You may have wondered, why hire an interior designer to renovate or decorate my house? It is so easy to get information at the click of the Google search bar then added to our DIY album on Pinterest and a single Instagram post inspires us to feel like we have the power to learn anything (and yes, we can).
Walk into a decor shop and select pre-arranged sets of furniture, decorative objects, rugs, and pieces of art that simply look good with little effort. It is so easy to get carried away that you may have no idea what to do with it when it arrives home. You may have overlooked the difference in lighting, size, practicality and various other factors between your space and the showroom.
It is great to be able to do things for yourself especially your own home is even more meritorious. For example, making an extension. There’s a sense of satisfaction in seeing how everything takes form: walls rising, the floor ready to be renovated and the furniture looks just like the one you saw on an Italian design magazine. But there’s no satisfaction at all when you see that the walls a re not well-finished, the furniture doesn’t even fit on your house and the super expensive tiles you bought to cover the floor are of exterior use. Bummer!
Our tastes and personality should be reflected in the decoration of our houses. Although we sometimes feel that we have a designer in the deepest of our interior, when it comes the time to put it into practice, we have a hard time organising our ideas and the bunch of pictures we’ve collected as a reference for the design. Thinking about putting elements together because we like them or they look – without having a plan – will make our house a complete mess and, making it the opposite of our dream home.
So what does an interior designer do?
An interior designer is a professional that creates attractive, comfortable and aesthetically pleasant spaces to live and work, making sure that the activities related to the environment can be performed perfectly in a functional space. For this, the designer seeks the best spatial, functional, artistic, technological and economical tools to create and shape design proposal.
In this task, it contemplates architectural aspects like good circulation within the available space, a good disposition for the furniture, its distribution, and the design and exploitation of lighting, colour, and textures.
In order to carry out its task, it has knowledge of structures, materials used in the equipment and lining of spaces, installation techniques, furniture, digital graphics, costs, and budgets.
Interior designers should ensure that the designs they produce fit the needs and economic limits of their clients. They discuss with the customer the functionality of the space and type of people who will use it to project these characteristics into the environment that will be created.
Proposed sketches are made by hand or digitally to be approved by the client and then develop all the details of the chosen proposal, including fabrics, colours, types of materials, furniture and plans for contractors and other professionals to use as a guide.
Among an interior designer’s functions are:
- Designing comfortable, functional, aesthetic, symbolic and representative spaces
- Choosing the style according to the client’s objective and/or personality, taste, and lifestyle interpreting the client’s needs and expectations.
- Applying representation techniques and computer graphics tools for the elaboration of the project plans, elevations, and perspectives.
- Distributing the space and the location of the furniture, evaluating the available space and its function.
- Determining the shapes, colours, and textures of wall coverings, draperies, and accessories.
- Designing the furniture, decoration accessories, lighting accessories, curtains, armchairs, tables, libraries, beds, etc. An interior designer also advises and orientates the customer in the selection of any of these elements.
- Selecting the best materials for floor and wall coverings, furniture, wallpaper, curtains, etc. considering its aesthetics and durability.
- Elaborating costs and budgets of each task and the products.
What’s the difference between an interior designer and an architect?
Architecture focuses on the design of structures, plans, and projects for housing, providing an answer to spatial human needs focused on buildings in general. Interior design focuses more on the decorative aspect, on making a space work both in a functional and aesthetically. While the architect designs and constructs buildings, the decorator is responsible for making the interior or exterior of these buildings more pleasant according to its client’s needs and taste.
The main thing to understand is that the work of one depends on the other. Let’s start with the architect who does the general design of your house: he takes care of making the most of the terrain, making its general structure appropriate to your needs. The interior architect, on the other hand, makes sure that everything inside the house is well distributed to take advantage of every space to the maximum, including the design of stairs, kitchen, bathrooms and other areas of the house.
The interior designer is in charge of creating the layout and distribution of any space always looking for the greater comfort, functionality, and delight of those who will inhabit them, through decoration, furniture and other resources useful for their purpose.
Why should you hire an interior designer?
Including an interior designer on your payroll, as contradictory as it may seem, will help you reduce the execution time of your work and the money you invest in it. The interior architects will help you save a lot of money as they know where to find the most economic and quality options that fit your project.
A unique look 100% guaranteed – Combining fabrics, patterns, colours, and textures is an art that not many people manage to master; and getting a relaxed style with unique character is something that interior designers know how to achieve perfection. A good designer understands your tastes and the style you want to project. To this, they add their experience and design capabilities to create unique and surprising combinations that adapt to your particular space, achieving environments and works worthy of being in a magazine.
Less time = less money spent – If you have one of these professionals on your team, each stage of the execution of your remodelling will be reduced thanks to that they will make sure to carry out a planning with deadlines to carry out each activity; and this translates into a lower investment of machinery and labour.
Great contacts – Interior designers work in an environment where they know all kinds of professionals dedicated to the services related to remodelling and construction; and by their work experiences, they perfectly know which person, company or shop is the most adequate and reliable at the moment of a recruitment.
Always remember:
When searching for an interior designer for your project, always ask for their personal references and portfolio, this way you will know right away if the designer’s style suits your taste. Take a look around our website to get inspired and check the latest trends in furniture and interior design to start your renovation!