Working with an interior designer
Interior designers are not just for the rich and famous. Most designers will offer a range of services to suit your needs and budget, from colour palette advice, helping you to work with what you’ve got with a few improvements and new pieces to designing a new scheme and implementing a full refurbishment of your room or home.
Working with a designer can be life-changing as they can offer solutions that you may not have thought of and will often have a portfolio of projects to draw experience and knowledge from. A good designer will work in collaboration with their client, they will get to know their clients’ tastes and understand how a space needs to work for them and/or their family.
Here are a few pieces of advice to get the conversation started on hiring an interior design consultant.
Have realistic expectations - We all love to watch TV design shows, however in reality a lot of work goes in to curating spaces and creating designs, material and furniture sourcing and project management. Speak honestly with your designer about your expectations and requirements.
Find the right fit - Make sure you hire the right person, team or company for you. Not all designers are created equal. Like all of us, each designer has his or her own unique personal tastes, quirks and business practices. To make sure your project is a success, it’s important that you and your designer are on the same page with a lot of these details. You may need to interview a few before you find someone who’s the right fit.In the design world, this interview is called a consultation. It can be an in-person meeting or held over the phone, and it can be paid or unpaid. You can use this time to ask to see samples of the designer’s work, learn more about their process, and ask about business practices, such as their preferred methods for communication and billing.You can also use this time to let the designer get to know you. Feel free to bring in a few photos or items you intend to use for design inspiration. Let the designer know about your specific quirks and personal preferences. By the end of the meeting, you should have a good sense of whether the two of you will work well together.
Fees vs Project Costs - Find out from the start how your budget will be managed. A lot of designers offer day rates for simple projects and take a percentage on sourcing, some companies may offer a complete project fee which will include tradespeople and expenditure.
Communication is key! - Above all, good communication is the key to making sure your project comes to fruition the way you’ve been hoping. Sometimes, newer clients are hesitant to make their true opinions known because they feel they’re less knowledgeable than the designer, but at the end of the day, they’re the ones who need to be happy with the end result.Good designers actually prefer decisive clients. Definitive opinions make their job easier in the moment and they know that happy clients are more likely to lead to future business. So, if you want to request changes from your designer, go right ahead.That said, the earlier you give feedback, the easier it will be to make changes. Particularly, if it’s given before purchases have been made. Purchases can be returned or just remain unused, but that privilege may come with an extra fee.