Interior Designers, Associate Designers and Design Assistants
The interior designer teams start the process for almost every project. I am confident that we have the best out there! Our designers boast education, experience, and good taste.
I have often said you can be educated, but without an elevated taste level you will do your clients a disservice, and you can’t teach good taste.
When you have someone who knows the interior design fundamentals and principles of design and has an eye, it’s a win-win. Yes, a lot of what we do is left to creative freedom, but there are rules we need to understand, we have to know how to color inside the lines. So, what are the fundamentals and principles of interior design, and what should every designer know? The principles are balance, harmony, contrast, proportion and scale, rhythm, emphasis, and details. And if all those are accomplished, we must make sure we are following the elements of design as well, color, form, light, line, pattern, texture, and space.
So why am I telling you this? Because there is a difference between an interior designer and a decorator. An interior designer is not your college roommate who moved their furniture around three times a term, or your neighbor who has a cute, decorated house. Please don’t misunderstand, there is a place for all of us, but paying for an interior designer should get you education, experience, and the ability to elevate the outcome. Paying us to do our job the way we know how will pay for itself. An interior designer is not simply someone who “has an eye” or an ability to put things together. An accomplished interior designer creates functional spaces taking factors such as functionality, aesthetics, safety, and accessibility into consideration, and has great taste. They also and, most importantly, must have the ability to ACTIVELY LISTEN.
So, what is it that we do, what does our day look like, how do we interact in the building, remodeling and refreshing stages and why are we necessary? Well… let me tell you, this is my favorite thing to talk about!
Clients may want to hire an interior designer because they are building a new house or remodeling and don’t think they have the skill to put it all together. People are often surprised when we share the depth of our involvement and input, what we do, and what role we play in the process. If we can start before any plans go on paper, we are miles ahead. We cannot do our job without architects and drafting partners, but we rely on them mainly for structure, not for space planning. We are extremely good at developing a plan for how the house wants to live, and how it works for you vs. you working in the established space. We invest the time and find out how you live or want to, from the time you get out of the car in the garage, to where you drop your keys, mail, work bag, and groceries, where you store your groceries, how you cook, who cooks, how you grab your favorite spice, who grabs drinks and from where, how many are eating and where, how often you entertain, do you cook in front of others or have help that is behind the scenes, and more. Get the idea?
Some say designers are expensive, they take away your creative freedom, and it adds another person into the mix. But the truth is we interview, listen, ask and we make the space yours and yours alone.
The TV and DIY shows make designing look so simple, but doing even a small space requires thought, planning, and expertise. I am currently remodeling a powder bath and my company, Lee Douglas Interiors, is serving as both the interior designer and contractor. A powder bath, a tiny space, probably the smallest in the house. I just want to use this as an example to make my point.
As the interior designer we need to establish a plan, what do the clients like and dislike about their space? What feels tired and old in the space? Does the layout work, or are there flaws in how the space functions? Is there enough light for ambiance and tasks? As an interior designer, we first design the space.
As the contractor, our in-house construction team demos the existing items like the vanity, toilet, lighting, towel bars, TP holders, etc. They then haul it away. The walls were textured, and we selected a beautiful wallpaper, so someone had to skim-coat the walls to make them smooth again. Then the wallpaper went up. It is a gorgeous grass cloth full of texture, color and pattern. Choosing the color correctly creates the mood of the room, while the texture gives you the sense of touch visually and pattern which relates to perception.
Next, the new vanity was installed, but the legs were in a different place than the old vanity, so we needed to take off the baseboard and shoe molding, have a millwork company match the profile, stain and seal to match and install around the furniture piece. The vanity is a delightful furniture piece inspired by the 1950s vanities of Palm Beach, featuring bamboo carvings and finished in gold leaf. By choosing the correct vanity for the space, we have achieved form and balance by visually stabilizing the space with a geometric form. Harmony is achieved by marrying the grasscloth with the bamboo element in similarity, coordination, and rhythm. The repetition and movement of these selections allow your eye to move around the space. Then the sink gets installed as an undermount to the beautiful marble countertop, a gorgeous contrast to the textural wallpaper with its refined and polished perfection. The counter is Detailed by the ogee edge selected to further impact the top. The faucet gets installed, the toilet, and the new sconce lighting. The light is measured accurately by ensuring that the sconces are placed at the right height. The light is ambient light while the recessed light above the sink is there for tasks. The mirror was installed at a height for function, but the oversized mirror was selected for visual focus, creating a line, a sense of flow, movement, scale and proportion. We have achieved emphasis by creating our powder bath focal point – the beautiful new vanity wall.
Finally, the new bath hardware is installed, and the room is complete.
So… When you say, it’s a tiny powder bath, it can seem deceptively simple but, in reality, it requires skill, scheduling, selecting, ordering, and thought. When it is not done correctly, it can cost money and time, so using our interior designers saves money, time, and stress for the homeowner.
When you work with us, we become your partner, your advocate, and your teammate.
In general, working with our interior designers should keep costs under control by getting the biggest bang for the buck. We also attend most of the industry markets and shows so we know what is out there and because we are an established firm, we have access to it. We will push you a bit and help you make decisions that are comfortable with, but enough of a stretch that elevates the outcome.
Whether we are consulting with a client regarding ideas, putting a furniture package together, space planning and drawing a plan for a new build, or remodel, we are constantly creating, planning, drawing, presenting, managing, and sweating the small stuff for you.
We work hard to find the right interior designers, and I am proud they are on my team.
So… When are we doing that powder bath?
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