If you’ve never worked with an interior designer before, one of the biggest unknowns is often what actually happens after you hire one.

How much input will you have? When are furnishings selected? Who manages orders and deliveries? And if your project involves construction, how does your designer work alongside your architect and contractor?

The details will vary depending on whether you’re furnishing an existing home, remodeling, or building from the ground up, but a good design process gives every project a clear path from the first conversation through the finished space.

At Maya Axt Interiors, Full-Service Interior Design can support whole-home furnishing projects, renovations, and new construction, with the process tailored to the scope of each home.

1. Discovery and Consultation

Every project begins with getting to know you, your home, and what you need from it.

The early conversations are about much more than establishing what styles or colors you like. We want to understand how you use your home, where you spend the most time, how you entertain, which pieces you want to keep, what currently feels frustrating, and what you want the finished home to feel like.

For a furnishing project, you may have a home that feels incomplete or rooms that don’t quite connect. A renovation may need to solve functional challenges as well as update the interiors. And with a new build, these conversations can help inform decisions long before furnishings enter the picture.

All of that context helps establish the scope of the project and gives the design something meaningful to build from.

2. Conceptual Design

Once the scope is established, the project moves into conceptual design.

This is where the broader vision for the home begins to take shape through layouts, inspiration, mood boards, and an overall color and material direction.

Rather than jumping straight into individual sofas, tiles, or fixtures, this stage answers the bigger questions first. How should the spaces flow? What should the overall atmosphere feel like? How should the interiors relate to the architecture of the home and its Scottsdale surroundings?

Establishing that direction creates a framework for the more detailed decisions that follow.

3. Developmental Design

During developmental design, the concept becomes much more specific.

Depending on the scope, this may include:

Space planning and furniture layouts
Furniture, rugs, lighting, and window treatments
Art, wallpaper, and accessories
Material and finish selections
Custom cabinetry and millwork
Plumbing fixtures and hardware
Drawings, elevations, and renderings

A furnishing project won’t require all of the construction-related selections above, while a renovation or new build will naturally involve more architectural detail.

Either way, decisions are made in relation to the rest of the home. The scale of a sofa affects the furniture layout, which may influence lighting placement. A countertop needs to work with the cabinetry, flooring, and surrounding spaces rather than simply looking beautiful as a sample on its own.

For projects involving construction, this is also where collaboration with the architect, contractor, and trades becomes especially important. If you’re curious about how those roles work together, our guide to How Interior Designers Work With Builders goes into that relationship in more detail.

4. Procurement and Project Coordination

Once the design has been approved, the project moves into implementation.

For Full-Service projects, Maya Axt Interiors manages the sourcing and ordering of selected furnishings and other pieces, along with the logistical details that follow.

That can mean communicating with vendors, tracking orders and lead times, coordinating shipments, arranging receiving and storage, and resolving issues before installation.

It’s a part of interior design that clients don’t always see, but it can become a substantial undertaking on a whole-home project. Instead of having furniture and accessories arrive individually at your door over several months, procurement and delivery are coordinated as part of the broader project.

This level of support is one of the key distinctions between Maya’s Full-Service offering and services where the client manages implementation themselves.

5. Construction Coordination, when Applicable

If your home is being renovated or built from the ground up, the design process continues once construction begins.

Maya and her team can work alongside the architect, contractor, and trades as the plans become a physical space, answering design questions and helping ensure that the details being installed remain consistent with the direction developed earlier in the project.

For furnishing-only projects, this phase simply doesn’t apply. The project moves from design and procurement toward installation.

For new construction specifically, timing matters. Maya explores this in When to Hire an Interior Designer for New Construction Homes in Scottsdale, including the decisions a designer can influence when brought into the project during the early planning stages.

6. Installation and Styling

Installation is where the individual parts of the design finally come together in the home.

Furniture is placed, rugs and lighting are installed, artwork and window treatments go up, and the finishing layers are styled throughout each space.

Because those pieces have been chosen as part of the same overall design, the focus at this stage is on bringing the plan together rather than trying to solve the room one item at a time.

It’s also when the smaller relationships become visible: the scale of furniture within the room, the placement of artwork, how materials repeat from one space to another, and the details that make the home feel finished without feeling overly styled.

Full-Service Interior Design in Scottsdale

A clear process gives you a way to stay involved in the decisions that matter while your designer manages the many details required to carry the project from an initial idea through to a finished home.

Maya Axt Interiors offers Full-Service Interior Design for whole-home furnishing projects, renovations, and new construction throughout Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, and the surrounding areas.

If you’re considering a project and would like to discuss what level of design support makes sense for your home, tell us about your project.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. Full-Service Interior Design is also suited to whole-home furnishing projects. Maya’s team can develop the design, source furnishings, manage procurement, and coordinate installation without construction being involved. Maya specifically lists whole-home furnishings alongside renovations and new construction as appropriate Full-Service projects.
Your input is especially important during the early discovery, conceptual design, and approval stages. From there, Full-Service Design allows the design team to take on much of the sourcing, coordination, procurement, and implementation while you remain involved in the decisions that need your input.
Full-Service is designed for clients who want Maya’s team to handle the design as well as procurement, coordination, and installation. Design & Plan provides a professionally developed design direction, including layouts, mood boards, material selections, and a curated shopping list, while the homeowner manages implementation.

Maya has a full comparison in Do You Need Full-Service or Design-and-Plan Interior Support?
Ideally, while plans are still being developed and before key construction decisions are finalized. Earlier involvement allows furniture planning, cabinetry, lighting, electrical, finishes, and other design considerations to inform the project before changes become more difficult to make. Maya recommends involving the designer during the early planning stages of new construction where possible.
There isn’t one timeline that applies to every project. A whole-home furnishing project, major renovation, and new build each involve very different scopes, and factors such as construction schedules, custom pieces, availability, and product lead times can all affect timing.

The Interior Design Process for Scottsdale Luxury Homes