What You Won’t Learn From Watching HGTV: How to Hire the Right Interior Designer.
Let’s face it. You may love watching home design shows and perusing through interior design magazines, but when it comes to your space, you’re not much of the do-it-yourselfer. Although it’s amazing when someone comes out and turns an old record album into a four drawer dresser, this may not be your forte. And seriously, who has time and energy for that? (If you do, you may want to skip this post!)
A good interior designer can be your link to getting the space you need and want. Am I biased? Sure! I’m a designer after all. But as a designer, I also know that there are many different types of design professionals and services that can fit your particular budget and lifestyle if you are willing to do some looking and interviewing.
The most important thing during this process of finding a designer is to be honest about your project goals. A few things to know about yourself and your project as you interview designers:
1.) Get Your Priorities Straight: What do you want from your space? Is a lack of storage bothering you? Do you get annoyed walking around from the kitchen to the living room and wish you could open up a wall to connect the spaces? Maybe you need all new furniture throughout? Whatever it is that you are looking to do, make a wish list and prioritize the top items when meeting with the designers.
2.) Does Your Budget Include an Interior Design Fee?: Hiring a designer isn’t free of course, and a lot of clients think about their budget for furniture, labor and moving, but not for the fee the interior designer will cost. The fee of the designer you choose will vary greatly from state to state and depending on the type of designer you will hire. Here are a few ways designer will work:
- Hourly Rate: Hourly rates go from anywhere from $75 – $250 per hour on average. If a project is fairly large and open ended such as new home construction, a lot of designers cannot estimate their fees up front so they bill per hour as the work is done.
- Percentage: Some designers will charge a percentage of the project total or cost of the furniture or labor being done. This can be a bit tricky to properly track and it also may make some people fee skeptical if their designer is getting them the best price since the fee is based on percentages.
- Flat Fee: Some designers are able to charge a flat fee when the scope of work is very defined and specific. This is great since you will know the design fee up front. Just be aware that the designer may exclude certain items like coordination which would be billed separately if needed. Make sure you review what is included in your flat fee so there are no surprises later.
- A Combination of the Above: A lot of times depending on the project, a combination of flat fees, hourly rates and/or percentages will be used. I find this works very well, especially when the exact scope of work is not known up front. Your designer can give you a flat fee for the design concept phase and then move into separate billings once the scope of work is understood and approved.
3.) Gather Inspirations: A picture is worth a thousand words! I can’t tell you how often a client tells me they are “modern” or “traditional” and their interpretation is not necessarily the same as mine. Having a few pictures from magazines that you like and identifying what you like about them will help your designer understand the direction that you want to head in aesthetically.
Your relationship with your interior designer is a personal one. You should not only hire them because of their talent and expertise, but because you genuinely like them and they fit your lifestyle and personality. Projects always work out better when the team gets along well and although interior design is a very detailed process, it can and should run smoothly with the right designer guiding you.
Studio D Interiors 