Most design services stop
at the design
You receive a set of images and a shopping list, and everything after that is yours to solve. Find a contractor. Place twenty orders across a dozen suppliers. Chase the ones that slip. Work out why the sofa will not come through the hall. That is where most projects get difficult, and it is where most services have already finished.
We stay with it. The same designer who drew your scheme is the person who helps you buy it, coordinates the trades who build it, and places the last cushion when it arrives. Rooms, whole floors, or an entire house.
Design
Layouts, technical drawings, colour, finishes and specification, from a single room to a whole home.
Design servicesBuy
Trade discounts across 250 brands, ordering, delivery coordination and everything that goes wrong in between.
Furniture conciergeBuild
On-site or remote support during the works, and introductions to tradespeople we have used for years.
Post-design supportFinish
Placing and arranging everything once it has arrived, so the room is finished rather than merely furnished.
StylingWe are not paid to recommend anything
Some studios can only source from the brands they have arrangements with, which quietly limits what you are shown to what suits them. We hold trade accounts with more than 250 European and international brands, and our designers specify whatever is right for your room, including retailers we have no relationship with at all.
- Discounts passed on in fullTrade discounts typically run between 5% and 40% depending on the brand. You see the trade price and you pay the trade price. Our handling fee is separate and stated upfront rather than taken as hidden margin.
- Published, not promisedEvery brand in our network is listed publicly with its discount, so you can check what we quote against what we said we get. Browse the network.
- Orders in your nameWe act as your agent rather than as a reseller, so the supplier invoices you directly. The warranty and your consumer rights stay yours, exactly as if you had bought the piece yourself.
- We will tell you when not to use usIf something is already in a sale, buying it direct will usually beat our discount, and we say so rather than quietly quoting more.
Design that a trade can build from
A mood board is not a plan. Much of what separates a scheme that gets built from one that stays on a screen is whether the drawings are good enough to price and work from.
Technical drawings
Scaled floor plans with furniture distribution, elevations showing tile and finish layouts, and renovation-ready plans for projects where walls are moving.
Lighting distribution
Circuits, switching and load calculations, prepared so your electrician can install directly from the plan rather than interpreting it.
Bespoke joinery
Fabrication-ready drawings, dimensioned and specified, so any maker can quote and build without coming back with questions.
We design interiors, not structures. Where a project involves load-bearing change we coordinate with your structural engineer, or introduce one of ours, rather than pretending it sits inside our remit. Knowing the edge of what you do is part of doing it properly.
WHY CHOOSE AKIVA ?
Judge us on what has happened,
not what we claim
Twelve consecutive Houzz awards and more than a hundred verified five star reviews, alongside professional indemnity cover of £150,000 so your investment is protected in the ordinary way. Our work has been covered in the Metro, in the Independent and by Houzz.
See the projects rather than the numbers. Residential work and what clients said afterwards.
One designer, and no surprises
A named designer, matched to you
Chosen for your style, your budget and where you are, rather than drawn from a rota. They stay with the project throughout. If the fit is not right after your first call, tell us and we will change it.
Everyone in one place
An online platform your designer, and where useful your contractor, work in together, with calls when a conversation is quicker than typing. No chasing a chat window for an answer.
Costs agreed before they happen
A written breakdown per room, discounts shown item by item, and nothing ordered until you have approved it. Where something needs more time than expected we agree it with you first.
If a cheaper service would serve you better, we will say so on the discovery call. If a piece is cheaper direct, we will say so before quoting. If a deadline is not achievable, we will say that too. It costs us the occasional booking and saves everybody the projects that were never going to work.
A conversation, at no cost
The discovery call is genuinely free and there is no obligation afterwards. Tell us what you are trying to do and we will tell you honestly what it would take, which service fits, and roughly what it would cost. If the answer is that you do not need us, that is a perfectly good outcome.
Book a free discovery call, or read how the process works first.