Help! Do I Need an Interior Designer for my Home Renovation?

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Help! Do I Need an Interior Designer for my Home Renovation? About to get your keys and thinking about how to go about renovating your home? One of the first questions you (and your partner, family or housemate) will face is whether or not to hire an interior designer.

There is certainly no right or wrong answer to that question, but in order to make an informed decision, it might be useful to consider the various roles an interior designer actually plays in renovating your home. With this understanding, you are not only better equipped to decide if you can undertake the project on your own, but also have a better idea of what expertise you are looking for in an ID, and can assess for these traits when you meet different IDs.

Visionary The interior designer who is a visionary lives up to his name – he designs and is a creative at heart. He will be able to interpret your needs and wants, both spoken and unspoken, and synthesise them into a coherent overall design theme. This includes the initial concept, spatial planning, and right down to details such as the tone of your floor tiles to the finish of your counter top. These IDs commonly have the ability to surprise you with unconventional ideas you had never thought of, are able to make the whole larger than the sum of its parts.

Therefore, if you are looking for quirky ideas that are less commonly seen, you might want to work with a visionary. Conversely, if you are fairly certain that you already know what you want your interior to look like or are happy with conventional designs, engaging an ID who is a visionary might be of little value to you, and you might wish to consider IDs with other strengths.

Execution Having great design ideas mean little without proper execution. A major reason why some homeowners prefer to engage an interior designer is for their experience in simply managing a renovation project.

Project management is it the unpleasant work that has to be done for the grand vision to be realised. You will be surprised at the number of glitches, adjustments, complications, and on-thespot decisions that have to be managed behind the scenes during the renovation process. This usually involves close coordination with the various contractors including the hacker, tiler, carpenter, plumber, electrician and so on. An interior designer is expected to competently handle all the dirty work so his client can enjoy the house in its final glory.

As what can go wrong, usually will, project management is perhaps the most underrated aspect an interior designer’s job. The difference between a positive, fuss-free renovation experience and an absolute nightmare that drags endlessly, is more often than not an ID who is able to manage the project well.

It is indeed difficult to assess an ID’s ability to manage a project before renovation commences (and after the deposit has been paid). This is why it would be advisable to do some homework before engaging an ID by reading about the experiences other clients might have through reviews they leave on platforms such as Hometrust.

The best interior designers are both good designers and good project managers.


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