What Does it Take to Be a Good Interior Designer?
Being a good interior designer requires a flexible approach, a creative mindset, and an ability to work well with others. Each client will vary in their requirements and budget, so if you wish to work in this field then you’ll need to be adaptable.
Here are a few thoughts about what it takes to be an effective interior designer.
Be Inspired
You have to learn about what style of interior design gets your creative juices flowing. Finding the perfect piece of furniture to fit into a space that matches your planned color scheme is enriching because it brings job satisfaction. And when the client loves it too, it just makes your day.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re picking out restaurant furniture like right chairs, tables and counter tops to suit a restaurant refit project, redesigning an office space to make it more inviting, or creating a lounge that’s an oasis of relaxation, being inspired matters.
Be an Excellent Communicator
Talking with the client about your design ideas and being animated as you do so is important. Your enthusiasm for the concepts for each room in their home or for their business showroom is infectious, in a good way. Despite graphics mockups and illustrations to help them picture it, most clients will only truly get your vision when they see it in person. They need to trust your judgement and roll with ideas that they don’t truly know if they’ll come out to their liking, but still allow you to go ahead anyway. The trick to gaining their trust is partly to communicate your ideas clearly enough that they have confidence in them, and in you.
Be Aware of New Design Ideas
A good interior designer is aware of new approaches to design that are becoming popular with clients. When the client describes what they’re looking for, the designer has to be able to recognize where their influences are coming from. With this knowledge, they can return with a planned design that considers what is currently popular and put their unique spin on it.
Keeping current with new layouts and design ideologies is also helpful to avoid using stale ideas. Home, office and venue design evolves over the years. The perfect layout, use of fabrics, flooring, cabinets and other elements all get updated to match ever-changing tastes. New manufacturing techniques and other modern touches also influence how an interior space can be designed, so a practitioner who is keeping up with style changes has a longevity that an out-of-touch interior designer does not.
Be Able to Work Within Different Budgets
Not every client can afford the best of everything. A good designer will work within their budget to come up with innovative ideas without leaving them feeling like they’re getting short-changed. Decisions and cuts will be made so you will need to decide where to spend more of the budget and what places to simplify or economize. Certainly, the areas of the home that the occupants spend the most hours each week is a worthy consideration in this respect.
Ultimately, it’s your ability to continually come up with interesting concepts that meet the client’s initial brief that will determine your success in this industry. Reputation is everything, so deal with every person in a fair way and produce a polished result to generate excellent and positive word of mouth.
