Before we let ourselves get seduced by swatches, there's a conversation we always have first. The floor plan is the skeleton - and if the bones are wrong, no amount of beautiful furniture will save you.

There's a conversation I have on every project. A couple arrives full of excitement - dark walls, bespoke joinery, a bathroom that feels like a retreat - and then, almost in the same breath, they start talking themselves out of it.

"We prefer showers, but we're thinking about resale."

It's one of the most common things I hear. And it's worth examining what designing for resale actually means in practice.

You don't lack taste, you lack time.

You already know what you love - you've saved the images, you remember how you felt in the spaces you loved. What you don't have is the hours, or the particular kind of mental energy that design demands. Good design isn't just taste, it's decisions. Hundreds of them. Dimensions, lead times, contractors, finishes, light, flow, function.

Most people already have enough on their plate.

Smart people still hire designers. Just like they hire accountants.

That's where we come in.

We have a new name and a new address. We've moved from the Leather Market in London Bridge to the brilliant Market Peckham, and we've officially rebranded from Zeal Kitchen and Interior Projects to Studio Zeal. Here's the story behind both changes, and what stays exactly the same.