Before we specify a single item for a project, we write a brief. Not a mood board, not a shortlist of references — a document. It is usually four to eight pages, and it is the most important thing we produce.
Most procurement problems are brief problems. The wrong stone, the delayed delivery, the lighting fixture that cannot be dimmed — these failures usually trace back to a moment early in the project when something was assumed rather than agreed.
What the brief contains
The brief is organised around decisions, not products. It answers five questions.
What does the client want the space to feel like? Not aesthetically — functionally. A bedroom that is a hotel room or a bedroom that is a sanctuary. A kitchen for cooking or a kitchen for gathering. These are different briefs. They produce different specifications.
What are the non-negotiables? Every project has them. Materials that cannot change because the architect has already drawn to them. A smart home system the client already owns and will not replace. A delivery window that is fixed because of a tenancy end date. We document these before we begin, so we do not discover them in week eight.
What is the budget, by category? Not a total number — a breakdown. Furniture, lighting, textiles, smart home, art, accessories. A project with a €200,000 furniture budget and a €15,000 lighting budget will look different from a project with the reverse allocation. The brief makes this visible early.
The brief is not a constraint. It is the reason the project finishes on time.
What is the timeline, backwards from handover? We work backwards from the move-in date. Lead times for custom pieces, stone fabrication, and smart home commissioning are not negotiable with a deadline. If the timeline does not work, it is better to know on page one than on week twelve.
Who decides, and how? Approval processes are project infrastructure. A project with two clients, an architect, an interior designer, and a property manager needs a decision matrix. Who approves the stone selection? Who signs off on the smart home specification? Who is the single point of contact for the contractor? These are not organisational questions — they are risk questions. Unclear approval processes produce delays.
Why this matters for sourcing
We are not the designer on most of the projects we work on. We are the people who find, procure, coordinate, and deliver what the designer has specified — or who help develop the specification when the designer needs sourcing input.
In both cases, we need a brief before we begin. Not because we want more paperwork, but because sourcing without a brief means making assumptions about what matters. Assumptions become errors. Errors become delays. Delays become costs.
The brief is how we make sure that what arrives on site is what was meant — not what was approximated.