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
Banks and building societies sold interest-only mortgages alongside policies called endowments. These were a mixture of an investment plan and a life insurance policy. Your monthly mortgage payment was made up of part interest on your loan and part premium for your endowment.
The mortgage company invested the premium on your behalf with the aim of building up a pot of money that was at least the size of your mortgage debt so you could clear the balance at the end of the term. There was also the promise of spare cash left over.
In many cases, however, the investments failed to deliver, leaving homeowners with a shortfall that they had to pay themselves.
Endowment mortgages are no longer available, but borrowers can take out their own investment plan to repay the debt at the end of the term.
Pros and cons of an interest-only mortgage
There are some potentially powerful pros to opting for an interest-only mortgage when buying a house.
These include:
Lower monthly payments, which can make budgeting easier
Money saved by not repaying the debt every month could be put into an investment which has the potential to increase in value higher than your mortgage debt.
However, there are some important downsides to an interest-only mortgage, when compared with a capital repayment mortgage.
These include:
You will pay back more interest over the term of the mortgage
You’ll need to have a larger deposit
There is a risk that your repayment plan will not deliver enough cash to clear your mortgage at the end of the term which means you’ll have to sell the house, find another mortgage or face repossession.
Are interest-only mortgages a good idea?
Ultimately whether an interest-only mortgage is a good idea for you will come down to your own circumstances. Make sure you speak to your mortgage provider or a mortgage broker.
You need to be disciplined to make an interest-only mortgage work. While you have lower monthly mortgage payments, you will need to put money aside in other ways to help cover the cost of repaying that capital at the end of your mortgage term.
It also pays to be flexible. You might start out with an interest-only mortgage, intending to pay off the debt at the end of the term with the proceeds from investments in another asset, like stocks and shares.
But if those investments struggle, and are not worth enough to pay off the mortgage debt, then you will need to consider other options, which may include selling the property.
It’s worth remembering that while your monthly repayment with an interest-only mortgage solely covers the interest on your debt, you will be able to make additional payments towards repaying the actual capital debt too. This could be on a one-off basis, if you’re feeling particularly flush one month, or on a regular basis. This means that when you reach the end of your mortgage term, there is less debt still left to pay off.
With thanks to John Fitzsimons for his contributions to this article
Starting an interior design business might sound like a huge task, but in reality, you can break it down into seven key steps to maximise the potential success of your venture.
There are many encouraging reasons to set up an interior design business sooner rather than later:
You don’t need a large amount of money to start.
You can be self-employed and start without registering a company.
You can work from home.
To name just a few.
A passion for creating exceptional design and living spaces is the very first thing you should have. That desire for creating homes your clients will love to live in will be your pinnacle of growth in the industry.
When you’re ready to take the plunge, here’s our advice for how to start an interior design business…
1) Create the Brand for your Interior Design Business
Your brand is probably the most important part of your business as an interior designer, it needs to clearly define who you are, what you stand for and be recognisable. There are multiple parts that form your brand which includes everything from your business name, domain, logo, website, social media, etc.
Discovering your niche is essential to uncovering your unique talents and gifts, and ultimately what you have to offer your clients when you create your own business. Knowing what you enjoy most about interior design, whether it is a particular room, a particular style, whatever it may be, this will be crucial to identifying your service offering later in the process of setting up your interior design business.
Identifying your ideal client will help you set up your brand and marketing activity and help you find the perfect clients. Knowing your target audience will allow you to market your services more strategically and effectively. Find out their likes, dislikes, where they hang out online, their demographics. Create a set of personas who you believe to be your target audience.
Next up is setting the business name of your interior design business, it’s not uncommon to keep your business name very simple in the interior design industry and just use your own name, potentially followed by ‘Interior Design’ to make it clear what you do. This often makes the most sense for the majority of interior designers, the only slight hiccup may come as you look to grow your interior design business and add more interior designers. In this case you might prefer to have a branded business name.
Don’t fret too much over your logo, some of the best logos are best when kept simple and easily readable. It should match your own style and the niche you have chosen to serve as part of your design business.
You need to prove your design skills through your website, it needs to be quick, easy-to-use and showcase your interior design firm. Your website will often be the first impression potential clients get of your interior design business it will need to be kept up to date, especially if you include a blog.
Securing your social media accounts to align your messaging is the final step of setting up your brand, you need to completely fill out all of the profiles in as much depth as possible to maximise the potential success of your social media promotion.
2) Get Some Experience
It can be difficult to get paying clients when you have no case studies in your portfolio – but this doesn’t need to remain the case for very long. Not having the images to show off your skills will prevent some potential clients signing up as paying customers.
So, you need to get some smaller projects under your belt as an interior designer before you go hard on your marketing.
To do this, offer your services for free to some clients who are willing to let you work your magic on their project. This doesn’t need to be a major project, it can be a small styling project for a family member or a friend.
The most important part of these ‘experience projects’ is to get that photography that really showcases your brand, get it on your website, and you are ready to continue with building a successful interior design business.
Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash
3) Define Your Services
There are many options available to interior designers in terms of potential services to offer to their clients. The days of straightforward interior design services only are long gone (although that is still an extremely lucrative service) with many new services being offered such as e-design, product sourcing, renters room styling and home staging to name a few.
Let’s take a look at a few of the main options:
Traditional Interior Design
The most common form of interior design is still common practice by most interior designers, and offering full house, turn-key interior design is still the highest valued service you can offer your clients. However, as it is the most expensive, it can be more difficult to acquire clients.
Online Interior Design / E-Design
The online interior design service has been on the rise in popularity for years – it enables much more access to interior design services often at a more affordable rate, so you can target a wider potential of clients. One of the most important factors of online interior design is ensuring you get the valuable information often obtained through the initial face-to-face consultation.
Product Sourcing
Sometimes clients know the exact style they want but are having trouble sourcing the most suitable products to align with their style in their home. This is a popular service for interior designers to also offer their clients as its often a repeatable service that can vary in size.
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
Home Staging
Another growing service offered by interior designers who are diversifying their service portfolio is home staging – the styling of a property to make it as sellable as possible. It’s liked by many interior designers as the styling approach offers additional revenue to their business.
Renters Room Styling
With house-buying becoming less attainable and with more and more people renting for most of their lives, a very untapped market your interior design business could benefit from is styling rented properties. Usually there are a lot of restrictions when renting with what you can or can’t do with the interior design, so working around these restrictions to give your client a property they can call home is key.
Room Specific Interior Design
An uncommon focus for most interior designers, as it can be somewhat limiting, and it can be covered within traditional interior designer. However, if there is a room you really enjoy designing – don’t be afraid to become a hyper-focus on a specific room. The most common room specific designers combine other components than just great design, for example home office designers combine productivity boosting elements and bedroom designers include sleep maximising elements.
4) Outline Your Process
A vital component of your interior design business is detailing your processes, these are both your customer-facing processes such as your initial consultation, proposals, contracts, when you take payment, etc. and also your behind the scenes processes such as your accounting and bookkeeping.
Client Facing Process
Note: Your client facing process doesn’t need to be visible to your clients, but should detail exactly what happens during the entire working relationship.
Your client facing process should clearly define key points of your client’s experience working with you, it should detail the full journey from the initial enquiry from a prospective client all the way through to project completion. It should include all key communication points during the process, where client sign off is required, where contracts need to be signed etc.
An example of this process could be:
Prospective client enquiry received
Email/phone response to enquiry – set up initial consultation
Initial consultation (face to face)
Detailed proposal sent to client for approval
Upon approval, send contract/statement of work to client to sign
Present moodboards to client for approval
Present 3D modelling of room design to client for approval
Source products for client
Liaise with tradesmen for painting/wallpaper
Attend clients home and place products
Review session with client for feedback
Make any tweaks or changes for your client
Close Project – send testimonial form to your client.
The above is purely an example, the chances are the full process would be longer with lots of stages that vary depending on the client.
Your client facing process should evolve as your interior design business grows. Keep it simple to start with and add new steps as you learn more about your clients and their needs. Every client will be different, but clear communication will keep them all happy.
Behind The Scenes Process
Your behind the scenes process covers the full spectrum of activity you need to do in order to keep your business running to the best of its abilities. This will reach beyond set processes and you will need to create a whole range of templates ready for new clients.
This behind the scenes process can include:
New Client Proposal Template
Statement of Work Template
Client Contract Template
Invoice Template
Branded Moodboard Template
Testimonial Form
These templates will enable your interior design business to run very smoothly as you can reuse the same templates and personalise them for each of your clients.
Managing your Business’s Finances
A quick note on your client contracts, they are absolutely necessary for every client you work with as they protect all parties involved. It makes clear the responsibilities of yourself and your client through the whole process. It is also advisable to ask for half the pay up front when the contract is signed. This will protect you in case your client has a change of heart.
The more professional you are from the onset, the more you will be valued for your time, talent and business sense.
Managing your finances is crucial to ensure the success of your interior design business. You need to keep receipts and all your finances in order to fully comply with business law. Accounting might not be your strong point, so speak to an accountant (and potentially hire them) for advice on how to stay compliant.
5) Start Your Little Black Book
Contacts are very important in the world of interior design, both in terms of referrals of clients as well as sourcing the right products.
As soon as possible you want to start your little black book of contacts. Initially, you can fill it up with your business relationships who you use for your clients so you will need to carefully vet these people and make sure they believe in the same quality standards as you do.
Find local tradesmen, be that decorators, curtain makers, etc. and get their details, prices, etc. and save them in your little black book (note: it might be safer to save these online on the cloud to make sure you never accidentally lose it).
Next up, set up trade accounts with reputable companies and brands you will be recommending to your clients, this will often allow you exclusive discounts on a range of products to offer your clients. Get started with Amara, OKA and Rockett St George – simply fill out the forms and you’re away. Remember to save your login details.
6) Set Your Pricing
Just as there are numerous services you can offer to potential clients, there are many different ways to set your pricing strategies. Some of the most common ways to charge include:
Hourly Rates
This is probably the easiest way to charge since all you need to do is multiply the number of hours you work by your hourly rate. This is especially useful for a new interior designer because you won’t know exactly how much time each job will take until you have a few under your belt.
The real challenge is setting your price to be fair to your clients whilst also ensuring your business is profitable (we’ll come to working out your hourly rate shortly).
Flat Fee
Charging a flat fee (or project fee as it is otherwise known) is quite inviting for clients as they have one set price they know they will have to pay. It can be worked out by multiplying your hourly rate by the number of hours you think you’ll take to complete the project (plus any expenses).
However, the risk with this approach (particularly with new interior designers) is that you may end up underestimating your time and end up losing out on a lot of money on some projects – this will swiftly put an end to your interior design business.
Cost Plus
With this method, you add up all of the costs for the necessary furnishings and materials as well as any subcontractors to perform the work. You then add a set percentage (agreed with your client) to the total as your fee.
This is a pretty common method of charging in the interior design industry, however, it lessens the payment that you get for your actual service and purely relies on the cost of the products your client accepts you use so you can end up spending a lot of time on lower-paying clients.
Retail
This entails simply charging your clients the retail price for every item you purchase for them – your fee is the difference between the cost you paid (using your trade connections) and the retail price. This is loved by clients as it means they almost feel like they aren’t paying for any service and just paying for the products.
This is not a particularly scalable pricing model for interior designers but can work on smaller projects or on purely product sourcing projects.
Most Common Approach (Hourly + Retail)
No matter which method you choose, you will need to account for all of your expenses to make sure you cover them all. The most common approach to pricing is a hybrid of Hourly & Retail pricing.
This method ensures that you are paid for your time that you actively spend on each client, whilst also covering the costs of any subcontractors. The addition of the Retail pricing model ensures that customers are only paying the retail cost of products, whilst you make a slight buffer of additional revenue based on the relationships that you build.
How Much To Charge?
Based on using the most common approach to charge your clients – an hourly rate combined with the Retail approach.
You can set your hourly rate using this simple model:
Decide what you want to earn per year (example: £50,000)
Decide how many hours you are willing to work per week (example: 40 hours)
Decide how many weeks off you would like to take each year (Example: 4 weeks)
Using these numbers, you can work out what your hourly rate should be. To save you some time you can use this tool to calculate it for you. The above example works out at £52 per hour, which it adjusts simply by doubling to account for taxes and savings.
You might notice that the above formula does not consider the Retail option at all, this has been done so this income is an extra bonus for you.
What Payment Methods to Accept?
There are a few different payment methods on offer to interior designers, the two most common options are Bank Transfer and PayPal.
Bank transfer is the most common type of payment used by interior designers as it comes with no fee, simple to process by both parties and most importantly very quick.
PayPal is an increasingly popular payment option offered by interior designers as it allows them to accept card payments easily without the need for card machines, payment processors, etc. However, PayPal does charge fees on payments so this should be taken into account as it will result in additional expenses.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
7) Find Your First Paying Client
You are now ready to get your first paying client. Finding this first paying client can prove extremely difficult but as you have set up your website, with a few case studies and clear branding you have set yourself up in a great position to get a client.
The first place any business should start (this applies to all businesses not only interior designers) is looking for referrals from friends and families.
Get active on social media, and get your friends and family to share your website as much as possible, it shouldn’t be too long until you start getting some enquiries come in.
You can go one further than asking them to share your site, you can even write the post you want them to share so they simply need to copy and paste it to post.
8) Market Your Business Like Your Life Depends On It
There are hundreds of ways to promote your interior design business, but these are the five best opportunities for new interior designers to promote themselves and get some paying clients as well as protecting your business for long-term success.
Speak to Local Journalists
Local newspapers and magazines love it when a story lands on their lap. So help them out by getting in touch with them to announce the launch of your new business – the chances are they’ll come an interview you as a local entrepreneur and you’ll get some free coverage for your business. This will also help you in the long term and can result in continued local exposure for your business.
Learn Basic SEO
Search engine optimisation is often forgotten by a lot of interior designers, so you can capitalise on this by making a few tweaks to your website. SEO is made up of many different parts but if you can learn the basics then you can end up driving continuous traffic and prospective clients to your website forever.
Build an Email List
Building an email is crucial for almost every type of business. This is a way of building a ‘tribe’ who follows your expert advice and hangs on your every word. Not every visitor to your site is ready for your services, but they might be in future so start an email list on day 1 for a lot of future success.
Ask for Referrals
Now you have started getting some paying clients (and have given them a great experience throughout their projects), similarly to when you asked friends and family for referrals you can now ask your clients for referrals, if you add an incentive then this could reap more rewards.
Start a Blog
A blog can showcase your experience and knowledge of your niche and help grow your potential audience of clients. Commit to posting a minimum of once a month to ensure your site is always up to date.
What Now?
Download our Starting Your Own Interior Design Business checklist. It will really help you achieve your goals.
Once you’ve done that, get to work. Start defining your brand, getting that experience and launching your own interior design business.
