How many interior designers / garden designers do you know

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….and how many people do you know who have used one of these services?

I know 4 people who have recently re-trained as garden designers within my local network.

Yet among my friends & family I don’t know anyone who uses the services of a garden designer.

Ditto interior designers, although I do have one (very well off) friend who used an interior designer to do her house top to bottom.

I live in a well to do area, kids at private school etc, plenty of big houses.

Anyway, I’m just being nosy as a lot of people I know seem to be retraining in these areas but I’m wondering how much work there really is?

I also wonder this about personal trainers, although to a slightly lesser extent.

I used a garden designer once and would consider it again in my current house as we have an awful garden and never got around to doing it. Im an appalling gardner. Never used interior designer but if I was moving now I'd consider it as I've more income than when I moved and found it all a bit stressful. I don't know anyone in either profession.

I know an interior designer, she's done it for years, well before I met her 15+ years ago and is always busy, as in its a ft job and she employs other people for admin etc.
I asked her to do one room of our house - but we live in quite a mc area so lots of people get her to do a full house renovation.
I dont know any garden designers, but i know a couple of pts, and nutritionists.

One - me. I did a garden design course at an agricultural college about 25 years ago, just out of interest. Never intended it to be a career.

The only garden designer I know is a qualified architect who moved into garden design post qualification and gained additional qualifications. She's currently doing a PhD researching aspects of garden design. She's very much in demand professionally at the top level and earns more than I do....

Two, my brother and the guy who works for him 😂

I know several of each, but I live in an affluent part of Surrey where people renovate a lot and have second homes doing the same. Demand very much depends on area. I am sure in some parts nobody would countenance using either of these but in others it's very much more common.

Disagree, its often the other way round. A GD without build knowledge often places things where they can't go for instance no provision for drainage etc. My DH is both a GD (agricultural college diploma)and a landscaper!

Sounds like your DH is qualified to do his job. I was thinking of some landscapers' work I have had do deal with when planting up gardens. One classic was building a raised bed using the neighbour's fence as the 4th side!

This thread is so interesting, thanks for starting it. I am actually looking for a garden designer and interior designer (we are not rich) for specific advice, as we are useless and don’t want to waste money. If anyone has a recommendation for garden designer and interior designer that you have employed in London, I’d be so grateful if you could DM me. Because we don’t have any recommendations, and don’t know where to look, we have been waiting for a long time. Many thanks and sorry for derailing 🙏🏼

I don’t know any and I don’t know anyone who has used them. We are going to use one (interior) eventually as part of our renovation though.

I know loads of people who use personal trainers

I know 2 IDs and 1 GD. The GD is my friend and she also redid my garden. She did a fabulous job, full of ideas and totally understood what I wanted and what I was capable of maintaining. She did quite a lot of the heavy work herself but has a couple of lads who dig out the patio, build walls etc.
The 2 IDs I both got to work on my house (different house each time). I should have learned my lesson the first time as redecorating my sitting room took 4 full months. Poor project management and lack of attention to detail like measurements, size of lampshade etc.
second was a friend who was recently qualified and looking to expand her business. It was a disaster from start to finish and we no longer speak. Her inexperience became clear very quickly, she didn’t know for example that you need a license to put a skip on a public road.
She didn’t communicate with the builder so after he had ripped everything out of the bathroom he informed us that the design wasn’t feasible due to placement of plumbing etc. So she was frantically scribbling a new design on a piece of paper on day 2 of the project. Ordered th wrong size shower tray, only part of the underfloor heating, you name it.
the builder walked out and I fired her and had to find a new builder, all while living with a bathroom that was stripped back to floorboards and brick. Nightmare. It’s AI for me if I ever do another project!

I know 2 interior designers
i used one of them