Approaching Interior Design With a Planner’s Eye

Club leaders frequently struggle to determine the proper time to execute aesthetic enhancements throughout their clubs. In the past, many clubs have taken a piecemeal approach to interior design, hiring different designers to renovate one room at a time. Often this is only after someone has noticed that a space is a decade past its prime, resulting in a mismatched aesthetic, excessive spending, and a club design that is devoid of character.

Interior enhancement is a method of planning that solves this industry problem. From the big picture to the tiniest details, this type of interior planning examines all aspects of the design and offers definitive guidelines that specify which projects a club should undertake over the next five to 10 years – and when those projects should be implemented. These guidelines also identify efficient financial models that can fund renovations over time, giving clubs a clear picture of what projects their money is being funneled into at any given time. In many ways, interior enhancement is a kind of interior design master plan that establishes a uniform aesthetic, reflects a club’s culture and carries that culture into the future.

Creating a comprehensive Interior Enhancement Plan prevents ever-shifting club leaderships from tackling projects on impulse, or muddying the club’s design aesthetic and conceptual direction, all while potentially wasting money. It also ensures that true specialists are creating designs that suit the club’s exact purpose, rather than hiring a friend-of-friend or a residential designer that is unfamiliar with creating spaces that can endure heavy use.

Recently, Chambers partnered with The Kansas City Country Club to develop an Interior Enhancement Plan that progressively renovates each space, allowing the club to augment their aesthetic in a financially feasible way. “Their professional insight and guidance aided in the development of the groundwork for a comprehensive plan,” says Mark Bado, The Kansas City Country Club’s general manager. Chambers also took the opportunity to design spaces rooted in the club’s historic love of Polo, as well as its rich Scottish heritage.

This is yet another advantage to Interior Enhancement Plans. They allow designers to incorporate local elements into the space that echo a club’s culture, location and history, rather than regurgitating cookie cutter club-esque designs that look outdated within a few years. Unfortunately, club design often ignores the illustrious legacies that clubs are so proud of, but clubs actually have an advantage over other public places because of their long histories. Generation after generation have lived, worked, and played inside club walls. There is a vibrant energy to work from there, a distinct atmosphere that can be teased out with thoughtful design. Ultimately, it is that sense of authenticity that makes private clubs so exciting to work with as a designer.

Quality Interior Enhancement Plans truly enrich the member experience overall. They invite members to develop an emotional bond with their club without foregoing cohesion, freshness, or functionality. These plans create continuity between members and the space they occupy, allowing them to truly feel at ease in a place that has been tailored to their needs and attitudes. And that is exactly how members should feel when they set foot in their club – like they are being welcomed home by family.

For more information about interior enhancement, contact me at (410) 727-4535 or via email at cturner@chambersusa.com.