What You Need To Know Before Working With An Interior Designer

Hiring an interior designer is a great way to create a chic, stylish home that matches your families’ personality and unique needs. You won’t need to worry about shopping for new pieces to complete a look and worry that it will look out of place. Because don’t we all?

Decorating can be fun. But creating a cohesive look isn’t easy and it’s certainly not everyone’s talent. How many times have you brought a new piece of decor home only to realize there’ something about that just isn’t quite right?

Hiring an interior designer is a great way to skip past awkward trial and error growing pains in a room you love.

Here’s what you need to know about hiring an interior designer:

Know your budget. You will need not only need to plan for your designers time and expertise but also for the decor they have chosen for you. You’ll also want to know how they source their furniture selections. Aka are they choosing pricey one of a kind custom pieces? Know what your preferred designers pay structure is and if you’ll need to invest upfront or make payments throughout your time together.

What services are you expecting to receive? Not all designers work in the same way or offer the same services. And not everyone expects the same services either! Decide if you would like a consultation, design concepts drawn up or for them to manage the project from beginning to end. Think of it this way - how much time do you want to personally spend on this project?

Take time going over different designer’s portfolios to get a feel for their style. You should work with a designer whose style jives with your own. So with that said, you should have a good idea of your own style and that of your household. You might be fine with mid-century modern furniture, but maybe your partner can’t stand it.

Have a Pinterest board of your inspiration ready to share with your designer. Even if you don’t see a cohesive theme across your board, a designer will. Which is why you are hiring them! While it is possible to be all over the place, if you the pins you’ve chosen intuitively feel good together you are probably on to something!

Communicate openly about what current pieces in your home are important to you. What has to stay, no question? And what are you willing to part ways with? This is really important to know ahead of time. You don’t want to realize your favorite piece is missing from the blueprint while your designer is presenting it. Instead, be upfront about it and your designer can work the whole room around that item.