Even if you know exactly what you want and have an artistic eye, interior design is a big undertaking. Whether you’re redecorating your present home or designing the interior of a new home, it is best to work with a professional interior design consultant. Their talent and training will allow them to bring your vision to life.

Working with an interior design consultant can be an intimate relationship. Not only will you be spending quite a bit of time together planning your project, you are entrusting them with your home. It is important that you enlist the services of an experienced interior design consultant that you are comfortable working with.

Prepare First

Before setting up interviews, make a list of exactly what needs to be done and the results you want achieve. This will make it easier to answer the questions an interior design consultant will ask, as well as give them ample information to give you a general idea of how they will develop your design plan. It will also facilitate a more relaxed atmosphere when you begin conducting interviews, allowing you to get a feel for whether or not you will work well with a consultant.

Do Research

Talk to friends, neighbors, coworkers and family who have hired an interior design consultant for their projects. Their feedback will be valuable as it will be sincere and based on first-hand experience. Searching the web for a design consultant’s credentials and experience is also a great resource.

Viewing their website and online portfolios will give you a sense of their design style. Coordinating a consultant’s style and experience with the scope of your project will streamline the interviewing process, allowing you to quickly eliminate any candidates that aren’t appropriate for your project.

Share the Vision

Interior decorating isn’t something you typically do on a regular basis. You will be living with the result of your completed design project for quite some time. While hiring an interior design consultant with ample experience and proper credentials is important, if you and a consultant don’t collaborate well it could result in an unsuccessful design project.

While the design consultant may be the expert, there are things to watch out for when interviewing candidates. Do they seem genuinely interested in your ideas? Or are they more interested in telling you what they would do?

They should be interested in your ideas and suggest ways of implementing them. It is possible that something you like or want to do just won’t work. In a case like that, it is important for the consultant to explain why they feel it won’t work and be able to offer other possibilities that still reflect the style of your original idea. Working with an interior design consultant should be a collaboration.

Respect the Budget

It’s important that you and an interior design consultant are on the same page from the beginning about how much you want to spend on your design project. Once presented with the budget and vision for your project, they will be able to offer you with a realistic expectation of the result.

Some of your ideas may be a bit grand for your budget. An experienced consultant will be able to offer alternatives that are appealing as well as budget friendly. Almost every home design project encounters a surprise or two along the way that can rock the budget a bit.  Staying within your budget initially will make those surprises easier to deal with.

Need an Interior Design Consultant in NJ?

Carolyn Wesslen, designer and owner of CW Interiors, prides herself on demonstrating integrity, courtesy and professionalism when working on an interior decorating project with a client. An Allied ASID member, Carolyn’s goal is not only excellent design but a pleasant experience as well.

Carolyn founded CW Interiors with a passion for design. She specializes in creating interiors that are warm, inviting and timeless. Carolyn will collaborate with you to bring your vision to life. Give her a call at (609) 618-2863 today!