Interior Design services

[Dream101]

Hello ladies,

I am starting an Interior Design business and I was wondering if any of your have used an Interior Designer and to what extent? Did you find it useful? What would you like out of an Interior Design service? What do you dislike about Interior Designers?

Some feedback would be helpful. Thanks!

Hi there Dream101 - we're just going to move this over to Start-Ups for you.

Hi Dreams101,

I ran an interior design & furniture retail business with my wife for 13 years and lecture on project management at the Inchbald School of Interior Design. Here are my thoughts from the designers side of the fence:-

• People do use interior designers and they use them for a whole variety of reasons. The most frequent reason is when moving (or extending their) home and they want to start with a new style/look rather than bringing an 'old' look from their previous home.

• Clients want the following from an interior design service

• good interior design from a friendly approachable designer who understands their needs
• create interesting designs that engage the client.
• takes responsibility for organizing any work e.g. painting & decorating, flooring, electrician etc.
• takes all the hassle away from getting work done.

• Clients dislike interior designers when they ignore their needs - e.g. how many can sit around a table at supper time, or specific requests about where things go. Sometimes clients get frustrated when you aren't able to create a design that meets their expectations - however they are not able to give guidance on what would meet their expectations so this is not really the designers problem.

If you need any advice feel free to message me directly and best of luck.

Peter.

I have just engaged one for a bathroom redesign. I sent her a couple of pictures so she could get a feel for what I liked. She misunderstood and though I wanted exactly the picture. I had to repeat several times it was the feel I was after rather than a replica.

I do like how she has a team she has joined up with so I can go to one person for design and build. I don't like how she charges a 30% fee on top if their fee for this as I'm already paying her a design fee.

She also seems stuck on marbel rather than exploring different materials, so do research into what else is out there, what new products are around and keep your design knowledge up to date and fresh. I'd like someone who could incorporate new ideas and trends into classic designs if that makes sense? I don't want to spend 30k on a bathroom only for it to be overly dated in 5yrs.

Personally that sounds bad on a couple of fronts.

Charging 30% on top of design fees is very high, our fee structure was less than half that and for large projects was in single figures. What are you getting in return for this 30%?

Also the reason your designer is pushing marble may be because they can get a big trade discount adding to overall income to the designer. While we also got trade discounts on some products we sold to clients we never ever recommended a product/material simply because of the discount.

Also the problem with teaming up with one contractor is you don't get to tender the works to other contractors who may do it at a cheaper price. Sure having a reliable contractor is worth thousands in the long run, but a good designer should keep a number of contractors on their books and insist that there are at least 2 competing quotes for each job. This will keep the contractors honest (if they know they will get the work, why offer a competitive price?).

Thank you very much Peter.

This all makes sense. I guess I'm a bit stuck on how much to structure my fees. Do I discount initially to get clients and build my portfolio?