Northern Lights Design

    Interior Designers

    Specification Support, Samples & Finish Schedules

    Materials across flooring, tile, stone, and slab, samples where you need them, and finish schedules documented well enough to hand a contractor. Specialty lines included — and available for projects outside Montana on a reviewed, quote-led basis.

    Northern Lights Design is a specialty materials supplier — we do not perform installation or fabrication. We are never bidding against your project team.

    Designer Support

    What a Designer Account Includes

    Specification support

    Bring a concept, a mood board, or a finish schedule in progress. We match materials to the intent, then verify each one against the exposure it actually has to survive — wet, sunlit, radiant-heated, or high-traffic.

    Sample logistics

    Samples to your studio, your client's home, or a job site. Larger boards for presentation, checked-out samples for a client meeting, and reserve holds on a colorway while a decision is pending.

    Finish schedules that hold up

    Product name, run, size, finish, trim, and setting materials documented per room so the schedule can be handed to a contractor without a week of clarification emails.

    Quantities and overage

    Pattern layouts change the math. Herringbone, diagonal, large-format, and stone with directional veining all carry different waste factors, and we calculate them rather than defaulting to ten percent.

    Specialty and limited-distribution lines

    We are the only Flathead Valley carrier of the Z Collection and one of relatively few area sources for Porcelanosa, alongside the mainstream lines. Specialty access is often the difference between specifying what you want and specifying what is nearby.

    Remote specification for out-of-area projects

    Working outside Northwest Montana? We review availability and supplier territory for your destination, ship samples to you, and quote delivery to the site. Confirmed in writing, project by project.

    Specification Notes

    Six Specification Gaps Worth Catching Early

    These are the ones that turn into a client conversation later. Every one of them is solvable at selection, and none of them require compromising the design.

    Beautiful tile specified into the wrong exposure

    Slip resistance, water absorption, and finish direction matter more than the photograph. Polished porcelain on a shower floor and soft honed marble at a mudroom entry are the two we intercept most often. There is almost always a look-alike that performs.

    Natural stone specified without maintenance disclosure

    Marble and many quartzites etch, patinate, or need periodic sealing. Specifying them is fine — specifying them without telling the client in writing is what creates the phone call six months later. We supply the maintenance documentation to attach to the schedule.

    Wood specified over radiant heat without checking the system

    Engineered construction, board width, species stability, and maximum surface temperature all interact. Wide-plank solid over radiant is the classic gap-and-cup complaint. We flag the manufacturer's radiant requirements before the order.

    Dye lot and run ignored across phases

    Ordering a room now and a room later usually means a visible difference. Order the whole scope on one run, plan overage and attic stock at the same time, and record the run in the close-out file for future repairs.

    Trim, transitions, and edge details left to the installer

    Stair noses, reducers, schluter profiles, bullnose availability, and slab edge treatments are design decisions with lead times of their own. Large-format and specialty lines frequently lack a matching trim, which changes the detail.

    Lead time discovered after the client approves

    Imported tile, slab, and special-order wood commonly run four to eight weeks or longer. We confirm current lead time in writing during selection so the presentation includes a real date instead of an optimistic one.

    Where to Go From Here

    Compare materials in the comparison guides, browse specifiable lines in the brand directory, and download planning tools from guides and resources. Specifying with a builder or GC? Contractor material supply explains what they receive. Project outside Northwest Montana? Regional and remote project delivery covers availability, freight, and receiving.

    Common Questions

    Designer Questions, Answered FAQ

    Yes. Designers are a core part of how we work. We support specification and sample logistics and document finish schedules so they can be handed to a contractor cleanly. We supply materials only and do not perform installation or fabrication, so we are never competing with your project team.

    Often yes, reviewed project by project. We confirm whether each product line can be legitimately supplied to your destination, ship samples to your studio, and quote delivery to the site. We have no branches, crews, trucks, or local inventory outside Northwest Montana, so remote projects are quote-led and confirmed in writing. See regional and remote project delivery for details.

    Larger presentation boards and checked-out samples for client meetings can be arranged, and we can hold a colorway while a client decides. Samples can ship to your studio or directly to the client. Request samples through the samples page or by calling (406) 314-8713.

    Contact our team to discuss an account and current terms. One point of contact covers flooring, tile, stone, and slab counters, which matters when a single residence pulls hardwood, three tile lines, carpet, and two slab selections.

    Whichever you prefer, and we will ask before contacting anyone. Some designers want us in the showroom for a materials walk-through; others want samples and documentation delivered so the presentation stays entirely theirs. If a client of yours contacts us directly, we route the conversation back through you.

    That is most of what we do. Kitchens, bathrooms, basements, entries, and radiant-heated floors each have failure modes worth designing around. Our comparison guides cover hardwood versus luxury vinyl, tile versus luxury vinyl, and granite versus quartz versus marble, and we will apply the same reasoning to your specific room and climate.

    Product names, sizes, finishes, runs, quantities with overage, trim and transition components, setting materials, technical data such as PEI, DCOF, wear layer, and Janka, warranty terms, and maintenance instructions. Enough that the contractor can order confidently and the client can maintain the surface correctly.

    Roughly 7 to 10 percent on straight-lay plank, 12 to 15 percent on diagonal and herringbone, more in small cut-heavy rooms, and more again for stone where veining is being matched or selected around. Attic stock is separate from waste and should be specified deliberately.

    Yes — quartz, granite, quartzite, marble, and porcelain slab. We supply the slab material; fabrication and installation are handled by a fabricator, which we can coordinate with but do not perform. Templating, seam placement, and edge profiles are decided with the fabricator on the schedule.

    Yes, and this is where planning matters most. We set quantities, overage, and attic stock at order time and record the run so later phases match. For multifamily and hospitality work, see the commercial procurement pathway.

    In-stock lines can move within days. Standard orders run one to three weeks. Imported tile, slab, and special-order hardwood run four to eight weeks or longer, and out-of-area freight adds transit and appointment time. Selecting a full package six to eight weeks before install is comfortable; two weeks is not.

    We will tell you plainly rather than quietly substituting. Supplier territory restrictions are real and vary by manufacturer. When a line is unavailable at your destination, we propose alternates with the technical and visual reasoning behind each one so the design intent survives the substitution.
    Designer Resources

    Specification & Selection Tools