You’ve probably heard this saying: “You only get one chance to make a great first impression.” There’s no question this is true when it comes to visitors at your church. If they walk in the front door and think, “Have I just been transported back to the 1990s?” then you’ve probably lost them. And it doesn’t matter whether your church is large or small, well-off or muddling along; if your interior design is outdated, you’re not going to draw in new people.
This is where a church design consultation can help. As we shared in a recent blog post, we have an interior design professional on staff. Jennifer Snider has spent over 20 years working in the interior design field, half of that with us. If you want to update your church without the cost of a full renovation, she can help—regardless of the size of your church or its interior design budget. In this, the first of a two part post, we’ll focus on a great way Jennifer can help out smaller churches, or ones with tight budgets.
Affordable Church Design Consultations for Small Churches
Jennifer understands that tension between the need to stay updated and the need to stay within budget. While restaurants change their décor on a regular basis to keep attracting customers, she knows that churches have a harder time making this a budgetary priority. Over the years, she has worked up an affordable process that allows even small churches to make a significant difference in the way people see their church building—without breaking the proverbial bank.
How Does the Consultation Work?
Jennifer begins each church design consultation with a brief conversation about your church’s vision. The questions she asks will reveal information about what areas you want to redo, your time frame, and your budget. It’s OK if you don’t have a budget in mind; sometimes you don’t know what it would take financially to update your church, and that becomes part of the conversation.
Based on this meeting, Jennifer puts together a proposal that addresses your needs. She then would talk through the proposal and make sure it’s going to work out for you, including what our fee and the overall budget of the redesign would be. Once we’re agreed, Jennifer would come to your church for a one-time meeting with your interior design team. This should be a small group of people who really have a passion for who they are trying to reach and aren’t necessarily stuck on “what we’ve always done.”
At the meeting, Jennifer will listen to the team, evaluate areas that need updating, show sample finishes and make general recommendations. She follows that up with a written report outlining exactly what was talked about. That report “points you in the right direction” and includes the finishes and colors discussed, samples that might help, and resources, so you can then take what was discussed and know how to implement it in your church.
If You Need a Bit More…
This one-time session is the most cost-effective type of church design consultation, and it provides you with the information you need to then go and take care of the work yourselves. But it does put the bulk of the work on your church’s community and that’s not always ideal. So for churches that need more help, are larger or have bigger budgets, you might want to consider our Full Service Interior Design offering. We’ll tell you more about it in our next post.
Meanwhile, you can contact Jennifer today with your questions at 800-625-6448 or jsnider@mcknightgroup.com, and learn more about church design, building, and renovation projects by signing up for our free i3 webinar series at our website.