From the first email to handing over the keys
Follow an interiors project from first contact to a finished apartment: five months, two links for the client, and a studio that never lost the thread.
Erin
client · wants to renovate the apartment
Soma Studio
practice · interior design
Planno
working in the background
An email out of nowhere
Erin got Soma’s details from a friend and sends the classic opening question: “what does a project like this cost?”. Within ten seconds the studio has logged the new interest in its pipeline: name, contact, project type. Nothing is left sitting in an inbox.
SOMA STUDIO · INBOX
Erin Caldwell · 8:47 PM
Apartment renovation — recommended by Paula
Hi! Paula gave me your details — we just bought an apartment on Lakeview and would love to renovate…
Wonderful, Erin! We’ll send over a few questions to understand the project 💛
TEN SECONDS LATER, IN THE PIPELINE
Lakeview Apartment
Erin C. · Interiors
Beach house · consultation
Robert A.
Center Street Townhouse
The Lima family
Dr. Paula’s Clinic
follow-up in 2 days
The brief arrives on a link
Soma sends the brief on a link: the studio’s questions, asked the studio’s way. Erin answers from the sofa, on her phone, photos of the apartment and all. The answers arrive organized, ready for the first conversation.
Brief · Lakeview Apartment
Soma Studio
Who is going to live there?
Which rooms are in scope?
Photos of the place today
The proposal, handsome and explained
With the brief read and a visit made, the proposal goes out in minutes: services from the studio’s own catalog, descriptions the client actually understands, Soma’s mark at the top. It goes as a link, not a PDF attachment.
Proposal · Lakeview Apartment
#14 · valid through Sep 5, 2026
A site visit with a full measured survey, photos, and an interview to understand your routine (and Nina’s).
A layout study with alternatives, a moodboard, and a presentation. Includes one round of revisions.
A complete technical set: millwork, lighting, finishes, and the purchase list.
The silence, and the nudge
A week of silence. Nobody had to write a sticky note: Planno remembers on its own. Soma sends a “hi — any questions we can answer?” and finds out Erin was only waiting on her financing to come through.
Lakeview Apartment: proposal sent 7 days ago with no reply.
Mark follow-up done“Accept proposal”
Financing approved. Erin opens the same link and clicks accept. On this side, nothing is copied and nothing is retyped: the project simply carries on, bringing the brief, the proposal, and the whole conversation with it.
Proposal accepted 🎉
Lakeview Apartment · #14 · just now
THE CONTRACT LINE
The funnel ends. The project picks up exactly where it left off.
Nothing is exported to another tool, nothing is retyped. The brief, the proposal, and the conversations cross the line along with the project. Same story, new chapter.
The portal goes live
Soma switches on the client portal and sends the link — the only one Erin will need to save until the job is finished. Everything that appears there from now on was published deliberately; the studio’s own archive stays private.
Lakeview Apartment
Hello, Erin! · Soma Studio
Proposal accepted
$9,600 · 3 work phases
Photos and presentations
coming soon, as the project moves
The survey organizes itself
A visit to the apartment: photos, measurements, a check on the plumbing. Nobody stops the day to file anything — what happens during a phase shows up in that phase. At the end, one click: complete, and on to layout.
PROJECT · TIMELINE
FILES IN THIS PHASE
TASKS
✓ Measured survey · Check the plumbing
The presentation, published rather than attached
Moodboard assembled, 3D rendered. The team picks the best 14 images and a presentation layout, and publishes. Erin gets it in the portal, carrying the studio’s identity — not a zip file over messaging.
THE STUDIO PUBLISHES → ERIN’S PORTAL RECEIVES
1 · SELECT
2 · LAYOUT
Editorial
cover + 14 images
3 · PUBLISH
Publish to portalPresentation · Apartment study
published just now · 14 images
“Love it! It’s just the kitchen…”
A revision request: normal, part of the job. The presentation phase reopens as a second round and the history records all of it: nothing is lost, no file moves.
A form partway through
To detail the kitchen, Soma needs to know which appliances Erin is going to buy. The studio sends a quick form, it shows up as an open item in the portal, and the answer arrives the same day, straight into the project.
Soma asked for: your appliance list
to detail the kitchen · 5 min
Refrigerator
Cooktop
The purchase checklist
In the specification, the team pastes store links and each one becomes a card with a photo, a price, and dimensions. One click turns it into a purchase checklist in the portal, and Erin ticks off what she has already bought. Seven pages of PDF became a living list.
Purchase checklist
12 items · $14,230
5 of 12 purchased · $6,940
Modular sofa, 8 ft
2× · $4,890 · Living room
Kilim rug, 6 × 9 ft
1× · $1,240 · Living room
Pendant light, 3000 K
6× · $329 · Kitchen
Eiffel chair, walnut
4× · $612 · Kitchen
Work in progress
Millwork in production, work underway on site. Soma visits, photographs, and publishes the week’s account. Erin follows along from work, whenever she likes, without having to ask for a photo.
Site visit · week 16
living room millwork installed · 8 photos
Purchase checklist
10 of 12 purchased
Handover: the whole story on one screen
Photo book published, project complete. Five months are laid out on the timeline, from a friend’s recommendation to a finished apartment, with every file, answer, and decision in the phase where it happened. And when another friend asks for the contact… back to Day 0.
LAKEVIEW APARTMENT · COMPLETE
5 months
IN THE END
Five months, two links, zero rework
One single flow
From lead to handover it is the same project: no exported spreadsheet, no copied data, no starting over in another tool.
Two links for the client
A proposal and a portal. That is everything Erin had to save across five months of work. The rest found her.
The story tells itself
Files, answers, and decisions stay in the phase where they happened. Nobody filed anything, and it is all there.
This could be your practice’s journey
The next enquiry that lands in your inbox could start a story like this one.
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