I honestly cannot believe the level of incompetence displayed by these so-called "luxury" design firms, because they sell you this dream of a turnkey experience where you just hand over the keys and come back to a palace, but in reality, it is a constant battle just to get them to show up on site - and don't even get me started on the financials. I specifically asked for a detailed luxury home renovation cost breakdown before we started, and they gave me this beautifully formatted spreadsheet that turned out to be complete fiction because literally two weeks into demolition, they "discovered" structural issues that anyone with a pair of eyes could have seen, instantly adding 15% to the budget... it feels like they lowball the bid just to hook you and then bleed you dry with change orders once your house is already torn apart.
The worst part was the technology aspect, where they promised this seamless "future living" experience, but the smart home integration failure was spectacular—lights turning on at 3 AM for no reason, the security system conflicting with the HVAC, and the "expert" technician they hired was clearly just figuring it out as he went along, leaving me with a server rack in the basement that looks like a rat's nest of wires. And speaking of design failures, that grand, sweeping custom staircase design problems became the bane of my existence; on the render it looked like a piece of art, but the fabrication was so poor that the railing wobbles if you look at it wrong, and the steps are uneven heights which is a massive safety hazard for my kids.
It’s just endless frustration when you realize the General Contractor is managing ten other "priority" projects and yours is just an afterthought, leading to massive high-end construction delays that pushed our move-in date back by six months, forcing us to rent a temporary apartment while paying the mortgage on a construction site. If you are planning a large-scale renovation, do not trust the glossy brochures or the smooth-talking sales reps, you need to verify every single subcontractor yourself and maybe even check this reference source for a checklist of what to ask before signing, because otherwise, you are just writing blank checks to people who don't respect your time or your home.
