There are more than ten things to look for when choosing an interior designer, but these are the most important!
What questions should you ask? Do they need a portfolio? (Actually they don't) And if you're an interior designer, what should you ask your potential customer?
There are also covered questions that you should ask, note down and make a clear strategy for the work.
1. Personality - If you are going to work in collaboration with your interior designer then you should proceed like each other. You need to be able to be honest with each other. If you are a designer, it means respecting the customers at home and their choice and decisions. This is not your home after all!
2. Photographs - Much has been said about whether you need them as a designer and whether clients should bother to ask for them. I do not think they are urgent. It is much more useful to visit a job that has been done or even in the process of being remade to see what is possible and how the designer works.
3. Asking the right questions - When will work need to be started, what are the budget constraints, what are the customers' thoughts and need to follow the times. Your designer should ask these questions and as a customer, you should be prepared to answer them honestly.
4. Taking notes - When choosing an interior designer, pay full attention to how much attention he or she is giving to you and your property. They should take notes and notices. Access to the property, wood floors and acoustic levels, hours of work that can be completed within the property and neighbors - all of this should be noted and recognized.
5. Suppliers - Most designers have not given you a list of their workers and companies that they source from which you do not need to ask if you are a customer. I have recorded another podcast on it - listen to it here.
6. Where can I find an interior designer? - Recommendation every time. You can go to your country's institute for interior design if they have one, but honestly, go with a recommendation or fail, check out a local magazine and see who is featured and who advertises there .
7. Insurance - Everyone should have it. Especially any builder you work with. Interior designers must have indemnity insurance. I do, but thankfully I have never needed it.
8. How much do interior designers spend? - It is a holy grave of questions and the answer is not straightforward. Hourly rates, percentage of building cost, fees divided into installments alone - all of these are used and accepted, depending on what the designers are setting. The easiest method is the percentage option, because a timesheet is required if you are contracting hourly. Make sure that as a client, you have read the terms and conditions and if you are a designer - make your terms and conditions clear from the start!
9. Work Schedule - No, not a worker's schedule but the builders' schedule as a designer. Customers and designers should know who is doing what and who has the responsibility of choosing and purchasing the item. If there is overlap - it just wastes time. Make sure everything is clear before you start. Who is buying, when are you meeting and when and how often do you need updates.
10. Additional jobs - storage, eviction, renting any other property, cleaning ... selling old items..and these options should be talked about and closed before work starts .
