What to Ask a Luxury Interior Designer Before You Hire Them

If you are planning a remodel or renovation in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, or anywhere in Arizona, you will need permits for most construction work. What many homeowners do not realize until they are already deep in the process is that not every interior designer can legally pull those permits.

Here is the straightforward answer and what it means for your project.

Who Can Pull Permits in Arizona

In Arizona, pulling a construction permit requires a licensed general contractor. Specifically, a firm must hold an active license through the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, known as the ROC, to legally perform and permit construction work on a residential property.

An interior designer who does not hold a GC license cannot pull permits. Period. They can design the most beautiful kitchen renovation in Scottsdale, but if that renovation involves moving walls, relocating plumbing, adding electrical circuits, or any other work that triggers a permit requirement, a licensed general contractor has to be the party pulling those permits and taking legal responsibility for the construction.

This is not a technicality. It is a meaningful distinction that affects who is accountable for your project and what happens if something goes wrong.

What Requires a Permit in Arizona

In Scottsdale and the greater Phoenix metro area, permits are typically required for the following types of work.

Structural changes including removing or adding walls, opening up floor plans, or modifying load-bearing elements all require permits and engineering review.

Electrical work beyond simple fixture replacements, including adding circuits, moving panel components, or installing new outlets in certain locations, requires an electrical permit.

Plumbing work including relocating sinks, toilets, or showers, adding new plumbing lines, or modifying the drain and supply system requires a plumbing permit.

Mechanical work including modifications to HVAC systems, ductwork changes, or adding new equipment requires a mechanical permit.

Additions and structural modifications of any kind require building permits and in many cases engineered drawings.

Kitchen and bathroom remodels that involve any of the above, which most do, require permits even if they are not full structural renovations.

Cosmetic work, meaning painting, flooring replacement, cabinet refacing, or furniture changes, typically does not require permits. But the moment you open a wall or move a plumbing fixture, you are in permit territory.

What Happens if You Skip Permits

Skipping permits is a risk that homeowners sometimes take, often because a contractor suggests it will save time or money. It is worth understanding what that risk actually looks like.

Unpermitted work can create serious problems when you sell your home. Buyers and their inspectors routinely identify unpermitted work, and in many cases the seller is required to bring that work up to current code before closing. What seemed like a shortcut during the renovation becomes a very expensive problem at sale.

Unpermitted work may not be covered by your homeowner’s insurance. If something goes wrong, a fire, a flood, a structural failure, and the cause is traced to unpermitted construction, your insurer may deny the claim.

In some cases municipalities can require unpermitted work to be opened up, inspected, and redone at the homeowner’s expense. This is relatively rare but it happens.

The bottom line is that permits exist to protect you. A licensed general contractor who pulls permits is taking legal responsibility for the work meeting current building codes. That is worth something.

How Living With Lolo Handles Permits

At Living With Lolo, we hold an active Arizona general contractor license through the ROC. That means we handle all permitting for every project we manage as a standard part of our process.

You do not need to research permit requirements, contact the city, submit applications, or schedule inspections. We manage all of it. Every inspection is scheduled and passed before we move to the next phase of construction. Every project we complete has a clean permit history, which protects our clients at sale and gives them confidence that the work was done correctly.

This is one of the most practical reasons to work with an integrated design-build firm rather than hiring a designer and a contractor separately. When design and construction are managed by the same licensed entity, there is no gap in accountability between the two. The firm that designed the work is the same firm that permitted it and built it.

Questions to Ask Your Designer About Permits

If you are interviewing interior designers for a project that involves any construction work, here are the questions to ask directly.

Do you hold a general contractor license in Arizona? Ask for their ROC license number and verify it at roc.az.gov.

Will you be pulling the permits for this project? If they say yes, verify that they hold a GC license to do so. If they say no, ask who will be pulling permits and what that relationship looks like contractually.

What is your process if we discover unpermitted work during construction? This happens more often than people expect, especially in older Scottsdale homes. A firm with experience in this market will have a clear answer.

The Difference Between a Designer Who Coordinates Construction and a Designer Who Manages It

If you are interviewing interior designers for a project that involves any construction work, here are the questions to ask directly.

Do you hold a general contractor license in Arizona? Ask for their ROC license number and verify it at roc.az.gov.

Will you be pulling the permits for this project? If they say yes, verify that they hold a GC license to do so. If they say no, ask who will be pulling permits and what that relationship looks like contractually.

What is your process if we discover unpermitted work during construction? This happens more often than people expect, especially in older Scottsdale homes. A firm with experience in this market will have a clear answer.

What This Means for Your Scottsdale Remodel

If you are planning a remodel in Scottsdale or Paradise Valley that involves any construction work, here is the practical takeaway.

Make sure the firm you hire holds an active ROC general contractor license. Verify it yourself at roc.az.gov before you sign anything. Ask specifically who will be pulling your permits and confirm that person or firm is licensed to do so.

If you want one team managing design, construction, and permits under one contract with full accountability for every phase, that is exactly what Living With Lolo is built to do.

What to Ask a Luxury Interior Designer Before You Hire Them

Hiring a luxury interior designer is one of the most significant decisions you will make for your home. The firm you choose will have access to your space, your budget, and your daily life for anywhere from six months to two years. Getting it right matters.

Most designers will show you a beautiful portfolio and tell you what you want to hear in a first meeting. The questions below are designed to get past the presentation and into the substance of how a firm actually works.

We are sharing these because we believe informed clients make the best clients. If you ask these questions and a firm cannot answer them clearly, that is information worth having before you sign a contract.

Questions About Credentials and Licensing

Do you hold a general contractor license in Arizona?

This is the single most important question you can ask a designer in the Scottsdale market, especially if your project involves any construction, remodeling, or renovation work.

An interior designer without a GC license cannot legally pull permits, cannot supervise construction, and is not legally accountable for construction outcomes. They can coordinate with a contractor on your behalf, but the contractor is a separate entity with a separate contract and separate accountability.

Ask to see the license and verify it at roc.az.gov. A firm that holds both an interior design credential and an active ROC general contractor license is a fundamentally different offering than on

Are you NCIDQ certified or a member of ASID?

These are the primary professional credentials in interior design. NCIDQ certification requires passing a rigorous exam and meeting experience requirements. ASID membership indicates professional standing in the industry. Neither is legally required to practice interior design in Arizona, but they signal a commitment to professional standards.

What is your insurance coverage?

Any firm doing construction work should carry general liability insurance and workers compensation coverage. Ask for a certificate of insurance and verify that coverage is current. This protects you if something goes wrong on your property during the project.

Questions About Process and Project Management

Who will be my day-to-day point of contact?

In many design firms, the principal designer sells the project and then hands it off to a junior designer or project coordinator. Ask directly who you will be working with day to day, who attends site visits, and who makes design decisions when questions come up during construction.

At Living With Lolo, our founder Lauren Lerner is involved in every project. We do not sell work and hand it off.

How do you manage communication during construction?

A whole-home remodel involves hundreds of decisions over many months. Ask what the firm’s communication process looks like. How often will you receive updates? Through what channel? Who do you call when you have a question or concern? A firm with a clear answer to this question has managed complex projects before. A firm that fumbles this answer probably has not.

How do you handle changes during construction?

Change orders are a normal part of construction. Hidden conditions behind walls, product substitutions, and client-initiated changes all happen. Ask how the firm documents and prices changes, how quickly change orders are presented, and what approval is required before additional work proceeds. A firm that cannot answer this clearly may be the type that presents a large surprise invoice at the end of a project.

How do you manage procurement and what happens when something is delayed or arrives damaged?

Custom furniture, lighting, and finishes have long lead times and are occasionally damaged in transit. Ask how the firm tracks orders, what their process is when something arrives wrong, and how they manage substitutions when a product is discontinued mid-project. This is a real operational question and the answer will tell you a lot about how experienced the firm is at running complex projects.

Questions About Budget and Fees

How do you charge for your services?

Fee structures vary significantly across luxury design firms. Some charge hourly, some charge a flat project fee, some charge a percentage of total project cost, and most use some combination. There is no universally right answer but you should understand exactly how you will be billed before you sign anything.

Ask for the fee structure in writing, ask what is included and what is not, and ask for an estimate of total design fees for your project scope before work begins.

Do you apply a markup on furnishings and materials?

Most full-service designers purchase goods on your behalf and apply a markup above trade cost. This is standard practice and it compensates the firm for the time, relationships, and expertise required to source and manage high-quality goods. Typical markups in the luxury market run 20 to 35 percent above trade cost.

Ask about this directly. A firm that is not transparent about markup structure is a firm worth being cautious about.

Have you completed projects at my budget level before?

This is a direct question that deserves a direct answer. A firm that primarily works on $150,000 furnishing projects operates very differently from a firm that manages $800,000 design-build renovations. Ask for examples of completed projects at your budget level and ask to speak with past clients if possible.

Questions About Their Portfolio and Experience

Can I see completed projects similar to mine in scope and style?

A portfolio of beautiful photography is not the same as a track record of successfully completed projects at your scale. Ask to see specific completed projects that are similar to yours in scope, whether that is a whole-home remodel, a new construction interior, or a specific room type. Ask about the timeline, budget, and any challenges that came up during those projects.

Do you have experience with Scottsdale and Paradise Valley specifically?

The local market matters. HOA and ARC approval processes, preferred trade relationships, permit timelines, and the specific aesthetic sensibility of the luxury buyer in this market are all things an experienced local firm will know intuitively. Ask how many projects they have completed in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley specifically and whether they have relationships with local trades and vendors.

Have you been featured in any design publications or won any industry awards?

Press recognition and industry awards are not vanity metrics in the luxury design world. They signal that the firm’s work has been evaluated by outside authorities and found worthy of recognition. Phoenix Magazine’s Best of the Valley, Houzz Best of Design, Architectural Digest AD Pro, and Luxe Interiors and Design features are all meaningful signals in the Scottsdale market.

One Final Question

Why should I hire you over the other firms I am considering?

This question will tell you everything. A firm with genuine confidence in their differentiation will answer it directly and specifically. They will tell you what they do differently, what their clients say about working with them, and what makes their approach uniquely suited to your project.

If the answer is vague or sounds like a rehearsed pitch, trust that instinct.

At Living With Lolo, our answer is this. We are the only luxury interior design firm in Scottsdale that also holds an active general contractor license. We design and build your project under one roof, under one contract, with one team that is accountable for every phase from concept through construction and final installation. Our work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Phoenix Magazine, Luxe Interiors and Design, and Houzz every year since 2018. And our clients will tell you that the experience of working with us is as good as the finished product.

That is our answer. Make sure the firm you hire has one just as clear.