6 reasons why you should consider hiring an interior designer

Whether it’s offering a review of plans before they’re submitted for planning, or inputting some ideas to help bring all the decorative elements together once on site, an interior designer can offer a fresh point of view at any stage of a project and play a complementary role with the architect. They might be able to provide clever solutions to problems that hadn’t yet been considered or offer greater clarity on internal aspects that aren’t in the architect’s original scope of work. Sometimes when you’ve been deep into a project for a long time, it helps to have an outsider’s perspective, one that’s impartial and open-minded, helping you make the project the best it can be. And when an interior designer and architect work together from the start, you can be assured that your project will come together cohesively and work on both a functional level and an aesthetic level, inside and out.

Interior design isn’t just about the final flourishes, pretty details and soft furnishings. An interior designer will design a space around how you live every day, not just how you might want it to look in an ideal world. They can help you better visualise the space you’ll be living in by running through how you’ll use each space day to day, how your lifestyle might change in the years to come, how colour might impact your mood, what feeling you might want to recreate and how different spaces could work harder for your needs. When the architecture and interior design comes together as one seamless whole, you won’t be left with a blank box, wondering how to fill it and make it your own once you move in. An interior designer will help you hone in on your interior style and refine your ideas, making you question design decisions based on how well they truly reflect you. You won’t end up with a project that tick boxes trends, but you will inherit a thoughtfully designed space that connects with you on a deeper level and feels like home. And when a project is long-winded and stressful, it’s often the little internal details that can help you get through a build and imagine yourself in the space at the end.

An interior designer will look closely at how a space functions on a practical level and help draw out any pain points. For example, in a kitchen, they might look closely at the plan and ensure that you can get comfortably around the dishwasher when it’s open, while also opening the cupboard door opposite. Or that there’s a ‘golden triangle’ between the fridge, oven and sink, saving you unnecessary journeys when you’re cooking and preparing dinner. Early on, they might think about how certain window treatments will best fit into a space and help with light and privacy. This might impact how a window is expressed from the outside, whether you can fit curtains or blinds internally without having to shoehorn them in once the project is completed. They might look to move a doorway to make a more efficient use of space or change the height of a window so you can see out of it while lying in bed.

Interior designers will have a host of trusted craftsmen, design brands, small businesses and makers that they call on and recommend, some of which you might not find through Google. This will save you time scrolling through Pinterest, browsing around shops and looking for everything from door handles and light fittings to sofas and coffee tables. They’ll help guide you on the areas where you can save and the items that you can splurge on, making your budget work hard for you. An interior designer will also know what furniture works well together, and advise you on things like stool heights, bedside table dimensions, where to place a mirror and how to arrange artwork.

During an architectural or interior project, it’s easy to get decision fatigue and fall to making decisions quickly, just so they’re out of the way and you’re nearer to getting in your new home. But this isn’t always sustainable in the long term and you might make some choices you’ll later regret, such as buying a sofa you’ve never sat on, specifying a worktop that’s prone to staining or choosing a paint colour without testing out samples and considering the light conditions in a room. An interior designer can help you make the right decision from the very beginning, choosing products that are appropriate for you and your home, so you’re not having to repaint walls later on or replace the curtains when they no longer go with everything else in the space. They’ll inject your project with confidence, and make sure the furniture fits and complements the scale of the room. They can also pass on generous trade discounts for everything from bathroom tiles to furniture designs.

Once you’ve chosen all your fittings and furniture, an interior designer can help you bring it all to life and make your vision a reality. Using a creative eye and all their styling knowledge, they can help you dress a space so it feels ready to move into. This might mean arranging the perfect gallery wall, choosing what bedding will make a bed look wonderfully cosy, or deciding what combination of objects and accessories will create the most balanced composition. They can help take a bit of stress out of the project and make the process feel joyful, so your home is imbued with happiness and hope right from the beginning.