Essential Tips for Hiring an Interior Designer

You're tired of how your place looks and you want to change it up. You're also not that confident in your ability to do a good job of that. A residential interior designer can use their skills to make a place look brand new.

What should you be looking for with something like this? We're here to help with some essential tips for hiring a residential interior designer. Before we do that, here are some basic things you should know:

What Is an Interior Designer?

An interior designer is someone who can design an entire space in your home or office that's based on your behavior. They can have a two-year interior design degree or even a four-year one, where they get formal training in terms of the interaction of color and fabric, space planning, furniture design, and even architecture, where they use a computer aided design (CAD) programming. These are not people who can just walk into a place and do whatever they want without any training.

They can do both residential and commercial projects, though this post is more about residential interior design. Some states require that they be licensed to do this as a career. They may even need to be a NCIDQ Certified residential interior designer.

What Is the Difference Between Interior Designers and Interior Decorators?

When you hire an interior decorator, you are bringing in someone who will furnish your place. They can add furniture that is a certain color or design to evoke a certain time period. They might have desks and chairs and other furnishings that are stark white to make it seem like it's something from the future. On the other hand, they might bring in loud color palettes to make it feel like you are in the 1960's or even the early 1970's.

This basically boils down to what their job description is. You wouldn't ask an interior decorator to design a place for you. You could, though, ask an interior designer to decorate your place, since they also have knowledge of how things will look in your home and what kind of furniture would or would not work.

Now that you know what the difference between the two is, it's time for you to figure out how to find the best residential interior designers to hire.

Do Your Own Research

The first thing to do is see what you do or don't know about what interior design is before you try to hire someone to do an interior design project. Even having some basic knowledge will keep you from potentially asking some embarrassing questions and putting your ignorance on display. This could save you some time down the road and also help you narrow down your choices. This is a time when being informed is a good thing.

Know The Scope of Your Project

What exactly do you need to have done and when do you need to have it completed? A residential interior designer has many talents. Mind-reading is not one of them. You should have a very reasonable idea of what you want. A professional will know that there might be some wiggle room when it comes to the tiny details, but you have to have the big picture. Otherwise, it's not going to be a happy collaboration between the two of you.

Your interior designer is likely going to have some questions or clarifications. This is part of the process. Be willing to talk with them about it. Be as specific as possible. Few things are more aggravating than to have someone be vague and expect you to figure it out. Don't be that person. Do some planning yourself and have specifics. That way, you can find out if the whole thing is feasible or not very early on.

Have a Timeline in Mind

When you contact these interior designers, you should have a vision for how long you want this project to go on. You could figure this out by factoring in a few things - how much money you have and whether you have someone breathing down your neck to get your end of the job done. You will quickly find out how realistic this is or not when you tell the professionals that you call about your timeline. They may readily agree or they might tell you that your timeline is not realistic. If it's the second and they give you good reasons, then you might have to narrow the scope of the whole thing.

While you will want the residential interior designer to stay as close to the timeline as possible, both of you should leave some wiggle room when it comes to the finish line. Things can happen to delay the process. You want to hire people that have the foresight to know that the path is not always a linear one and that there may be some detours.

Calculate a Budget

You need to know how much you can spend on this before you even have the interior designers and their contractors start the work. Discuss this with them beforehand. They will also likely give you a quote for the work they are going to do. Don't expect the quote to be entirely set in stone, though. There are a few things that can crop up that could cause it to go over budget. A reputable residential interior designer will give you a heads up about any changes well before they do that part. That way, you won't be surprised when you get the final bill.

Find Out Their Qualifications

As mentioned before, the main interior design qualification is that they have a degree in the field and that they are a certified interior designer. If they don't have either of those, then you should continue your search for a residential interior designer.

Ask For Referrals

It's one thing to see people leave reviews for an interior designer on a website. It's another to talk to someone else who has dealt with this person. Ask for referrals. This is part of working in the design industry, so any reputable interior designers will gladly furnish you with a list of referrals. You can also ask to see examples of their work, though you can likely find examples of this on their website or the site of the firm that they work for. Sometimes you just need that visual confirmation.

Gauge Their Personality

You definitely want someone who has strong interpersonal skills. That's because you're going to be communicating with them often and want to be sure that you're going to be comfortable talking to them. This is one area where you want to follow your gut. While talented people, especially those on the artistic side, could be considered "quirky," you also have to think about how much "quirky" you're going to want to put up with.

This also includes their communication skills and their reliability. You want to feel like they are easily reachable and that they will answer any questions as they come along. If you are worried about possibly having to chase them down, then you're setting yourself up for stress.

Draw Up a Contract

This is definitely not a situation where you just rely on a handshake kind of deal. You need to have specifics so that neither of you can say that there were any misunderstandings. Have a lawyer who is familiar with interior design draw up the contract. Then you can go over it with the designer. This isn't a time to leave anything to chance. Reputable interior designers won't work without a contract. If anything goes wrong, both of you will be covered.

Where to Find Them

There are several ways that you can find a residential interior designer. They include:

Asking Family or Friends - You might have had family or friends who had to enlist the help of an interior designer. They should have an idea of what your own tastes are like before they make any recommendations, though. You might find that you are not a match at all.
Looking Around Your Neighborhood - Walk around your neighborhood or look at other homes or apartments that have similar designs. See if you can find any information about the people that did the design work and try to get contact information for them.
Looking Online - Technology has made this a lot easier. In the past, you used to have to find a Yellow Pages and call them without knowing much about them. Now, you can simply put "interior designer" and your zip code into Google and see what people are saying about the ones that are local. Yes, there might be some good ones that can travel, but you should start off local at first and then expand your net.

When you are looking, you could either try to find a freelance interior designer or contact an interior design firm. The thing with the second one, especially if this is a well-known firm, is that you will know that they vet the people that they hire, so you can be confident that they will have people who excel at this work.

There are a lot of things to think about when it comes to finding residential interior designers. Don't get discouraged, though. By doing all of the above, you are giving yourself the best chance to land someone who will do outstanding work for you. Then you will be glad you put in the effort.