8 questions your interior designer should ask you
If you've just hired an interior design, or you are thinking about doing so, there are a number of key questions you should be prepared to answer when you first meet. No matter the size of the project an interior designer or decorator can help you get a fantastic result and will often come up with ideas you haven't thought of that will enhance your lifestyle and potentially save you from making costly errors. If your designer asks most of the questions below this is a good sign that your design collaboration will be a positive experience and you'll come away with a wonderful result.
1. What do you already love (and hate) about your home?
You might like to prepare by writing a list about the things that currently work well and things that frustrate you. These can be big things (not enough bathrooms, not enough storage, layout of the kitchen) through to small things (colour of the walls, feel of the master bedroom). List everything out in two coloumns as something to start your thinking. Next prioritise from most important to least important the things in the hate/dislike list. There are likely to be things on the list that can be really easily changed that will start to make a big impact (e.g. could you get new linen for the bedrooms, paint the house one room at a time, put in some new window dressings, have light fittings changed to something more modern). This list will also help your designer understand your priorities and where budget should be spent to begin with.
2. How do you use your home (or room/s)
For example, your master bedroom is obviously for sleeping, but what about lighting the room, do you want a TV (if so where? as placement of cables needs to be factored in), would a USB point next to the bed be helpful for charging photos? Do you need a chair to sit in or throw clothes on? Go around each room and think about how you use the rooms and any changes - big or small - that would improve the function of the room for you and your family.
3. Are there any special needs that need to be accommodated?
Do any of the people who live in the home who or visit regularly have special needs that need to be considered? This might be a firm chair for an elderly person to stand up from, wheel chair access, people with allergies (carpet may not be a good idea in that case), or very young children (in which case safety issues should be considered along with harder wearing surfaces). You should also consider the needs of any pets - do they need access to the house when you are not home, a special space to sleep, robust furniture that is easy to clean?
4. What is your budget?
There is no right or wrong answer to this but being realistic about a budget will help you work out what can be achieved now and what might need to be saved for a later stage. If you have a small project then you might like to stage the project and set a larger vision to start with and just tackle each stage of the project as you can afford it. Being strategic about the greater wants and needs in an overall designcould help save you money down the track and avoid costly design mistakes that haven't been well thought through.
It is also important to be realistic about what can be achieved within the budget you have set. Some clients will have huge ideas that they think can happen within the tiny budget they have set. As a designer I'm always happy to work with clients with budgets of all sizes but I certainly need clients to be realistic about what they can achieve in the budget they have.
5. Do you have any hobbies, extra-curricula activities or collections that need to be factored in?
Do you have any hobbies, extra-curricula activities, people who are studying or any special collections or memorabilia that need to be taken into consideration? Dedicated study space or a purpose built craft/hobby room could be helpful. Or a special cabinet or storage area for your collections may need to be factored in. It's best to make your designer aware of any of these needs prior to a concept being developed.
6. What colours do you love?
What colours do you love? Do you have any particular art or accessories in the home that you love (in which case colours could be taken from these as the start for a room). Your designer can use your colour preferences in the design that is put together for you.
7. What colours do you hate?
As with the colours you love, it's important to also let your designer know of any colours you really don't like so these can be avoided or minimised in the design.
8. What style(s) are you drawn to?
What sort of style do you like or want to create? If you aren't sure a helpful way to try and work this out is to use a digital platform like Houzz or Pinterest and set up two folders - one of pictures you love and one of pictures you don't like at all. Then start looking through images and saving things to each folder as you see them. Don't over think the process just start saving images and you'll mostly likely soon see a pattern/style emerge from the photos you love.
9. What time frame are you working to?
This is important so that your designer knows whether to prioritise the work and whether the time frame is realistic for the scope of work you are proposing. It's also important to keep in mind that there can be lead times for certain works that should be factored in. Builders aren't always available to start work straight away, for example. And manufacturing of built in joinery or certain window furnishings can take time to arrange and have installed. Your designer should be able to give you approximate lead times for the items you specific in your scope, or at least find these out for you.
You may also like to consider staging your project if your budget is tight. You can do part of the works sooner and save other parts for later on when you've saved up some more money. But putting a design concept together at the beginning the working out the stages after that will help keep the overall design cohesive and could save you money by avoiding mistakes along the way (e.g. putting joinery in a place that needs to then be used for something in a later iteration of the project).
Overall these issues are all important to consider as you start a design project. Giving careful thought to these questions before you meet with your designer will save you time (and money!) during the design meeting and will help your designer be clear about what you are looking to achieve and what you like/dislike. One of the most important things to try and achieve with your designer is open and honest communication. It's important to let your designer know if you feel the project is veering in a direction you aren't comfortable with. It will much easier to make changes as soon as they arise rather than let things continue and you become resentful about things moving in a direction you aren't happy with.
Design your home in SketchUp
If you want improve your work with design clients or you are about to start renovating or remodeling then you will love SketchUp.
With this software you can mock up an entire home in 2D (floor plans, joinery/millwork elevations, lighting and electrical plans and more) and 3D (renderings and perspective drawings) so you can picture exactly what it will look like when it is finished plus prepare your technical drawings for use with your clients, trades and contractors.
Learning SketchUp will save you time, money, mistakes and so much more! It is a well known piece of software in the interior design and architecture industries and will give you a solid technical drawing skill that will immediately upgrade the professionalism of the work you are doing.
I teach an online course for beginners that is focused specifically on using SketchUp for interior design purposes. We have had more than 10,000 students come through the course with so many fantastic projects designed and built!
We have all sorts of students in the course including designers and architects, cabinet makers, home renovators/remodelers, kitchen and bathroom designers, event planners, landscape designers and design enthusiasts.
To find out more about the courses we have on offer click the link below. And reach out if you have any questions I can help with :)
Clare x