What´s the perfect solution for furnishing your home? Hire an interior designer! Yey! It seems so obvious, but why only very few people actually do call for help of a professional?
Let´s be honest here. A service of an interior designer is not a necessity – it´s a luxury. No major disaster will happen if you don´t hire an interior design professional. The world will still function perfectly without interior designers. It will also not solve hunger problems in the third world countries, neither will help our environment. So are interior design services useless then? The thing is – you will never know what Interior Design service brings to your life, if you have never hired an Interior Designer.
Interior design profession is quite young… well it has its roots in the early 1900s, but comparing to other careers, like for example doctor, driver or writer, we can easily call it ´´young´´. Somehow, during all these years of existence of interior design profession, people developed quite strong opinion that interior design, since it´s not a necessity in our lives, it´s a service that only rich people can afford.
Useless + expensive. Doesn´t sound like you would ever want to hire a designer, right? And this is just the beginning of all the myths about interior design that our society created during the years. And the TV shows do not help us a lot! All the ´´One day makeovers´´ which concentrate mostly on making a house look pretty, don´t reflect the real design process and the work interior designers do.
So let´s make it all clear now. I´m going to list the biggest myths about interior design and hopefully, after you read this, you will have a bigger understanding of what the profession is about.
1. Why would I hire one if I can do it myself?
Here we go…I hear this one almost every day. It is true, that many people have an absolutely amazing taste when it comes to furniture and decoration. What they don´t have is the ACCESS to all the amazing products available on the market. There are many suppliers who will not sell to individuals and they may also not even sell to whoever owns a company – they will only sell to interior designers to keep exclusivity of their products. When we step aside from the look of the interior, the biggest pain of doing it all yourself is the organization part. The ordering process requires a lot of planning time and patience whereas the delivery and installation part is where you lose your nerves on. But hey, if it happens that you do have a great taste and unlimited time to furnish your place, then why not, go ahead!
2. An interior designer will make my place looking cold like a showhouse.
Not at all. Before an interior designer starts with creating the concept for your space, they will make their research about you, your taste and your lifestyle. The designer will ask you about who lives in your house (and what age they are), if anyone has allergies (to dust, feather etc), how do you usually use your space (if you like to have your lunch in the kitchen, where do your children play etc) and what are the main aspects you would like to change in your interior. Interior design is not only about the look, it´s about matching the space you live in to your daily lifestyle.
3. It´s too expensive to hire a designer.
This is what we mentioned at the very beginning: people automatically assume that the cost of hiring a professional is going to overwhelm them for life. What most people don´t realize is that many interior design studios (like ours) charges a design fee at the beginning, to get the client´s commitment, but this fee is fully deducted from the final price of furniture and installation, which in fact makes the design process 100% FREE. Not bad, eh? Remember, that interior designers get their discounts on furniture and decor from the suppliers and this is where they make the money. They buy with a discount but they sell to their clients with a RRP – which is exactly the same price you will see in a shop. So, the ONLY thing you pay on top is the charge for delivery and installation – and the pain of dealing with this on your own I already explained earlier.
4. Interior design is a female profession.
I see where you´re coming from, but just look at the most successful and most famous interior designers and you will see a great mix of male and female. Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Jean-Louise Deniot, Marcel Wanders, Philippe Starck together with Kelly Hoppen and Kelly Wearstler are all at the very top of the list. So if you want a man working on your designs – no problem at all. But it doesn´t actually mean that a male designer will make the interior feel or look more masculine. This is totally up to the designer´s personal style, no matter if it´s a man or a woman.
5. My house is too small.
What makes a designer a good designer is the ability to change the least attractive and uncomfortable space into a cosy and welcoming home. So saying ´´the size doesn´t matter´´ fits here perfectly. Look at IKEA – I know they are not a chain of interior design studios, but they are the absolute best ones when it comes to dealing with small spaces. Their design concept shows exactly how you can make your tiny room look bigger and more spacious. And like I mentioned before, the job of an interior designer is not only to make the place to look good, but to use proper space planning and make the most out of the space they´re given.
6. They will get rid of all my old furniture.
Okay, yes, we do that sometimes… But only when there is a good reason for it. There is no point of keeping stuff that don´t fit into your space or are not in a good condition. A good interior designer will always consider what you want to throw away and what you would like to keep. There is always an option of renovating and restoring old furniture and it´s actually recommended to do it with original and unique furniture which always bring the most into the character of the space. There are many ways of incorporating your existing pieces into the new décor – you just need to trust your designer.
So from ´´useless and expensive´´ we arrived to ´´helpful and affordable´´. And believe me, in some cases, interior design services are also necessary (especially in places like design of hotels). A career of interior designer is an amazing job, but it does have many responsibilities: at the end of the day people trust us with their home – a very personal part of their live. We are in charge of the full project, from the design stage to the installation of furniture, taking responsibility of any damages, safety regulations and final quality of the products. I could say it´s a job like any other, with good and bad parts of it…But by saying that I wouldn´t be honest. I truly think that to be an interior designer is an experience that most of other careers cannot offer. The time when you hand over the keys and your clients see the final result for the first time, is a moment that will stay with you for very long. At the end, you have just made someone´s home.
This article was really informative and helpful in debunking some of the myths about interior design. It was great to see some of the truths about home renovations and how to go about them in a more efficient way.
I like how you mentioned that the capacity to transform the least appealing and comfortable room into a cozy and welcoming home is what distinguishes a skilled designer. My husband and I are just moved into our new house, however, we both don’t know how we should design our house given that it’s small and I’m glad that I stumbled upon your article. I’ll certainly tell my husband to hire a high-end creative conceptual interior designer for the best design outcome.