Are you thinking of hiring an interior designer for your home, but not sure if it’s worth the investment? Before you make that decision, you should consider the pros and cons of hiring an interior designer.
When we purchased our first apartment three years ago, I knew instantly that I wanted to hire an interior designer. I’d never worked with one before, but I’d seen so many portfolios online that I was convinced I needed to leave my home to the experts.
Our design and renovation process took about seven months, which were filled with high highs and low lows.
Many people have asked if I regret hiring an interior designer. I find that question so difficult to answer because it’s a yes and no situation for me.
On one hand, I regret hiring an interior designer, but not for reasons you may think. I regret not trusting myself to design my own home. I regret not pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and I regret prioritizing my job over my home. What was I thinking?!
On another hand, I have zero regrets because I don’t think we would’ve been able to finish our renovation in four months if we hadn’t. I know four months sound like a long time, but it would’ve taken us WAY longer if we handled it ourselves.
Having someone to talk to during the renovation journey also prevented me from having decision paralysis. I tend to procrastinate when I can’t make up my mind, so it was helpful for me to bounce ideas with someone.
Another popular question I get asked most often is, “What are the pros and cons of hiring an interior designer?”
Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but here’s my experience hiring an interior designer.
- Pros of hiring an interior designer
- Cons of hiring an interior designer
- Will I hire an interior designer again?
Related: Interior Stylist vs Interior Designer – Who should you hire for your home?
Pros of hiring an interior designer
Serves as a single point of contact and accountability
This reason alone is WORTH the investment for me because I had a demanding job back then.
Hiring an interior designer is similar to hiring a wedding planner. Just like a wedding, there are so many different elements to a renovation. Some people hire interior designers for design work only. But, our interior designer was in charge of every aspect of the renovation.
Bonus tip: Always check your interior designer’s scope of work before you begin renovation, and lock that down in a contract!
My previous sales job required me to deal with a lot of people daily. So, it was a HUGE relief for me to only deal with one person rather than 20 different vendors during this period.
I still remember visiting the site after a busy workday. I noticed the pendant lights in the kitchen were not straight and someone had bought the wrong tiles for the backsplash.
All I had to do was text my interior designer and let her know about the mistakes. They were rectified within the next few days.
Since I stress out easily, having a single point of contact and accountability reduced my anxiety.
It also gave me peace of mind knowing I had someone to help me with firefighting issues. And trust me, there WILL be issues, but an interior designer is responsible to resolve them and keep the renovation going.
This made the experience far more pleasant than my wedding planning journey, where I didn’t hire a wedding planner and had to deal with all of the vendors on my own.
Saves time and energy
Hiring an interior designer saved me a lot of time and energy. It may not look like it, but designing and decorating a home is a long and complicated process.
Now that I’m planning to revamp our space without the help of a designer, I’m spending so many hours on Pinterest, Instagram, and home decor blogs. And, I haven’t even created my vision board yet!
I can’t tell you how much I appreciated my interior designers doing all the groundwork for me when we renovated. They made it look so easy when they showed up to our meeting with a few samples of everything, but I know it probably took them a while to source for what I like.
Since they handled mostly everything, I could focus during the busiest period of my work, where I was coincidentally overseeing three retail build-ups! Haha, talk about the irony!
Access to better resources
Interior design firms usually have a network of contractors, suppliers, and other contacts they work with. Since this is their trade, they know who is reliable and can produce high-quality work.
Renovating a home is an expensive affair. We knew hiring our contractors would be risky because we never know what we’re going to get.
We also knew it would be a time-consuming process since we didn’t know where to start. On top of that, the language barrier was an issue for us.
A lot of our friends’ contractors only spoke in their native non-English languages, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to communicate smoothly with them. The last thing we wanted during the renovation was a misunderstanding with our contractors!
In short, we knew we would benefit from hiring an interior design firm because they simply have better resources. True to our experience, our interior designers didn’t disappoint. Although we were never introduced to their contractors, we were pleased with the outcome.
Provides the right balance between aesthetics and functionality
An interior designer does more than just make a space look pretty. They are professionals who can provide the right balance between aesthetics and functionality in a home.
We knew how we wanted our dream home to look, but we lacked the knowledge and experience to ensure the redesigned space is spacious, efficient, and practical. Interior designers are responsible to let you know what works and what doesn’t.
As this was our first home, we didn’t know what to look out for. Thankfully, our designers implemented some of the smartest hacks we never even knew existed!
Produces quality work
Good interior designers take pride in their projects. They usually try their best to produce quality work to build an impressive portfolio, which helps to attract more clients.
Sadly, this isn’t always the case. We’ve heard of many horror stories about interior designers providing poor quality work and even worse, disappearing mid-construction!
We were glad we chose a firm that provided a breakdown of renovation works and costs in a contract, which was very important to us. Plus, they constantly updated us about the progress of our renovation.
Our journey wasn’t smooth-sailing, but we were very happy with how the home turned out.
At the end of the day, our interior designers delivered the results we wanted. And, that was the most important thing for us.
RELATED: The Best Three Decisions We Made For Our Home Renovation
Cons of hiring an interior designer
Delays in starting work
The problem with hiring interior designers is that you’re not the only client. As a result, your renovation may be delayed if your designer’s other projects are pushed back.
Additionally, a professional interior designer will take some time to plan, brainstorm, and design your space. After that, you will spend more time reviewing and revising the layout until you are completely satisfied with how the final renderings look.
It’s a lengthy but necessary process!
In our case, it took us almost two months to confirm the design. Then, it took another month for our management to repair the defects in our apartment. Following that, our designers took another month to finish another project before they could start ours.
Our advice? Take delays into consideration when planning your renovation, especially if you’re living in a rental. Start talking to your interior designer a few months before you get possession of your new place. Once you have your keys, you should hopefully be able to crack on with construction.
Requires overseeing
Some homeowners don’t want to get involved at all. I get it. That’s why you’re paying your interior designers, right? They’re supposed to do all the work!
I admit I’m somewhat of a micromanager. It’s not that I don’t trust my interior designers. I’m just anxious because it’s our first home, and I want it to be perfect!
In my case, micromanaging paid off. We managed to prevent a few major mistakes from happening.
Remember someone bought the wrong kitchen backsplash? Well, it was a good thing my husband and I visited the site daily because we spotted the wrong tiles before they were installed.
The initial tiles were too big and didn’t match our vision board. It took our designers two tries before they bought the right ones. Imagine if they had installed the first tiles – that would’ve been a costly mistake!
Expensive
Interior designers are not cheap regardless of their scope. 13% of our total renovation costs were interior designer fees.
We wanted to save money, so our costs didn’t even include 3D renderings. Plus, we had to pay to get an initial quote, although that went towards the final cost.
I understand hiring an interior designer is a luxury not everyone can afford. Was it worth it for us? Absolutely!
Changes in management
Management changes may occur if you hire an interior design firm. A bigger firm usually has more than one designer and project manager. If you’re lucky, you’ll work with the same team from start to finish.
We were rather unfortunate because we had a sudden change in management. Our project manager left right before construction started. We were nervous because we’d never communicated with our new project manager. But, she was a true professional and assured us she would take care of everything. And, she did!
Others
There’s always going to be one or two unique pros and cons of hiring an interior designer.
Ours is a pretty rare situation because we thought our designers could do better when it came to sourcing furniture and home decor pieces. We were very surprised when they proposed a lot of Ikea furniture to us.
Don’t get me wrong – I love Ikea as much as the next person. However, I was hoping they would have access to one-of-a-kind suppliers and custom furniture makers.
I know they were probably trying to work within our budget, but it would be nice to see more unique options!
Will I hire an interior designer again?
It depends. I know, I know. It’s a vague answer, but I’m being honest! It comes down to our current situation and if we can afford it.
If I have the time, I would love to take up the challenge of designing our own home. At the same time, I know there are a ton of talented interior designers with whom I’ll love to work with. I mean, it’ll be an absolute dream if I could hire the Three Birds, Amber Interiors, or Pure Salt Interiors!
Did you hire an interior designer to design and build your home? What are your pros and cons of hiring an interior designer? Let us know in the comments below!
All photography by Groundwork Studio.