Friday, October 16, 2009

Interior Design: Expertise At Your Fingertips

By Janice Nickole

Over my many years of design I have been asked many questions. One in particular always pops up. How to hire an Interior Designer and what you should know.

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

-- Do you feel you lack the skills for home decorating?

-- Have you made home purchases but they are still in the closet or garage because you don't know what to do with them or where to put anything?

-- Is your day just too busy and you can't find the time to even think about decorating or designing?

-- Are you at odds with a spouse, roommate or someone else when it comes to the way you want to decorate?

-- Are you unsure of your personal style and exactly what you like when it comes to home decorating?

If you've answered yes to any of the questions you read about in this article, then you may want to think about hiring an Interior Designer. Believe me, it'll be one of the best decisions you can make. They can help you immensely.

One of the biggest reasons to hiring the consultation services of a Designer is that they have the expertise to turn your vision of comfort and beauty into a living reality. This could mean buying the wrong furniture or choosing the wrong paint colors. Mistakes can be costly! Interior Designers are experts in their field just like plumbers or electricians. Each has a particular set of trade skills they have learned through education and experience.

One key point to keep in mind is that all Designers are different with unique talents, education and experiences. Interestingly, if you asked five Interior Designs to render an opinion or a space-planning project, you will get five unique answers even though each will adhere to the core concepts of great design.

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.

Look for a Designer that displays confidence in his or her abilities and your Designer should respect what YOU desire as a final end result in your interior space.

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.

You will want to be clear about your design intentions and express exactly what your ideas are and how you want your interior space to look. Even if you don't know exactly what you want, a good Designer will always bring it out of you.

It is not so important as to how long the Designer has been in practice, rather that he or she is on the "same page" as you.

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.

You can ask for referrals from your Designer, although not all Designers are willing to give that information out. It's a privacy issue and most clients won't allow the Designer to give out their information.

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.

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