When and How, Do I Know I Should Hire an Interior Designer?

Restaurant Table Detail - Designed by Peter E Designs

Interior design helps create a comfortable stage on which people’s lives unfold. Design is therefore not a luxury but a necessity. But when and how do you know you require the services of a Professional Interior Designer? 

An interior designer may be approached when an interior space is ripe for development and transformation.  

The Interior Designer’s vision stretches over many different canvases. Designers create living solutions for your home; working environments for offices, factories and other businesses. Institutional buildings such as hospitals, schools, prisons and airports also employ the services of designers.  Retail stores, restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs, and amusement parks heavily rely on the knowledge and creativity of designers. Your car, airplanes, yacht and cruise ship interiors, all share the touch of Interior Design experts. Hence, if you have an interior and even some exterior spaces for development , you will likely need an interior designer.

Residential, Commercial and Institutional Design are board areas of the creative practice. Knowing your projects type and needs will help you find the right interior specialist for you. As qualified “space doctors”, designers may be consulted on new construction, renovations and refurbishing, or to simple spruce up your existing space. Its best to schedule a consultation before you commence working on a project. An effective designer is available for consultation, input or just professional support when the client may be having doubts. As rescue masters we are skilled at fixing mistakes, ironing out space conflicts, difficult design issues and ensuring proper function.

BEFORE     Facebaar Restaurant, Designed by Peter E Designs

AFTER      Facebaar Restaurant designed by Peter E Designs

 How do you know you need a Professional Designer? Here are a few questions that can help you decide:

1. Do I enjoy shopping? When faced with many choices are you overwhelmed or indecisive?
2. Do I have the time shop? Even if you have the time, do you want to give up your other activities (work, family, religious or recreational time) to do so?
3. Do I have and am I willing to devote the necessary time to do the required research? Will you spend the considerable time both on and off line, in books and magazines to acquire the knowledge to do a successful project yourself? If you skip this step or are bad at it, the products you get may look great but not work. You may lose thousands of dollars of your investment and may still need to hire a designer to correct it.   
4. Do I have the natural talent for the job? If you don’t, its best not to tackle your project on your own, this could be financially risky on your part.
5. Do you have skilled, reliable and dependable contacts and resources to efficiently complete your project? This will include contractors and subcontractors, especially with new construction and renovations. Do you feel sufficiently surefooted to solve design issues that will arise, and can you be available during the days to solve emergencies? Do you know enough about the design process to successfully schedule and efficiently manage your project?
6. How skilled are you at ordering the composite parts of fixtures, fittings and equipment. If you do your project yourself, you bear full responsibility and liability for all these. When parts are missing your contractors may even charge extract for materials and project delays.
7. If construction is required do you have the skills to safely design your space. Often its easy to say hit  this down or put a window here; but you should never do a construction project without qualified input and the necessary building permits.

If these questions and your answers give you no cause for concern, doubts or uncertainty, then you are possibly ready to tackle your project yourself. Confidence is built through small successes. So start your project small, so you do not bite off more than can be chewed. On the other hand if you are uncertain, confused or terrified from your answers, you should definitely enlist the aid of a qualified interior designer.

Peter E.