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Many have asked me over my years of design practice what they should know when they are ready to hire an Interior Designer. My hope is that after reading my article you will take from this the answer you were searching for.

See to it that you use the 5 questions presented in this article to help you make an informed decision.

– Are you looking to hire a designer because you feel you lack the experience when it comes to decorating or designing?

– Do you buy home accessories, furniture, fabric, etc. on impulse, and now you don’t know what to do or where to put everything?

– Are you at odds with a spouse or roommate when it comes to decision making for the design project at hand?

– Are you having a hard time agreeing with your spouse or roommate when it comes to home or apartment decorating?

– Are you not exactly sure of what your personal design is or even what type of design would favor the interior space in question?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the questions in this article, then it is possible you could use the help of an Interior Designer. You won’t regret your decision I promise.

Interior Designers are skilled at designing interior spaces and space planning. They also have the expertise on form and function, balance and harmony, color concepts, lighting design, furniture selection and more. Why should you hire an Interior Designer? Simply because you may lack the necessary skills of design and secondly, mistakes will cost you money!

Of course not all Interior Designers are alike each one is uniquely qualified in my opinion, but if you ask five Designers to design an interior space, you will get five different design concepts.

So how do you hire the right Interior Designer? First ask friends or family. Word of mouth is great advertising for any Designer. Perhaps a co-worker has had good experience with a Designer.

A good characteristic to look for in a Designer is confidence in his or her abilities. Also a Designer should respect YOU as a Client and listen to your desires and needs for your design project.

Meet with your Designer before hiring them. Many will advertise their services on personal websites. Most Designers offer free consultations, which is an informal meeting to break the ice and get to know your Designer. Your Designer will use this meeting to get to know you as well and hear what you desire in your interior spaces.

State clearly your likes and dislikes, your ideas and your desires to your Designer so that he or she can design exactly what you want. Even if you are unsure about your personal design style, an Interior Designer’s expertise will know how to put it all together for you.

A good Designer will feel what you feel and understand your true desires it is not about how long a Designer has been practicing, but about being on the “same page” or connecting with your Designer.

Ultimately the goal of the Designer is to keep the client on track. But the connection or “synergy” must exist between Client and Designer and so personalities must work well together.

Interior Designers will bring together special vendors to the table to help get your interior project done. They are invaluable because they know who to go to and most importantly who not to go to. This in-depth knowledge is exactly what the Client needs. Most consumers are not privy to this information and may end up hiring the wrong team of people.

Referrals may or may not be given by your Designer simply because past Clients are not willing to give out private information about them. General questions may be acceptable like what kind of projects were completed and was the client satisfied with the results.

Interior Designers work with many budgets and at many different price ranges. They usually charge by the hour and at prices as low as $50 dollars an hour to $300 dollars an hour.