The role an interior designer plays in a project is rooted in design (for obvious reasons) but the actionable work that is required for a project to be successful is expansive of just design alone.
A designer must fluently and continuously be a translator through transformation, competent with managing a budget, willing to work collaboratively, and a guiding force through the process - all for the greater good of the design and project results that bring your desired home into fruition.
Even the tiniest project can feel overwhelming to a person who’s unsure about design and the grandest of projects can feel all-consuming by the ever-growing to-dos.
Read on to see how an interior design can be of value to you.
IN SUMMARY
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Translating how you want the space to feel and look is both an artform and science -
Your project budget is there to equip you and doesn’t have to limit you
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Collaboratively utilising everyone’s skillsets amplifies your project’s possibilities
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A streamlined process is how project decisions are made in alignment and with precision
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The design has to be authentically your own for your desired home to be fulfilled
The Translation of Your Desires
Working with an interior designer, you’ll see the powerful ability of translating how you want your space to feel and look, into a transformed reality that you experience on an everyday basis because of the truth that home is personal and it is a space that deserves to be your sanctuary.
Whether that desired feeling is ultimate calm and peacefulness in a bedroom reminiscent of a luxury hotel, or an empowering, good-for-the-mind home office that promotes the most productive bodies of work, the translation always requires the designer’s proven skillset of firstly understanding you, how you live and the capacity of the potential held within the space.
Architectural Digest describes this act of translation as, “understanding how a space impacts its inhabitants is the heart of an interior designer’s work. How a space makes us think, feel and act are all important aspects of our lives… a profound impact on our well-being.”
A designer knows how to gain and is strategic with using the key information that is required and transforming this into the space’s visible appearance and your lived-in experience. The embodiment of the design is tailored to suit you, if your desire is for your home to feel ‘safe’ or ‘inviting’, that may include:
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Meticulous space planning to support openness with pockets of privacy
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Emotionally supported colour choices to help you feel grounded in the space
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Layered, soft textured material selections that help the furniture and room feel comfortable
These all help to present your desired look and feel with a considered and cohesive balance of beauty and functionality.
The Tool of Money Management
Money, moneyy, moneyyy! The first step in the conversation around money with an interior designer, is reframing your mindset of what a budget really is: the sum of money you are willing to invest in your home because what you put in, will surely be returned to you in a myriad of ways.
Wherever your project may land on the budget spectrum - whether cost-effective or cash abundant - this topic of discussion is best prioritised during the initial stages of the project, to identify ways your budget’s potential can be fully maximised and to clarify the realities of the design being understood. All for results that make an impressive and lasting impact throughout the entire project and to your home.
Zoopla highlights this importance as, “hiring an interior designer ensures that every penny is well spent, avoiding costly mistakes and ending up with a space that works for you for years to come.”
A designer has the knowledge of where to invest the larger portions of the budget to uphold quality, longevity and durability into the design and in other areas, where to save to avoid excessive spending on items that will need replacing at a more frequent level. For an open-plan, family home, this may look like:
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Opting for trade-quality, trade-certified premium flooring that can withstand high footfall and maintain its aesthetic appeal.
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Selecting affordable soft-furnishing accessories that allow you to add character with the flexible ease of alternating to co-ordinate with seasonal styling.
The real luxury is making your budget work for you and to remember it doesn’t rule your or have to be rigid; mix the high-end with the inexpensive. An interior designer will show you the beauty in your options and guide you in wise decision making that’s rooted in practicality.
The Power of Collaboration
Working with an interior designer, you’ll experience that a collaborative relationship is at the heart of every project because there is a shared understanding (at least from a designer’s side) that your desired results are better achieved in collaboration rather than isolation.
The saying ‘team work makes the dream work’, rings true. For the best work to be put forward and be done, the relationship must extend beyond just client-designer and instead be inclusive of all the working professionals involved: contractors, architects, tradespeople, suppliers, installers… you name it!
Houzz further supports this way of approach, “all architects, interior designers and builders share the same end goal, to deliver a successful project to their client… they collaboratively work towards ensur[ing] the client’s vision is achieved and even exceeded.”
When everyone’s best efforts are inputted into achieving the goal through building on each other’s ideas and strategising together, the work is done well because everyone’s skillsets as well as your desires are able to flourish in a way that complement each other.
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That grand feeling you want to evoke in your small bathroom? It’s possible
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The intricate design you want to span along your kitchen floor? Let’s see how this can be created
It can be done because a team (the right team) offers more creative solutions and eliminates challenges. In fact, ushering in collaboration from the outset of a project is how a design can be developed through the process with the utmost care and continued attention, ultimately helping it to stand out and stand the test of time.
The Ease of Having a Process
An interior designer introduces a ready to use process that is key to the project progressing with the highest level of oversight and to make sense of every moving moment, because at no point of the project will your desires, budget or what you need be overlooked.
While the scope (e.g. bathroom renovation or bedroom styling) or budget (e.g. £950-10,000) may vary from project to project, what remains the same is there being a clear journey of development that allows order, structure and intentionality to take centre stage for the design to flow from one stage to the other successfully.
ELLE Decor favours interior designers as being, “skilled at all phases of a project: the early stages of identifying a client’s needs and desires, developing a budget, fleshing out a workable design, and delivery and installation.”
The fundamentals of a plan (that express detail) are followed by the essentials of design (that reflect your character):
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Project brief; project research; project plans and feedback; project development and refinement; and project completion.
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For instance, a detailed lighting plan for a living room that incorporates general, task and ambient lighting to enhance the light’s movement and the room’s function(s), is finalised before any light fixture - as much of a statement piece it may be - is ever bought.
These types of projects are where (and how) the process aligns with timelines, timelines meet expectations and expectations are delivered in the results.
The Results of Fulfillment
An interior designer knows that this is what every client hopes for from the beginning of their project: that their desires are the results that have been fulfilled in their home. While this may appear blurry in its happening at certain stages, it is always delivered because of a strong understanding of each expectation that was set.
It’s the execution of the project that sets the foundation for the desired results becoming your reality. This goes beyond what is ‘delivered’, it is how well the work - the conceptualising, the planning, the collaborating, the curating, the transformation as a whole - is done and in turn, how well the results are loved.
As supported by a LinkedIn article, “designers can transform the lives of people who live and enjoy a certain space, improving their quality of life through design and decoration.”
For a home that is uniquely your own:
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It’s interiors that bring the feeling of home to the house that you’re living in.
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It’s a design that honours and reflects you and your life, rather than subscribing to fleeting trends.
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It’s a destination that is arrived at through all the steps mentioned throughout the entire process.
From the beginning to the end, it is interior design that is of service to you.
In Conclusion
The purpose of this blog article is to highlight to you (if not known already) that the work and worth of an interior designer is just as valuable as an architect or tradesperson is on your project.
Of course there’s no one size fits all approach to working with an interior designer and that’s why at Room of Decor, value is brought to you by establishing, together, the range of services that are best suited to you to achieve your desired home.
You can be assured that this value builds upon the trust you’ve instilled in me and the money you’ve invested into your project, for a home that will be your sanctuary for years to come, through design.
