How to choose an interior designer: a checklist from an architect’s practice

A bad designer is almost impossible to spot from the pictures: renderings look beautiful for everyone these days. The difference between a professional and an “artist” shows up later — when the builders open the drawings and start asking questions the design has no answers to. This checklist will help you check what matters before you sign the contract.

Look at the scope of the package, not at the pictures

Ask the candidate for the full set of working documentation from one of their completed projects. Besides the renderings, a professional package must include:

• a measured survey plan and a demolition plan;
• a layout plan with the furniture arrangement;
• floor, ceiling and lighting plans with dimensions;
• a socket and electrical outlet diagram tied to the furniture and appliances;
• wall elevations for the complex areas: kitchen, bathrooms, dressing rooms;
• a schedule of finishing materials with specifications.

If you are shown only an album of beautiful renders, you are dealing with a decorator, not a designer. The builders cannot construct from a picture, and every junction will be “decided on site” at your expense.

Check how the process is organised

In international practice a project is divided into mandatory stages — that is how the Italian Merloni Law and the British RIBA Plan of Work work. Ask the candidate what stages their work consists of. The right answer sounds roughly like this: concept and layout → budgeting → working documentation → design supervision. Each stage has a fixed deliverable that you accept.

The absence of a budgeting stage should alarm you. If a designer draws a concept without knowing your limit for the build, you risk ending up with a project that costs twice what you are prepared to spend.

What the contract must contain

• The scope of documentation for each stage — as a list, not as “turnkey interior design”.
• The deadlines for each stage and the acceptance procedure.
• The number of rounds of revisions included in the price.
• The terms of design supervision: number of site visits, what is included.
• Liability for errors in the drawings that force works to be redone.

Three questions that will save you hundreds of thousands

Ask them at the first meeting and listen not to what the candidate answers, but to how.

• “How do you hand the design over to the builders and answer their questions during construction?”
• “What happens if the build goes over budget?”
• “Show me an example of a materials schedule with article numbers and suppliers.”

A designer who answers these calmly and specifically most likely knows how to manage a project, not just draw. A confident answer about process is the best predictor that your renovation will finish without rework.

The main point

Choose the procedure, not the taste. Taste can be discussed and corrected with a brief, whereas the absence of working documentation and staging cannot be cured by anything — it means guaranteed rework. A detailed breakdown of every stage, including the criteria for choosing a designer and a contract template, is in module 2 of our course “Home of Your Dreams”.