Frequently Asked Questions
Honest answers about how we work, what we charge, where we work, and what to expect from a project. Use the section navigation below or browse the lot.
01 — Section
How the firm operates, what makes us different, and what to expect from a first conversation.
We are an integrated residential design practice. Under one roof we house interior designers, architects, and a construction-management team — colleagues working to one brief, contracted to one client, accountable for one finished result. Our work is exclusively private, residential, and bespoke. We do not work on commercial, hotel, or developer projects.
The studio was founded in 1987 by Janine Stone as a standalone interior design practice. Gideon Stone joined a few years later and led the evolution of the firm into its current integrated model — interior design, residential architecture, and construction management as one in-house team. Over thirty years of continuous private-residential work since.
You can, of course, and many people do. The integrated model exists for two specific reasons. First, accountability: when a separately-appointed architect, contractor, and interior designer disagree about something during the build, the client is left negotiating between them. With Janine Stone the contract is with one company; the responsibility for the finished result sits with us, not with you. Second, design integrity: the value-engineering decisions that inevitably arise during construction are made by colleagues who were in the room when the design was set, so the quality and detail specified at drawing stage actually makes it into the finished house. That said, we are entirely comfortable working as one of multiple firms on a project — see the question on standalone interior design below.
Yes — on every project. Clients always have Gideon’s direct mobile number for the duration of the project. Day-to-day project leadership rests with our long-tenured senior staff who have been with the firm for many years and understand exactly how we work, but Gideon and Janine are personally involved alongside them. We do not take on more projects than we can give that level of attention to.
Clients who want something genuinely creative, considered, and made to last — homes of true personality. The defining shared trait across our clients is not budget or scale; it is aspiration for design quality and willingness to invest the care and time that produces it. We are not a generic refurbishment service. If the brief is fundamentally about doing a property up cheaply and quickly, we are not the right firm and we say so up front.
A house should be of its place, of its period, and of its inhabitants — three things we balance on every project. We have no in-house style. Our recent work ranges from listed Georgian restorations in Mayfair through to fully contemporary new builds in the Home Counties and internationally. What does carry between projects is a consistent emphasis on craftsmanship, materials, and the quiet integration of modern services into homes that are designed to last.
A first conversation, usually at our studio or at the property. We listen to the brief, understand the client and the property, and produce a transparent fee proposal that maps out our proposed approach. Every project is different, so we do not have a fixed formula — the proposal reflects the scale, complexity, timelines, and ambitions of each scheme. Once the design direction is agreed we produce realistic timelines and budgetary costs to support it.
We will say so at the first conversation, not at month three. Our studio is sized so that each project receives full attention from senior people throughout, which means there are times we ask clients to wait a few months until the right designer or architect comes free, and there are times we decline a brief outright. If the timescales you want are tighter than the work realistically demands, we will explain why. If the brief sits outside what we do well, we will say that too. It is in nobody’s interest, ours or yours, to agree to a project that cannot succeed — and we would always rather have an open conversation about fit at the start than disappoint you later.
It varies with the scale of the work — from around 15 trades on a smaller project up to as many as 50 on a significant scheme. Groundworks, structural, plumbing, electrics, roofing, plastering, joinery, cabinet-making, stone, decoration. The analogy we use is a jigsaw: each trade is one piece of the picture. Our job is to assemble all the pieces into a single finished result, and to ensure the junctions between them align beautifully.
02 — Section
Residential architecture for private clients, including listed buildings and conservation-area work.
Luxury private residential only — houses and apartments. That includes new-build houses, whole-home remodelling, extensions and basements, listed-building restoration, and the prime central London apartment work that so often sits inside listed mansion blocks or period conversions. We do not work on commercial, hotel, or developer projects. Our architectural practice is not only the creative side of designing a building. It is also the professional entity that takes a project through the statutory framework — planning, listed-building consent, building regulations, party-wall matters, conservation-officer liaison, and landlord consent on leasehold apartments. We are often appointed in that capacity even where the brief is predominantly an interior fit-out, because the consents required to alter a listed apartment can be every bit as demanding as those for a freehold house.
The studio’s architects are RIBA qualified and we work to the RIBA Plan of Work stages. We are deeply experienced in the UK planning system, listed-building consent, and conservation-area policy.
Yes. A significant proportion of our work involves listed properties, and we routinely engage with conservation officers and Historic England. Sensitivity to period architecture and the technical demands of listed fabric are part of the studio’s core capability. Where complexity warrants it, we bring in specialist heritage consultants — conservation architects, historic-buildings advisors, heritage-specific planning agents — alongside our own team.
Yes. We prepare and submit all planning, listed-building consent, and conservation-area applications ourselves, and we attend pre-application consultations with local authorities. On the most demanding sites we work alongside specialist heritage and planning consultants whose expertise complements ours.
In principle yes, but in practice it is rare. The coordination between our architects and interior designers is a large part of what makes the design work, and clients who engage us for architecture almost always engage us for interiors as well. We are open to a standalone architectural appointment and will be honest about the trade-off if that is what you prefer.
Every project is different. The timeline reflects the amount of design work that needs to happen before a meaningful application can be submitted. Smaller, more straightforward schemes can reach submission within around two months of first appointment. More complex projects — substantial remodellings, sensitive listed-building sites, schemes requiring significant pre-application engagement — can take nine months or longer. Local authority determination typically adds a further 8 to 13 weeks on top.
03 — Section
Bespoke interior schemes for private homes, available standalone or integrated with our architecture and construction teams.
Everything from first concept to the day you move in. Space planning, material and finish specification, lighting design, bespoke joinery and furniture design, art advisory, soft furnishings, and final dressing. Available for a single room, a full floor, or a whole-house scheme — and either as a standalone interior design appointment or as part of our integrated concept-to-completion service.
Yes — and a large share of our interior design work is exactly that. Clients come to us with an architect and contractor already appointed, and we dovetail into the existing team to produce the best possible result. The integrated concept-to-completion service is an option when clients want it; it is not a requirement.
Yes. Even where a brief is predominantly interior — particularly the prime central London apartment work that often sits inside listed mansion blocks — our in-house architects can take on the statutory side: planning applications, listed-building consent, building regulations, party-wall matters, and landlord consent on leasehold apartments. The architectural and interior teams sit in the same studio, so coordination happens naturally rather than across firms. It is one less professional appointment for you to make and one less handover between disciplines.
Yes. The studio is stylistically agnostic — we work in the language the house and the client call for. Recent projects range from Grade II listed Georgian restorations in Mayfair to fully contemporary new builds in the Home Counties and internationally.
Yes, where the ambition is there. The smallest projects we take on are often a single significant room — a drawing room, a primary suite, a kitchen — where the client wants the same care and quality on a contained scale.
Yes. The studio advises on both, and works with established art consultants and dealers when a project calls for it. Clients can elect to be closely involved in selection or to delegate entirely.
Every project has its own timeline, shaped by complexity, scope of works, and the client’s priorities. We produce a detailed programme once the design direction is established and update you regularly. Smaller commissions — a room, or a decoration-and-furnishing brief — typically run three to six months. More significant schemes involving bespoke joinery, structural work, or listed-building considerations can run to eighteen months, two years, or longer from first brief to occupation.
04 — Section
Open-book main-contractor delivery, available alongside our design team. Single-contract accountability for the build.
Yes. Janine Stone is the main contractor on every project we deliver. You sign one contract — with us. We then sign our own contracts with every trade on the project. You have no contractual exposure to the individual trades. Our work covers new builds, whole-home remodellings, extensions including basements, sensitive period and listed-property renovations, and high-end apartment fit-outs.
You see every cost. We contract each trade directly and show you the contract and the price for each one. Our own management fee is agreed separately with you at the outset and stated plainly. There are no hidden mark-ups on subcontractor costs and no opaque margins. You can make informed decisions at every stage, and there are no surprises at final account.
From around 15 on a smaller build up to as many as 50 on a significant scheme. They cover both the hard build (groundworks, structural, plumbing, electrics, roofing, plastering) and the higher-skill finishes that define a prime residential interior — bespoke cabinet-making, stone, fine joinery, decorative plasterwork, cornicing, internal doors, and specialist decoration.
Employed. Every project has a named project manager who is a Janine Stone employee — not an external contractor — backed by a senior director and with site-based supervision scaled to the works. The same team stays with the project from start to finish.
Every project starts with a detailed construction programme and cost programme that we agree with you before any work begins on site. From that point we manage against those programmes, monitoring progress and costs closely and updating you regularly. Variations do occur — most often from client-led changes during the build, or unforeseen circumstances on restoration and listed-building projects. Where they do, we bring revised figures to you for sign-off before the change is implemented. The intention throughout is to hold to the agreed numbers and to make sure there are no nasty surprises at the end.
No. The construction team is only available when our design team is also appointed — interior design and usually architecture. The in-house construction company exists to ensure our designs are delivered to the standard and efficiency our studio sets; that integration is part of how we take responsibility for the finished result. If what you need is independent construction management on a project designed entirely by others, we would be honest with you that we are probably not the right fit.
We have a group of trusted trades and artisans built up over many years, and for every project the work is competitively tendered or negotiated across that pool — we do not simply hand a project to the same firm each time. Our role is to assemble the strongest combination for the particular scheme and to bring you competitive prices to compare before any appointment is made. Where you have a subcontractor you have worked with before and would like considered, or want to introduce a new firm into the tender, we are equally happy to include them, provided they meet our screening: examples of their work, references, financial standing, and appropriate insurance. Every appointment is signed off by you on the basis of the prices and submissions in front of you.
05 — Section
A separate, complimentary advisory service: senior, considered advice at the property before you commit, on what it could become.
Clarity is a complimentary pre-purchase advisory service. Before you commit to a property, one of our senior people meets you at the site and gives you considered advice on what is plausible and achievable with it — what changes would be likely to gain consent, what would be straightforward, what might prove more difficult, and where the real opportunities lie. It is a sounding board at the point in the process where most buyers do not have one. For many clients that initial meeting is all they need: a second pair of eyes and a piece of validation that lets them proceed with confidence — or that helps them choose between two properties. Where a client wants to take the work further with outline sketches or a deeper look at feasibility, we are happy to do that with them.
A structural survey tells you the condition of a property — what is wrong with it today. A financial valuation tells you what a lender will accept it as worth. What neither does is test the assumptions you may have made about it as a future home. You may have assumed you can do something that turns out to be difficult, or assumed you cannot do something that is in fact perfectly possible — and walked away from the right property as a result. Clarity is the missing piece of pre-purchase due diligence: an experienced view on what is plausible and achievable with the property, while the survey covers the bricks and mortar.
Private buyers using it as a sounding board before committing. Buying agents who want their clients to have a second-pair-of-eyes view on what the property could become before they advise on an offer. Estate agents whose serious buyer is hesitating to commit, or threatening to pull back from an offer already made, because the scope of works feels overwhelming — a Clarity meeting reassures that buyer about what is plausible and achievable, who can manage the project, and how it would all come together, moving them from hesitation to firm offer and helping them hold their nerve through to exchange.
Usually within a couple of days. We appreciate that submitting an offer can come with tight deadlines — particularly when more than one party is interested in a property — and we are set up to respond quickly so that we can meet you at the property before the moment passes. Where a client wants us to take the work further afterwards, the timing for that is agreed at the meeting.
Entirely. Anything we discuss or produce sits between us and you — it is not shared with vendors, agents, or third parties without your explicit consent.
Yes, and many of our clients take that path. The site visit and the thinking developed during Clarity form a natural starting point for a full design brief, and the architect or designer who met you at the property often becomes part of the project team. There is no obligation, however — Clarity is a standalone service. The continuity is there when clients want it.
06 — Section
The shape of projects we take on, how fees are structured, and where we work.
Smaller interior design schemes — a single significant room, or a decoration-and-furnishing brief on an apartment — can start in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. We do not turn projects down on the basis of size. What matters more is whether the client is looking for something genuinely considered and made to last. We will decline a £10 million project where the brief is fundamentally about minimum spec, just as readily as we will accept a smaller project where the ambition is there.
Whole-house projects involving bespoke joinery, fine finishes, art and furniture frequently run into multi-million-pound territory; the largest projects we have delivered exceed twenty million.
Most of our work is in the UK and centred around prime central London and the surrounding countryside — Surrey, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire and other Home Counties. We have also delivered projects internationally: North America (including New York), the South of France, Monaco, wider Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Russia, and as far east as Hong Kong. We are willing to consider projects anywhere in the world if the fit is right.
Interior design fees are typically calculated as a percentage of the delivered scheme, set against a detailed scope agreed with you at the outset. Architecture fees follow RIBA stages. Construction is delivered as a separately-agreed management fee on top of fully-disclosed subcontractor costs (open-book). We provide a transparent fee proposal after the first meeting, with no obligation to proceed.
Our work is high-end, so the prices reflect that. But we do not believe our clients pay more than they would coordinating three separate top-tier firms — the integrated model removes overlapping coordination costs, and our access to long-trusted trades and suppliers means we procure at competitive prices. We take pride in delivering best value for our clients within the high-quality bracket they are working in.
Not on our integrated projects. The level of detail required to give a fixed price for a substantial scheme cannot honestly be produced before design work has progressed. What we will give you, after a first conversation, is an indicative cost range based on comparable projects we have delivered — enough to know whether the project is viable. The detailed cost programme is built up once the design direction is agreed, and it is open-book throughout so you see how every figure was reached.
Still have questions?
If your question isn’t answered above, we are very glad to talk through anything else you would like to understand about how we work, before any commitment.
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