FF&E procurement, spec to install.

FF&E procurement is the half of interior design that behaves like logistics: specifying the furniture, fixtures, and equipment, getting the client's yes in writing, ordering from a dozen vendors, chasing lead times, and landing everything in the right room, undamaged, before install day. This guide covers the full loop, including the one calculation most studios never write down: the order-by date.

Start with a spec worth trading on

Every piece gets a code (LR-01, KI-02), a name, a source, and a price context, organized by room. From one spec list you should be able to produce three different documents: a client version showing client prices, a trade version with no prices for contractors and installers, and an internal version with your costs. If your spec cannot produce all three without retyping, the spec is a document, not a system.

No order before a written yes

The rule that prevents the worst weeks of this job: nothing is ordered until the client approved it in writing and, ideally, funded it. A deposit invoice covering the approved pieces does both at once, because a paid deposit is the least ambiguous approval there is. When a client approves a selection and pays its deposit, that piece is released for ordering; anything they declined never gets near a purchase order. Verbal approvals are how studios end up owning sofas.

The purchase order, properly

A real PO carries: your studio's identity, a PO number the vendor will quote back to you, the project reference, each item with quantity and agreed cost, ship-to details, and where tracking information should be sent. Email it, and know whether it was actually opened; a PO sitting unread in a rep's inbox for a week is a lead time silently extending. If a vendor has not opened a PO within a few days, that is a phone call, not a hope.

The order-by date: the calculation that saves installs

Every unordered piece has a last safe ordering date, and it is arithmetic, not intuition:

Install date, minus the vendor's quoted lead time, minus a two-week buffer for receiving, inspection, and the freight claim you hope not to file. Run it for every piece and the list sorts itself into ordered, comfortable, order soon, and already late. Run it backward and it answers the other question clients ask: given what is specced today, what is the earliest realistic install? The piece with the longest lead time is your critical path, and it is usually upholstery or lighting.

Expediting: manage promises, not hopes

A vendor's ship date is a promise, and promises drift. Write down every date a vendor gives you and every date they later move it to. Within a season you will know which brands ship when they said and which ones need a three-week cushion and a weekly call. That record, kept per vendor, is worth more than any discount when you are deciding between two sources for a client with a hard deadline.

Receiving is where money gets saved

Every delivery gets checked in while the driver is still there if possible: piece count, carton condition, and a fast inspection. Damage gets photographed immediately and noted in writing, because freight claims have short windows and long memories. A delivered-but-never-inspected order is a problem you have simply chosen to discover on install day.

Install day is a logistics receipt

If the loop above ran correctly, install day is choreography: everything on site, inspected, and staged. The spec schedule the installers carry should be the live trade version, not a PDF from three weeks ago, because the spec that changed since then is exactly the one they will ask about.

The loop, in one list

• Spec with codes, by room, exportable three ways
• Written client approval, ideally a funded deposit, before any order
• POs with numbers, sent so you know they were opened
• Order-by dates computed for every piece: install minus lead time minus two weeks
• Vendor promises written down and tracked against reality
• Same-day receiving inspection with photos