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If you are considering a home renovation project, you may be wondering if you should take advantage of the services of a professional in order to streamline the process. Below, we’re sharing why to hire an interior designer in Washington, D.C., and how to determine that you’re selecting the right individual for the job so that all goes extra smoothly!
Hiring an Interior Designer Will Allow You to Execute Your Vision
Wondering what the main difference is between hiring an interior designer versus designing yourself? Hiring an interior designer in Washington, D.C. will ensure that your finished home renovation aligns with your overall vision. Upon completing client projects, we often receive feedback that the completed space far exceeds the clients’ expectations, and is better than anything they could have imagined had they managed the process on their own.
Hiring an interior designer in Washington, D.C. also serves as a means for clients to translate their vision into a reality. At Lorla Studio, we often have clients present us with images of completed spaces that they like, but they struggle to articulate exactly what it is that they like about the photos. As professionals, we manage the planning and brainstorming process, and help clients understand the specific design elements we need to extract from their inspiration to achieve the end result they are after.. This ensures that their finished home looks and feels incredible!
Hiring an Interior Designer Means You’re Prioritizing Expertise, Time, and Money
Any remodeling or renovation project is focused on customizing the space to fit a clients’ needs and lifestyle. However, customizing a home is typically a timely, expensive and complicated endeavor. Interior designers are trained in exactly this type of work. They know who to hire to perform specific tasks, relying on experts with whom they have worked for years and who are highly skilled in their areas of specialty. Examples include a highly skilled custom millworker who will build a banquette tailored to the exact parameters of your breakfast nook, a drapery workroom to create roman shades for your living room windows, and a decorative painter to apply a waterproof Tadelakt finish to your bathroom walls. Most homeowners do not know where to look for specialty trades, while interior designers maintain and nurture relationships with their trusted trades. While it might take a homeowner weeks to research, connect with, and hire a custom millworker, an interior designer can call and book a reliable contact with ease.
Additionally, trades and contractors typically require drawings to build from, including floor plans, elevations, millwork drawings, reflected ceiling plans, and more. Interior designers are highly skilled and efficient at creating these drawings, which is a critical part of ensuring the design will turn out according to a client’s vision. It will also help to prevent costly mistakes, such as ordering a sofa that doesn’t fit in the room, or purchasing dining room chairs that are too low for a given table.
Hiring an Interior Designer Requires Compatibility
There are many questions you will want to ask prior to hiring an interior designer in Washington, D.C, but arguably the most important thing to consider is the connection you feel with the interior designer you are considering. Working with an interior designer is an intimate experience and often a long relationship. It is really important that you like and trust the professional that you hire. You will need to share honest and open details about how you live, and what is important to you, and the way certain spaces and elements make you feel.
Conversations about timeline and budget should take place at the outset of your search, as you are considering interior designer candidates. It is not uncommon for designers to have a waitlist, so if you are in a hurry, that will help narrow down your search. Making sure that you and your designer are on the same page with what you can accomplish with your budget is another critical component to consider.
Most interior designers can successfully complete projects drawing from a broad range of styles, but ideally, you are drawn to your interior designer based on their aesthetics—the work that you see on their website or social media should grab your attention.
Level of service and communication style are also important factors to consider when hiring an interior designer in Washington, D.C.. Some clients want to be more involved in the process than others, and want to participate in tasks such as visiting local tile or furniture showrooms with their designer, which not all professionals will offer. At Lorla Studio, we send our clients frequent email updates throughout the duration of a project, which many appreciate. Some clients prefer weekly phone calls or frequent text messages, which is fine, but might not work for your interior designer. Understanding what works for you and what doesn’t, and being open and upfront about this, will better help you hire the right interior designer in Washington, D.C..
Ways to Find and Hire an Interior Designer in Washington, D.C.
Word of Mouth: When hiring an interior designer in Washington, D.C., you will want to ask friends, relatives, colleagues, and neighbors if they have worked with someone and had a positive experience. Ask them to share what went well, and what didn’t, and ask if you can tour the finished space in person.
Google Search: It never hurts to type in “top interior designer near me” or a similar phrase into Google. Spend some time on the interior designer’s website and reading Google reviews to develop a sense of whether an individual will be a strong fit.
Digital platforms like TALD vet designers and provide a smaller curated list of options to choose from. You can search by location.
Once you have narrowed it down to a few options, talk to all of them. Most interior designers will take a brief phone call before scheduling a consultation. Ask them for past client referrals and carefully review their website. Reading a designer’s bio will indicate whether they have a degree in the field and how long they have been in the industry. Check out what type of press features and accreditations they have on their website.
Taking the Next Step to Hire an Interior Designer in Washington, D.C.
Don’t be afraid to schedule a consultation. Hiring an interior designer in Washington, D.C., who is highly experienced and communicative, is crucial to the success of your project, and not a decision you want to make hastily. Our design consultation services are an excellent starting point to help determine if you think we are the best fit. Lorla Studio thoughtfully services clients in the D.C. area—Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Kensington, and beyond—and is eager to connect with you about your own project today.
We leave you with valuable information that you can implement either with us, or on your own should you decide to go in another direction. This is an informative, low stakes way to learn more about Lorla Studio and share your project with us.