Case study: 1805 Design & Décor

1805 Design & Décor is a decorating and interiors company working across Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Lothians. Vellier was built inside it: the business has run on it every day while it was being made.

The business

Most of 1805's work is in people's homes: anything from a single room to a whole house, with full preparation and colour consultations. Its clients want a high standard of finish, but they also want a proper service around it. They want to know what is happening and to stay in control of their project, rather than handing their home over to a tradesperson and hoping for the best.

What wasn't working

Before Vellier, the business ran on five separate systems, and none of them talked to each other.

• Proposals were fixed. The proposal software was hard to change to the way 1805 actually wanted to present its work.
• No suitable client portal. Nobody offered a portal that worked for clients, and the closest option wanted around £700 for the portal alone.
• Stock was painful. Inventory in other systems was hard work, and spreadsheets didn't stop the team buying materials it already had.
• The team app was another separate system. Connecteam worked well, but it was one more place to look.
• Contracts had to protect everyone. They needed to be airtight for both the client and the business.
• Costs were only recorded, not watched. Project cost tracking showed what had been typed in, with no warning or guidance when a job was drifting.
• Keeping clients up to date was manual. Every day meant writing texts or emails about what had happened on site.
• Extras weren't agreed properly. There was no agreed way to approve extra work and get it signed off before doing it.
• Payment was too easy to put off. Time was set aside for each client and the payment date was agreed, yet some clients treated paying as something to get round to, rather than a step that had to happen before the team left.

What changed

Now everything is under one roof, and it all talks to each other.

• A proposal before leaving the house. "When I leave a quote appointment now, I have a built proposal ready to send before I've even left their home."
• Quoting that learns. Vellier compares each quote with similar past jobs and says when it looks a little high or low.
• Knowing when a client is reading. Vellier shows when a client opens and views a proposal, so 1805 can follow up while it's still in their mind.
• Stock that knows what's there. The business can see the value of its stock, and Vellier suggests a substitute when an item runs out, so nothing is bought twice.
• Paid before leaving. When the client signs off the finished work in person, the final payment is taken there and then, so the team is paid before it leaves.
• Covered when the client isn't there. With distance sign-off, the client approves the work remotely and the card they saved when signing is charged automatically for the balance. That's agreed up front in the terms and conditions.
• Automated payments. Payments are taken on the agreed stages, so chasing is no longer part of the job.
• A portal clients actually use. Clients follow their project's progress themselves, from the daily reports the team already writes on site.
• Changes agreed before they happen. Extra work is priced, approved and signed by the client before it starts.

The results

From 1805's own records in Vellier, May to October 2026:

In their words

"All of a sudden you have everything under one roof, and it all talks to one another. It's like the business admin runs itself. When I leave a quote appointment now, I have a built proposal ready to send before I've even left their home." Oscar Burdett-Weal, Owner, 1805 Design & Décor

Before and after

See the decorator demo or read about Vellier for painters and decorators.