A metre square of every colour, on your wall, seen in morning and evening light for at least three days.
The rule changes every project. It is always something like: green may touch the floor but never the ceiling. Without it, three colours become nine and the room starts shouting.
It was the wrong yellow and we repainted it three weeks later at our own cost. That mistake is why every scheme we have done since is painted at full size, on your wall, before a single litre is ordered.
Today there are five of us: two designers, one who does nothing but lighting and acoustics, a project manager on site, and Rita, who chooses the colours and defends them.
We work on six rooms at a time and turn down anything where the answer is already decided and we are being hired to sign it.
A metre square of every colour, on your wall, seen in morning and evening light for at least three days.
Where each colour may go, written down in a sentence. It is what stops a scheme drifting on site.
A full shift behind the counter or a day at the desks, before we draw anything. Habits beat briefs.
Paint, textiles, chairs. Floors and joinery stay neutral, so redoing the look later costs a weekend.
One visit after half a year to see what the room has done to itself, and to fix what has annoyed you since.
Chooses the palette and argues for it. Fifteen years in hospitality interiors before this, six of them for a chain she will not name.
Plans how people move through a room. Will spend an afternoon on the width of a gap between two tables and be right about it.
The reason our cafés are loud in the good way. Does the lighting calculations nobody sees and everybody feels.
Lives on the sites two days a week, talks to contractors daily, and calls you before a problem becomes an invoice.
A room that photographs well and works badly is a failure with good lighting.