Remote interior design in Batumi with an on-site apartment survey

How a remote apartment design project differs from a standard one

The contents of the project are the same: a measured plan, layout options, a mood board, 3D renders, working drawings and a materials list. What changes is the way we work. The designer gets to know the apartment from the measured survey and from the photos and video taken by our specialist, and meets you only by video. Decisions that are usually made in a showroom or on site move into the shared folder and onto calls.

The preparation is more thorough. The designer can’t pop into the apartment whenever a question comes up, so it is better to capture everything needed on the first visit. You don’t see the materials in person, so they have to be shown in a way that lets the screen distort colour and texture as little as possible.

The questionnaire and the first call: what we need from you

Before the first meeting, we send you a questionnaire. It has the usual questions: who will live in the apartment, what the renovation budget is, what furniture is moving with you. What else the designer needs before starting is listed on the page about the apartment design project. Working remotely adds questions of its own:

• on which days and at what times in your time zone you are available, and when you will be somewhere with no connection;
• who else makes the decisions with you and which country they live in;
• whether you plan to come to Batumi in the coming months: choosing the main materials in person can be timed to your visit;
• who has the keys now: the developer, someone you know in Batumi, or you;
• how much of the year you will live in the apartment yourself, and whether you will rent it out the rest of the time.

The first call lasts about an hour. The designer goes through the questionnaire with you, asks follow-up questions and agrees a schedule of meetings for the whole project straight away.

A measured survey without you: what we record in the apartment

We take the keys against a signed form from someone you know in Batumi, from the building’s management company or from the developer. If the apartment hasn’t been accepted from the developer yet, the survey can be combined with accepting it from the developer without you being there. Our specialist takes the measurements with a laser distance meter and, along with the measured drawing, puts everything the designer needs to know about the apartment into the folder:

• a walk-through video with commentary, in one take, from the front door through every room;
• photos of each wall in full, and close-ups of the risers, ventilation shafts, consumer unit and the outlets left by the developer;
• the ceiling height at several points, beams and boxing, the floor levels at the entrance and the balcony;
• the height of the windowsills, and the dimensions of the windows, balcony doors and reveals;
• the view from each window and shots of the rooms in the morning and evening, to show where the sun comes from and when.

If a question remains after looking at the photos, we go back and capture what is missing on site, so the designer doesn’t have to guess a dimension. If you already have a designer where you live, you can order just the measured drawing with the same set of photos and video.

The shared folder and revisions from a distance

Each project has its own shared folder, organised by stage: survey, layout, concept, 3D, drawings, materials list. Each sheet has a version number and a date, and after a revision the old version goes into an archive, so it doesn’t get mixed up with the new one. That way you, the designer and later the crew are all looking at the same version.

We present each stage on a call: the designer shares the sheets on screen, explains the decisions and shows the 3D model from whatever viewpoint you ask for. After the call, you have an agreed period for comments, usually a few business days. It is easiest to leave comments directly on the sheets, with a number at each point, and we reply under the same numbers: what we changed, what we kept and why.

If you are going somewhere with a poor connection, a stage can wait, but then the next one moves too. So that such shifts don’t come as a surprise, we put the dates of the calls for all the stages into the schedule from the start.

Samples and colour through a screen

How to lay out samples in the apartment and look at them by day and in the evening is described on the page about choosing materials for the project. When you aren’t there, the way we present them changes. We show the set for a room not in a photo but on a video call from the apartment itself: our specialist holds the samples up to the window and puts the tile next to the floor, the designer on the call explains what to look at, and you ask for a sample to be turned or two to be compared. We also film texture and sheen in a short video where the sample is turned towards the light, with fabrics and veneer shown folded and held up against the light.

If an item can be seen in your country, we give you the brand and product code, and you look at it in a showroom where you live. You give your consent to each item in the chat, and nothing in the materials list changes without it.

Signatures, payment and time zones

We send the contract in Russian, Georgian or English, and the method of signing remotely, such as an electronic signature, is written into the contract itself. You use the same method to sign the certificate for each stage: you approve the layout, sign the certificate, and we move on to the concept. Payment is by stage, and we don’t take prepayment for the whole project.

Batumi doesn’t change its clocks, but Europe and Israel do, so at the end of March and the end of October the time difference with them changes by an hour. With Moscow and Kazakhstan it stays the same all year. A call at 9 am Batumi time falls at 7 am in Berlin in summer, and at 6 am after the clocks go back. In the meeting schedule, we give each time both for Batumi and for your city, and review it when the clocks change.

The manager collects the questions that need your answer into one message, with the options and the date by which a decision is needed. If you reply in the evening your time, the designer is already working with your answer in the morning.

When a designer visit can’t be avoided

For a standard apartment in a new build, the survey, photos and video are enough. A designer visit is worth ordering if the apartment is a duplex or has awkward geometry, if the project moves the kitchen or bathroom away from the riser, or if you need to decide which of the developer’s work to keep. These visits are priced separately from the project.

The renovation to the project can also go ahead without you. The designer then comes to the site as part of designer supervision, and how keys, video sign-off of stages and payment from another country work is described on the page about renovation while you are abroad.

How much a remote apartment design project costs

A remote design project costs from 120 ₾ per m² of the apartment’s floor area, with the usual range up to 160 ₾. The price includes the layout, concept, 3D renders, working drawings and materials list, all the online meetings and the on-site measured survey carried out by our specialist. Designer visits to the site are not included and are priced separately. Without them, a remote project costs less than a full design project with face-to-face meetings, which starts from 145 ₾ per m².

If you don’t need the whole project, you can order part of it. A video consultation with a designer costs from 275 to 360 ₾ an hour, and it is a good way to go over an apartment’s layout before buying or to check someone else’s project. A measured drawing of the apartment for your own designer costs from 310 to 445 ₾, and a 3D rendering of one room from 660 to 960 ₾.

The price goes up with a layout change, 3D renders of every room and awkward apartment geometry. It comes down for a studio or a 1+1 with no walls moved, and for ready-made furniture instead of made-to-measure. The final cost is set after the measured survey and once the scope of the project is agreed.