If you’re getting ready to work with an interior designer, that likely means you are about to embark on a significant project- how exciting! The concept of creating a space that reflects your personal style can be very compelling and rewarding. However, you may find it a little nerve-wracking trying to ensure that you end up with a space you love when teaming up with an interior designer, especially one you may have just met! Whether you are someone who struggles to give up the reigns or one who is happy to hand over all things creative, just remember that you do still play a part! After all, this is your space and you and your designer will be working together as a team to achieve your desired style. If you’re looking for a little help on how to best communicate what you’re looking for so that you and your designer are on the same page, read our tips below!
Bring Visuals
Whether you have a honed in idea of your interior design style or have no clue what you like, the best advice we can offer you to prep for a meeting with your interior designer is bring visuals. Start by gathering inspiration by browsing through Pinterest and saving your favorite photos. If you notice similarities in certain designs that you keep gravitating towards, you can eventually start getting a little more specific with your search. For example, if you notice most of the kitchen designs you keep saving have stained wood cabinetry, refine your search to “kitchen design with stained wood cabinetry.” Now you can weed out all the painted cabinetry designs and focus on what kind of wood stain you like.
Even if you consider yourself having a definitive style such as “traditional” or “organic modern,” we still recommend gathering some visuals to best communicate to your designer what that style means to you. There’s a lot of blending of styles that happens in interior design, so flagging the specific features you like of a particular style is helpful for your designer to be sure to include them.
It’s also important to note that you don’t have to find a photo of exactly what you want to simply copy and paste. Instead, focusing on saving inspiration photos of a good wood stain, then one with a layout you prefer, and some with some design details you’d like to include. Your designer will be able to piece together the elements you like to provide a design that is unique to you.
Familiarize Yourself with Terminology
Aside from visuals, another main form of communication is language. When we are talking about communicating with your designer, familiarizing yourself with the language of design can be an important part of making your design meetings run more efficiently and effectively. Now, we are not saying that you must know all the terminology per say, but knowing how to communicate specific elements that pertain to your project is a great place to start. For example, if you are ordering kitchen cabinetry, your designer is going to talk to you about door style, inset versus overlay, five piece versus slab, toe kicks, moulding, etc. While you don’t have to know the ins and outs of all those features, briefing yourself on some of those concepts will only help you and your designer reach design solutions more smoothly. Most of those terms can be well explained by a simple google search and your designer can help with actually applying them to your design. Since you will be working with them as a team, the better the communication, the better the solution.
That all being said, you should absolutely ask your designer questions on any topics or terms that you are unfamiliar with. Designers don’t expect you to be an expert in their field, hence why you hired them. However, we’d hate to have you say you want full overlay cabinetry when you really prefer the look of inset. Familiarizing yourself with some of the design jargon will simply help you better communicate your desires so your designer can fulfill them.
Know Your Dislikes
It may come as a surprise, but knowing what styles and features you dislike is perhaps just as important as knowing what you do like. While your designer will work to incorporate all your specifics wants, it is helpful to also know what things to avoid. Perhaps you love rustic design elements such as natural woods and stone, but just can’t stand a super distressed finish that is sometimes common in rustic interiors. This would be an important note for your designer so they can best reflect that style to your personal taste.
It’s key to communicate your dislikes up front, and be confident in doing so, in order to help your designer achieve your desired look. You’d hate to be the one to tell a designer “Do whatever looks good, I’m not picky!” just to pick apart the entire design afterwards. Now, it is totally okay to point out something you dislike in a design meeting so your designer can correct it, and there’s no shame in that. However, if you communicate your strong dislikes up front, it might save you and your designer some time to avoid multiple redesigns.
Just to reiterate, it’s okay to not have a super specific design style that has a fancy name to it. Everyone has likes and dislikes and that’s essentially what your designer is interested in knowing about you. Also, interior designers deal with more than just aesthetics, but also ensure functionality, correct dimensions, coordinate between vendors, and so much more.
If you’re looking to hire an interior designer for your next project, check out our Meet The Team page to contact one of our designers. We specialize in custom cabinetry, custom countertops, sourcing selections, and designing layouts. If you want just design services, we do offer that for an hourly rate and we provide digital renderings so you can see the space for yourself. Contact us to learn more!
