So, you need help at home with some interior finishes and you go online for some ideas....but what do you need? So many people now include the term interior design or decoration in their offering, decorators, kitchen designers, the list goes on and on.
“Interior design is the art and science of understanding people's behavior to create functional spaces within a building”
The Role of an Interior Designer
Interior designers will look at your home or room as a whole. They will learn about how you live and how you use your home, do you like to entertain, what do you like to do as a family, where do you spend the most time etc. Using this information they will address things such as space planning, to acheive the best use of space and lighting designs to enhance the room based on what you use them for. Interior designers will challenge you as a client to look at things in a way you may not have thought of.
By learning about you, the space the interior designer creates will be functional as well as being beautiful and personal to you.
Some people have the perception that interior designers just force their views and tastes on to other people....being slightly biased (as I am an interior designer) I think design is subjective. What one person loves another will hate, and thats why I love my job, everyone is different. Its why its so important to listen to your clients, work with them and their ideas and bring everything together to form a space that they love to spend time in.
“Decoration is the furnishing or adorning of a space with fashionable or beautiful things..”
The Role of an Interior Decorator
My most common interaction with interior decorators is that they are offering another service. For example, a kitchen or bathroom designer may also offer advice on what wall tiles and flooring you should have, this relates directly to their core business and its an add on service of products they may also be able to offer. Again a fabric fo furniture shop may also sell paints and flooring and they will assist you in choosing products which match and work together.
Interior decorators have a good eye for design and colour and they use previous experiences of what works well to advise you. This may mean you don't get a completely unique look or design but thats not to say the end product won't look great.