When you hire an interior designer it is for many more reasons than just making your home look beautiful. You are hiring an interior designer for their experience and expertise to avoid problems and issues that you many not be aware of , for an example You and your designer spend hours looking for a material for your sofa in your family room. You find a piece that you love….The very next step that your designer will do for you is order a sample and a CFA which means Cutting For Approval.
Once I select a fabric, before the order is officially placed, we request a CFA. While a vendor might have 300 yards of fabric on hand, they could have the product of 4 different dye lots. Sometimes the variation from one dye lot to another can be substantial, so safe to see the fabric before you pull the trigger. Once I receive the CFA, I compare it to the original and then approve for purchase. worth the extra days of waiting for the CFA. Trust me!
Many things could go wrong such as the fabric manufacture sends the incorrect fabric to the work room, the fabric is applied on the sofa in the wrong direction, the fabric is applied inside out etc. So it is a very important step in the design process. The communication process is a very important factor in the completion and installation of your fabric to your sofa.
We will be going over some other issues in our series.
Corinne
