Selecting an interior designer to work with can feel like quite the task. After all, you’re talking about putting the aesthetics of your dream home in the hands of someone who doesn’t know you personally – a decision which can require a lot of trust.
However, trust is crucial to seeing a beautiful final output. After all, if a client and a designer trust each other, then the scope for the creative vision only becomes more open and exciting, resulting in the most spectacular project outcomes.
Getting to this level of trust can be helped along by finding an interior designer who truly resonates with your style of choice, and who understands the brief you’re trying to achieve. If you’re not sure how to go about selecting the right interior designer to renovate your home, use the prompts below as a guide.
Interior designers & their roles
In the world of luxury home design, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Fortunately, there is a wealth of interior designers out there with a wealth of specialisms that’ll work to make your dreams reality — no matter how outlandish or pared back, elaborate or minimalist.
If a particular element of your end home is particularly important to you, then consider consulting with one or more specialists to really nail those fine details. Some particular specialisations are:
Interior architects
While interior architects can work on new structures, they predominantly work with existing ones. The practice of interior architecture is all about redesigning the interior space of a (usually historical) property, respecting its history while sensitively innovating the functionality and construction so it works for you.
Structural elements like windows, heating, and plumbing are considered and improved by an interior architect. Because of this, they collaborate with a range of specialists, from lighting engineers to building contractors, to bring together a beautiful home that works for you.
Space planners
The space in your home might have been roughly designed by an architect to make use of things like seasonal light and energy flow (ease of movement between rooms). But, often, you’ll need a space planning specialist to consider how different items of furniture, fixtures, and fittings work together to create rooms and spaces that you can be in.
Finish designer
Finishing specialists work with the raw materials designed into the build in order to think about the finishes that make everything cohesive. A parquet floor, for example, can be beautiful on its own – but opting for a darker or lighter lacquer can make all the difference when it comes to a complete space.
Lighting & Electrical Design
Natural light can make or break a space, but so can poor lighting – think of your poor eyes if every time you sat down in your dining room for dinner you were blinded by ultra-white, non-dimmable, fluorescent lights. Compare that to the light of a lovely fireplace. Indeed, the correct lighting option is one of the things most noticed when it’s wrong, and least noticed when it’s right.
Furniture Design & Procurement
Often, especially when you have particular niche hobbies, you’ll want bespoke furniture designed especially for spaces. Antoni Gaudí and Frank Lloyd Wright, for example, loved working particular pieces into specific spaces. Even something as quotidian as an office can be entirely elevated with a custom desk & chair to suit your needs.
What’s your preferred style?
While a great interior designer will be able to adapt to the style and brief of each project individually, it makes sense to choose a person whose natural style is one that resonates with you. Not only should this mean that you get the absolute best results from them, but that they know all of the best shops and suppliers for the style you’re interested in.
Have a browse through different websites, portfolios, or even Instagram profiles, and see which designers create interiors that resonate with you.
How big is the project?
Thinking about how much support you need from an interior designer can help you to whittle down options. For example, if you want to do a full house renovation, you’d want to choose an interior designer that has experience working on projects of that scale. You may also want to choose a designer who’s local to you, so that they can be hands-on while the work is underway.
If you only want to update one room, then you may be more open to working with a designer who lives further away from you, or usually works on smaller projects.
How much do you want to spend?
The more flexible your budget is, the more demanding you can be when it comes to your non-negotiables. A high budget comes with high standards, and if you’re investing a lot of money in transforming your home, you want to feel confident that your dreams are going to be made a reality.
You’ll want to choose a designer whose skills and experience match the budget you have in mind. Looking at past projects can be a great way to get a feel for how expensive they’re likely to be; once you’ve narrowed down your list, you can use this as a question to ask them once you speak. After all, you want them to showcase other examples of where they’ve dealt with budgets of similar sizes.
How involved do you want to be?
Different interior designers work in different ways, with some preferring to take the reins entirely and others facilitating a more collaborative approach. How involved do you want to be in the project? Do you want to have final sign off on every decision, or are you happy to hand over creative freedom once a brief is agreed?
Make sure you communicate your preference with designers when you’re working through the selection process, to ensure that it’s a relationship style they’d be comfortable with.
Finding your dream home
If you’re thinking about creating a dream space you can call home, then the right property is the first step. We can work with you on private commissions to create a home straight from your imagination, right through to more specialist period refurbishments.
Whatever your dream home looks like, Aspire Luxury Properties can help you make it a reality.