10 Apr Yes – You CAN have a new garden designed during lockdown
The Tapestry Design Studios team are still designing gardens despite social distancing. Here’s what we’re doing to keep our clients safe.
Are you sitting at home wishing you could have a new garden designed? Everybody needs something to look forward to in these strange times. So at Tapestry Design Studios we’ve adapted our methods to meet social distancing guidelines. Here’s how our new “lockdown” garden design process works.
- Initial consultation – using facetime, skype or zoom
- Site Survey – a qualified surveyor will visit your garden taking care to observe social distancing rules
- Analysis – we ask you to send us of pictures of your garden and its surroundings
- First phase of garden designing created by one of our team members working from home
- Concept plan – shown to you on your computer screen and discussed over facetime, skype or zoom
- Tweaks and changes to the concept plan with garden designer working at home
- Master plan. A beautifully presented plan showing layout and design details
Initial Consultation
Traditionally, anyone wanting a new garden designed would start the process with a visit from one of our garden designers. We’d discuss your likes and dislikes, your budget and how you’d like your new garden to complement your lifestyle.
Social distancing means that we’ve changed swapped our face-to-face visit for a virtual visit. You still get to meet your garden designer – only on a screen rather than in person. If your screen is portable, you can take your designer for a virtual tour of your garden and point out features that you love and hate.
Site Survey
Our surveyor will visit your garden at a pre-arranged time. Before anyone from Tapestry Design Studios comes out to you, we’ll call to check that you are feeling well and to let you know who to expect and when they’ll be arriving.
We ask you to leave the gate unlocked for easy access and to chat through the window. The surveyor will put clean gloves on before touching your gate and/or any surfaces in your garden.
Wherever possible, surveyors use lasers to take accurate measurements (less need to touch surfaces). And of course there will be lots of hand sanitiser involved.
Under normal circumstances a cup of tea and a chat is the best part of the surveyor’s job. But your safety is our priority so sadly we won’t be able to accept offers of food or drink. At least not until the Coronavirus pandemic has passed.
Site Analysis
Any garden designed by Tapestry Design Studios pays homage to the area around your property. If you are lucky enough to have beautiful views, your new garden design will embrace them. If the outlook is not what you want, our garden design will include ways to screen out ugly features and improve your privacy.
As our garden designer won’t be visiting in person, we’ll be asking you to send photographs of your property and the area around it.
Your security and privacy are key – these photo’s are for your designer’s eyes only. They will never be shared in any way shape or form. It’s important that the photographs are honest. So you’re shed’s a mess and your lawn hasn’t been mown in a while……..trust me, we’re not looking at that – garden designers only ever see potential.
Taking photographs of your outdoor space is a vital part of having your garden designed.
In this “before” picture, the garden designer will be focusing on the views beyond the fence and thinking of ways to lead the eye towards more attractive or interesting elements.
Garden Designers Working From Home
Once all of the information is to hand, our team can work anywhere. If I’m honest, most of the thinking and concept creation happens on dog walks, whilst vacuuming the living room or waiting for the kettle to boil. The equipment that a garden designer needs to make plans visible to others is quite specialist, but it doesn’t need to be housed in the studio. Each of the Tapestry team has moved our computers and drawing boards into our home offices so that the creative process can continue.
Your concept plan
The concept plan is arguably the most exciting part of having a garden designed. It’s when you get to see how your garden designer has interpreted all of the information gathered so far. The initial consultation, your list of wants and needs, the site survey and your photographs will have inspired the creation of your concept plan.
You’ll be able to see the proposed layout of your new garden. Where the paths and patios will be, a feel for where you might entertain guests, enjoy that morning coffee, grow some veg or store the wheelie bins.
Ordinarily, your garden designer would sit beside you as you take in all of the details. Social distancing means that your meeting will become virtual. We still want to watch your facial expressions, gauge your reaction and hear your thoughts, so we’ll schedule a facetime, zoom or skype meeting for the big reveal.
Your New Garden Master Plan
Following on from your video conference call with your garden designer, the concept plan gets developed a bit further. This is to create a design document with really specific information so that you can approach landscapers for a quotation.
Your garden master plan reveals more about the plan from the kind of paver to the broad colour scheme and the position of lights and other ancillaries.
Something to look forward to when lockdown lifts
The Tapestry Design Studios team have thought carefully about social distancing, safety and practicality and we’re confident that Coronavirus will not affect our service to clients. Surveys will be done to the same high standards. Communicating clearly with our customers has always been a high priority but without the benefit of body language we’ll be extra attentive to your phone conversations and emails.
Bottom line is that we will not allow a virus to take away people’s hopes and dreams for their gardens. And the joy of having a garden designed during the lockdown period is that you’ll be able to organise the landscaping for after the restrictions are lifted.
You truly will have something to look forward to
Imagine looking out onto a garden like this in the future. Re-designing your garden during lockdown brings you the hope of a better future and is a worthwhile investment in your wellbeing.
How to have your garden designed during lockdown
- Think about how you would like to use your new garden. Write a list of functions
- Contact the team at Tapestry Design Studios (the phones have been diverted to home offices)
- Download the Zoom app to your phone or computer
- Enjoy your initial consultation and the rest of the “lockdown” garden design process
- Look forward to having a gorgeous garden.
Contact the Tapestry Design Studios Team
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