Even after months of planning, most of the make-or-break moments of a design project happen on install day. It’s when the picture in your head comes to life right in front of your client’s eye. What could go wrong? Plenty, of course. With such high stakes, any hiccup can cause a catastrophic ripple effect. We asked a handful of designers to divulge their horror stories—their very worst, cringiest, stomach-drop install day disasters.
What the fork?
New Jersey–based designer Gail Davis recalls a terrifying story about her first major install (what she calls "my first big-money project”). She was watching with anticipation as the movers brought in the $25,000 custom rug she’d chosen for her client’s living room. As they rolled it out, she remembers, “I started to feel sick because I noticed a rhythmic hole along the left side.” The cause of the damage? A forklift that had punctured the rolled-up rug. “I nearly passed out,” Davis says. A rug medic was rushed in to triage and, thankfully, the rug company refunded a portion of the purchase price. In the end, her client “couldn't tell where the hole was.” They were even able to throw a party that same weekend.
A rainy renovation
New Yorker Lucy Harris was loading the truck when she got word that her install day was canceled. The architect had decided to do a last-minute plumbing check but forgot to hook up a drain in the master bath. “I remember standing in the living room with buckets trying to catch the water to prevent [it from] ruining the newly refinished floor,” she says. Luckily, she hadn’t yet moved in the $50,000 sofa—had she waited a day later, it would have been soaked.
Color mismatch
Amy Kalikow, of course, has strong opinions about paint color. When she gave her builder the specific brands and colors that she wanted, she was expecting to see her go-to shades up on the walls. Instead, she walked in on the day before install to find that “everything was a shade of green.” The builder had done a color match (or mismatch, rather) with a different brand of paint. “They had to repaint…and quick!” Kalikow says.
Au naturel
Just because a material is natural doesn’t mean it’s odorless, something Santa Monica–based designer Sarah Barnard now knows very well. One of her clients chose only natural, nontoxic materials throughout the home, right down to the undyed, organic wool mattresses. “On installation day,” she says, “they began to notice the inherent odors of the wool, which is naturally fire-retardant and hypoallergenic, but is not always scent-free.” In other words, your bed might take on a mild aroma until the wool’s had a chance to air out. “If your materials can tolerate sunshine,” Barnard says, “I recommend allowing them to air outdoors. The sun's UV rays can kill bacteria and eliminate odors.”
Out of order
“The super decided to shut down one of two elevators in a 20-story building,” recalls Brooklyn-based designer Jarret Yoshida. And suddenly install day turned into a marathon workout. “[We] were going up and down six stories carrying items,” he recalls. “Lucky me to have such dedicated staff.”
Big sofa, little elevator
It’s the classic move-in disaster, and even veteran designers aren’t immune to the challenges of trying to fit a sofa into a small elevator. As Kalikow also discovered, it’s especially frustrating if those elevators change between the time you order the sofa and install day. Her project was in a newly constructed building, which, helpfully (she thought), had an external lift to move the extra-large custom sofa she’d ordered. By the time it arrived, the construction elevator was gone, and she was stuck with the building’s too-small interior elevator. “Luckily, we were able to get it in another way, but it was a nail-biter for a time,” she says.
And getting the sofa to the door is only half the battle; designers can’t breathe easy until it’s inside the room. Erin Roberts, also based in Brooklyn, says she’s always been haunted by one friend’s horror story in particular: “They ordered a custom sectional worth several thousand dollars, and it couldn’t make it into the room! They had to hire a crew to bring it up and over a balcony through the window. Ever since, I’ve been scared straight into always triple-checking my measurements!”
What a drag
During one whirlwind install day, designer Adi Ben-Ami dragged several heavy boxes of accessories across the foyer before noticing they were leaving big scratches on the pristine wood floors. “When something like that goes wrong, it’s just such a disastrous feeling,” she says. No harm, no foul—the contractor made them good as new with a quick buffing and another coat of polish.
Renovation runaway
The flurry of activity on install day is endlessly more complicated when there are pets involved, especially if they tend to grab any opportunity to escape. Though it, thankfully, hasn’t happened to her yet, a furry escapee ranks high on Ben-Ami’s worst-case-scenarios list: “Everyone’s in and out, opening the door,” she says, and then “Oh, no, the dog got out.” The last thing any designer wants to be doing is canvassing the neighborhood for a lost animal.
Contractor chaos
Roberts knows that a sloppy contractor—one who needs constant babysitting—will drive any designer crazy with those small, but oh-so-frustrating flubs that you only discover come install day. “They’ve…been known to make surprising decisions when you aren’t on-site checking the work,” she says. “Like putting can lighting in the ceiling in a random pattern, rather than in a grid, or placing a window too low, or a light switch too high.”
A tale of two babies
Designer Marie Burgos took a job designing a model loft in a building that was still under construction, but the build was delayed nearly four months. In the meantime, she had her own construction project in the works: “I was expecting my first baby and my due date was coming slowly but surely,” she said. Finally, the 4,000-square-foot unit was ready for install, with only three days before the open house, but it was too late. “My daughter was born at 5 a.m. on the first day of installation,” she says. Did she give up on the job? No way. “My husband left the hospital at 7 a.m. to head to the job site.” Talk about commitment.
A hostage situation
“An upholsterer was having cash flow problems,” Yoshida recalls. Because said upholsterer had stopped regularly paying her staff, they “had a mutiny and held our items hostage.” To get the furniture Yoshida needed for his install, he paid his bill in advance so the employees could also get paid, and they wound up delivering his goods on time. Crisis averted.
D-I-Yikes
During a recent NYC pop-up, designer John Sorensen-Jolink, founder of COIL + DRIFT, had just one day to install an entire collection of lighting. “We had guests arriving for our opening party at 6 p.m.,” he remembers. “By three o’clock, everything was in place, minus one critical light that just wouldn’t work. In the end, if the lights don't turn on, what's the point?”
As the time ticked away, Sorensen-Jolink sat down to troubleshoot the pesky lamp. “I tried to remain calm while I took the complex light apart piece by piece and rebuilt it.” After two complete rebuilds, the light finally came to life, just in time. “We all cheered while we placed the final detail in the space just as guests walked in.” The takeaway? Professional help is always worth it: “Next launch, I'll definitely have an electrician on site.”
Missing mattress
Ben-Ami recalls a particularly stressful install day—with a very pregnant client who was constantly peeking her head in to check on her new nursery. The designer was just adding the finishing touches and getting ready to make up the crib when she realized she didn’t have a mattress. She’d completely forgotten to order one. “I was about to reveal the room,” she says. “Your stomach drops. All that complicated work, and you just can’t believe you dropped the ball on this basic, everyday thing.”
