Hiring an interior design firm for a senior living project is a bigger decision than it looks. The firm’s work will shape how residents move, how staff work, how families feel on a tour and how much the building costs to run a few years after opening. You’ll live with the choice for a long time.
Here’s what we’d look for if we sat on your side of the table. Yes, we’re a design firm, so feel free to read this with one eyebrow raised. We’ve tried to make it useful no matter who you hire.
1. Real senior living experience, by care level
Ask to see independent living, assisted living and memory care work separately. They’re different design problems, and a firm that has only done one may treat the others as the same thing with different paint. Ask how their approach changed across levels: seating, contrast, lighting, wayfinding and the scale of the rooms.
Also ask what they’ve learned from communities after opening. The best answers come from firms that go back and look.
2. A clear point of view on making it feel like a home, not a facility
Every senior design firm says “home-like.” Ask them to show you how they got there on a real budget with real durability demands. Which performance fabrics? Which flooring? How did they handle handrails, storage and nurse call devices so none of it read as clinical? You want specifics, not adjectives.
3. They bring up operations without being asked
A strong senior living designer will ask about your dining program, housekeeping, staffing and care model early. They’ll want to know where supplies live, how staff move through the building and who can see what from the care station. If a firm only talks about color palettes, they’re designing a picture, not a building.
4. They want to come in early
Ask when they prefer to start. You’re looking for a firm that wants a seat at schematic design, reviewing plans with you, not one that’s content to pick finishes after the drawings are done. Early involvement is where the savings live. In our experience, a change costs about $1 at schematic design, $3 to $5 at design development, $10 to $15 at construction documents and $25 to $50 during construction.
5. Construction documents a GC can build from
A beautiful concept is worth very little if the drawings and specs are vague. Ask to see a sample set of interior construction documents and a finish schedule. Are they complete, coordinated and clear? Accurate documents are how you keep change orders and field questions from piling up during construction.
6. Full FF&E, start to finish
Senior living FF&E is specialized: seating with the right heights and arms, cleanable fabrics, stable tables, lighting, and art and accessories that are secured to the wall. Ask whether the firm handles specification, procurement, tracking, warehousing, delivery and install, or whether they hand over a spec and wish you luck. One team all the way through install means fewer gaps and fewer surprises during move-in week.
7. Durability measured in years, not photos
Ask how they choose finishes for lifecycle cost. What do they expect a lounge to look like in year four? Which products have they stopped specifying, and why? A firm that can answer those questions has been paying attention long after the photographer went home.
The right firm designs for the tour, the shift change and year four, all at the same time.
A quick scorecard
| Question | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Can you show IL, AL and memory care separately? | Yes, along with how the approach differs |
| How do you keep it feeling like home with durable products? | Specific products and swaps, not adjectives |
| How do you work with operations and care leadership? | Early meetings, walk-throughs, sample testing |
| When do you like to start? | Schematic design |
| Can we see a CD set and finish schedule? | Yes, and it’s thorough |
| Do you handle FF&E procurement and install? | Yes, start to finish |
| What have you learned from buildings after opening? | Real examples of what they changed |
Red flags
- A portfolio of renderings with no finished photography
- Plenty of talk about trends and very little about residents
- No questions about your operating model
- Fuzzy answers on procurement, lead times or install
- Every project looks the same, regardless of location or care level
A good interview, in practice
Bring your operations or care lead to the interview, not just the development team. Hand each firm the same floor plan and ask them to talk through it for twenty minutes. Where would they put the lounge? What worries them about the corridors? What would they want to know about your dining program? You’ll learn more from that conversation than from any proposal binder, and your operations lead will spot the firms that actually understand the work.
Fit matters too
You’ll spend a lot of meetings with this team. Pick people who listen, who are honest about trade-offs and who make the process easier for your staff instead of harder. Our best partnerships are the ones where the client calls us back for the next building, and then the one after that.
Since 1995, we’ve completed 1,500 projects, and the ones that went best all started with the right questions on both sides of the table.
We hope this helps you find the right partner, whether it turns out to be us or someone else.
