First time getting an Interior Designer? 5 Things to look out for

Everyone has their own dream space in mind - but making it happen can quickly turn into, well…a bad dream. We show you what to look out for when engaging an interior designer.

1. Go in with a visual idea of your dream space.

Ideas are good starting places - but there are many ways to interpret “zen white backdrop with clean furnishings”, or “warehouse chic with a wooden edge”. Get that screenshot from Instagram or showroom look-books to give prospective interior designers a concrete feel of how you want your space to materialize. This can also help you quickly eliminate IDs who you feel don’t quite understand what you want to achieve.

2. Don’t let the amount of pre-work be the deciding factor

Many IDs will offer you mockups or renders of possible designs to wow you - all fine and good, but these are mostly reused and par for the course. It’s a good effort signal if they attempt to mockup something based on discussions with you, but don’t let the pre-work effort be the deciding factor, since many would be

3. Talk to the IDs you are considering

You will communicate a lot with your chosen ID over the course of the fit-out. There will be back-and-forth, negotiations, disagreements even - so it’s important to not hate talking to this person. Are they accommodative? Pushy? Firm but open to suggestions? You might want to find an ID team that suits your character and gels well with where your design vision is at.

4. Assess if your ID is well-organized

Along with communication, there will also be a fair amount of documentation - quotations, variation orders (i.e. changes to initially agreed work scope), invoices, etc. That will go back and forth between you and the ID for signing, verification, payment. Does your ID seem well organized? Sure, they may be creative geniuses to you, but if they don’t seem to have a proper system to support generation and maintenance of quotations, variations and the like, it could be a wee bit troublesome. Imagine lags from discussion to quotation, variations that are all wrong, and invoices that state the incorrect amount!

5. Always check if the company has a legit track record

This one is a sanity check - registered on ACRA? Has the right accreditations? Fair to good reviews from various sites, which don’t seem planted?