How to Implement a “Trade Day” for More Successful Projects

“Trade Day” is the day that you arrange for any vendors or trades to walk your interior design project so you can discuss their scope of work and they can collect whatever photos/measurements they might need. 

Some designers may claim that it would be easier to simply email photos, dimensions, and sketches to get the quotes you need. Arguably, it would be “easier” (except for all the back and forth via email and handling preventable mistakes) but I wholeheartedly believe meeting in-person is the BEST way to kick off your project with your Trade Team. 

Design Process

“Trade Day” is the day that you arrange for any vendors or trades to walk your interior design project so you can discuss their scope of work and they can collect whatever photos/measurements they might need. 

Some designers may claim that it would be easier to simply email photos, dimensions, and sketches to get the quotes you need. Arguably, it would be “easier” (except for all the back and forth via email and handling preventable mistakes) but I wholeheartedly believe meeting in-person is the BEST way to kick off your project with your Trade Team.   

Here are 3 reasons why I believe Trade Day is a critically important step in the Design Process:   

1. It’s efficient - Having a single day set aside means one trip to your client’s home vs. multiple trips. Your trades can gather the information they need on-site without a bunch of back and forth via email. 

2. There is cross-pollination - We schedule trades so that there is some overlap between related trades (for example The electrician and millworker working on custom built-ins). This allows for the best ideas to flow and they can discuss what they need from each other. 

3. Improved Design - I wholeheartedly believe the best ideas happen when there is collaboration. I may have one idea of how to do something but the trades can often help improve these ideas when they have a chance to weigh in on the design. Trade Day gives them the opportunity to do just that. 

CASE STUDY

This photo represents just one small portion of a larger project. As you can see, it involved the coordination of 5 trades people. Each one had to be sequenced at the right time and know what to prepare for their fellow tradespeople. The electrician needed to know exactly where to rough-in the junction boxes for the sconces. The millworker needed to place his holes for the lights in the right place. The painter had to complete his work - knowing not to paint the back of where the wallpaper would be  - so the color wouldn’t be visible through the paper. And the wallpaper installer had to be scheduled before the electrician could return to install the sconces. Of course, all of this had to happen after the wood flooring was installed and safe to walk on again - very carefully.

For projects that involve construction, you will likely have a general contractor on the project. If so, you will need to work with them to get the trades on-site at the right time. This is another reason why building a successful relationship with your Contractor makes a lot of sense. 

If it’s more of a cosmetic update or minor construction, you may be handling trades yourself. 

In either case, here are some examples of the trades/vendors that might be considered for Trade Day: 

• Painters 

• Wallpaper Installers 

• Millwoker/Finish carpenter 

• Carpet/flooring installers 

• Electrician 

• Closet Designer 

• Window treatment designer/installer/measuring 

• Drywall professional 

• Audio/visual professional 

WHEN TO SCHEDULE A TRADE DAY

Designers have differing opinions about when to hold a “Trade Day”. Personally, we have experimented with sequencing it at various stages. After testing, I believe the best time to schedule the Trade Day is at the beginning of Design Development - after concept design. 

Here is why. During Concept Design, we usually haven’t fleshed out all our ideas or presented these ideas to our clients yet. We may go through the effort of scheduling a tradesperson for an idea our client isn’t on board with. 

So if we collect our ideas first, present them to our client at the end of the Concept Design Phase, and the client loves the idea...then we know it is time well spent to schedule that tradesperson. Now, we can start to develop drawings or other information to better convey our design ideas to the trades. We then get more accurate quotes that we can collect and present as part of the overall budget at our Design Presentation. 

By now you have a good understanding of what a Trade Day is, why it’s important and who to invite to the party. Coordinating and scheduling that many people to show up on the same day during a dedicated window of time, is no small feat to orchestrate. But the benefits of doing this heavily outweigh the time it takes to coordinate it. 

My hope is you can start to incorporate a thoughtful and organized Trade Day into your design process so you can save time, help develop more accurate budgets for your clients and reap the benefits of collaboration between you and your Trade Team.