Decorating a home to fit its owner’s sense of style is no easy feat. While some homeowners and apartment dwellers take on the job of decorating their living areas themselves, others are better suited to leave this task to a professional.
What to Look for in an Interior Designer
Considering hiring an interior designer? In order to ensure that your home genuinely reflects your taste and vision, you need to pick the right designer for you. Keep reading for six tips to choose the best interior designer for the job.
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Know Your Personal Style
Despite how good an interior designer may be, they won’t be able to give you the decor you want if you don’t actually know what it is you want. Start the process of learning about your style and finding your interior designer by doing some research into what you like. Search through Instagram, Pinterest, and design magazines to get ideas of what furniture pieces, colors, and accessories you are drawn to.
As you look into what shapes your personal style, consider making a mood board. This can be a collage or collection of all the various things that inspire you when it comes to interior design. These pictures will help your interior designer understand what your sense of style is.
As you work to put your style together, imagine yourself as an interior designer. What decisions would you make? What pieces would you choose? Thinking this way will better prepare you to share what you want with your future interior designer.
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Set Your Budget
Unless money isn’t an object for you, it’s important that you begin your interior design search by setting your budget. As no interior designer (aside from a family member or friend) is willing to work for free), you need to determine an amount that you are comfortable with as compensation for interior design services. Once you’ve tallied that amount, you should decide what rate of payment is best. While some designers charge by the hour, others charge clients a flat fee.
In addition to the initial payment, some interior designers charge extra for other services. These fees often cover purchasing services, consultations, and the like, so make sure you have all the details surrounding payment clearly ironed out.
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Verify Their Credentials
Interior designers’ credentials may vary, but many states require that designers pass the National Council on Interior Design Qualification. If your state doesn’t require this, vet all candidates by asking them about their experience, as well as if they’ve had any formal training. In many cases, most interior designers have licenses that speak to the level of training they’ve undergone.
Another way to verify their designing abilities is to contact their references and former clients. Unless you’re working with someone that is volunteering as an interior designer, you should always hire someone that has the credentials to back up their skill set.
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Interview the Candidates
Once you’ve selected a handful of candidates, it’s time to narrow them down by interviewing them. During this process, be sure to ask the right questions that will allow you to determine whether or not they will meet your needs. The interview should include questions about their former jobs as well as about the logistics of their process.
How do they go about selecting pieces for the home? Will they go off of a specific item list or do they trust their instincts when decorating a home? To illustrate, while almost anyone can hang framed photo prints, the interior designer you choose should be able to determine exactly the type of photos you’d want to hang in your home.
Additionally, you’ll want to learn about the other details of how the interior designer gets the job done. Will they work with subcontractors? Who covers the insurance? How do they determine if the client will be satisfied with the end result? While all these questions don’t have one specific answer, the right interior designer will be able to answer your questions while assuring you that you will be blown away by their finished work.
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Consider Their Availability
Once you’ve gone through every other part of this process in your search for the right interior designer, you should consider their availability. Are they responsive? Will, their schedule work with yours?
Even the most affordable and talented interior designer may not be right for you if you can’t seem to get in contact with them. Designers that overload their schedule and only spend a few hours with each client likely won’t be able to dedicate the amount of time you require.
Additionally, every interior design job is different. While a designer can estimate and plan for certain things, the true magic happens in the moment. When choosing an interior designer, be sure to find one that is able to make you feel like you’re their only client.
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Check Their Portfolios
When hiring anyone that works in a creative field, it is essential that you get a look at their portfolio. As you look through samples of their past work, try to imagine what you see in your home. If you aren’t inspired by what you see, you should consider someone else. Anyone can talk a good talk, but if the designer’s portfolio doesn’t stir something in you, keep searching until you find a designer whose work does.
In addition to reviewing the portfolios of your candidates, you can also consider searching for your new interior designer this way. When looking through images of homes that you love, take note of the interior designer. If you can’t hire that person, you can likely search online for someone who has a similar eye for design.
The right interior designer is the one that will meet your needs while using their expertise to make your home the best it can be. Keep these six things in mind as you prepare to start your search for an interior designer.
