What does an interior designer actually do?

Designer or decorator — which do you need?

The two words get used interchangeably, and plenty of excellent decorators call themselves designers. But there is a real difference in scope, and it matters when you are deciding who to call.

A decorator works with the room as it stands. Furniture, paint, fabric, rugs, art placement, accessories. If your floor plan is fine and your kitchen is staying exactly where it is, a decorator may be all you need.

An interior designer can do all of that, and also work on the room itself. Where the walls go. Whether the doorway should move eighteen inches so the sofa finally fits. How the kitchen island should be sized so two people can pass behind someone at the range. What the cabinetry elevations look like, so the millworker builds the right thing.

The practical test is simple: if anything about the room is being built, rebuilt or moved, you want a designer. If nothing is changing but the contents, a decorator will serve you well.

One thing worth knowing in Texas: the state regulates the title “registered interior designer” through the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, but it does not stop anyone from offering interior design services or calling themselves a designer or decorator. So the title alone tells you less than you might expect. Professional membership — ASID, for example — a design degree, and a portfolio of finished rooms tell you considerably more. If a credential matters to you, ask directly what it is and verify it.

What the work actually consists of

Here is the part that surprises people. The visible output of a design project is a beautiful room. The actual work is closer to logistics and problem-solving, with taste applied at every decision point.

Space planning

Deciding what goes where, at what size, with what clearance. This is the least glamorous and most valuable part of the job. A sofa two inches too deep, a walkway six inches too narrow, a dining table that seats ten but only clears the sideboard when nobody is sitting on the far side — these are the failures you feel every day and can never quite name.

Drawings

Floor plans show the layout from above. Elevations show a wall straight-on: the cabinetry, the tile, the built-ins, the mantel, drawn to scale. This is how you see a room before it exists, and it is how a builder knows exactly what to make. Floor plans and elevations are covered in detail here — they are the single biggest difference between a remodel that lands and one that drifts.

Selections

A modest kitchen remodel involves somewhere north of a hundred individual decisions: cabinet door style, drawer configuration, hinge type, counter material, edge profile, backsplash tile, grout color, grout width, sink, faucet finish, cabinet hardware, appliance panels, under-cabinet lighting, pendant height. Every one of them has to work with every other one. Making those choices in isolation is how a room ends up looking assembled rather than designed.

Sourcing and specification

Designers buy from trade suppliers, workrooms, fabricators and showrooms that are not open to the public. That widens the field considerably beyond what you can find retail, and it is often where a room stops looking like everyone else's.

Project management

Placing orders, tracking lead times, catching a fabric that has been discontinued before it holds up an entire installation, receiving and inspecting deliveries, scheduling installers, and being on site when the tile goes up. On a full-service project this is a large share of the hours.

The five phases of a design project

Nearly every well-run project moves through the same sequence, whether it is one room or a whole house.

1. Consultation. Walking the space, talking about how you actually live in it, your style, your timeline and your budget. You should come out of this with honest first impressions, including — if it applies — being told that what you want is not worth the money.
2. Concept and plan. Layouts, a direction for materials and color, and the first drawings. This is the stage where changes are cheap, so this is the stage to be difficult, ask awkward questions and say what you do not like.
3. Design development. The plan gets specific. Actual products, actual fabrics, actual finishes, actual pricing. Elevations get drawn. Everything gets checked against everything else.
4. Execution. Ordering, building, delivery, trades on site. If the project involves construction, this is where having the designer running the build — or at minimum staying closely involved — protects the plan you approved.
5. Installation and styling. Furniture placed, art hung, window treatments installed, the last details adjusted. This is the day the room becomes a room.

When is hiring a designer worth it?

Honest answer: not always. Here is where the value is clearest.

• You are spending real money on construction. Design fees are a small fraction of a kitchen or primary bath remodel, and the decisions they govern are the expensive, permanent ones. Getting the layout wrong is far more costly than any design fee.
• You have started three times and stopped three times. A very common reason people call: the room has been half-decorated for two years because every choice raises three more.
• The room has a genuine problem. Awkward proportions, difficult sight lines, a fireplace off-center, a room that has to be four things at once. This is exactly what the training is for.
• You are furnishing a lot at once. A new build or a whole-home project has an economy of scale — one coherent plan rather than fifteen separate shopping trips.
• You don't have the time. This is a legitimate reason on its own. Full-service design buys back a large number of hours you would otherwise spend chasing lead times.

Where it is less compelling: one small room, a tight budget with no construction, and the time and appetite to do the legwork yourself. In that case a paid consultation — a few hours of direction you then execute — often gets you most of the benefit. Many designers, including Chateau Concepts, offer consulting on that basis.

How to choose one

Look at completed rooms rather than mood boards. A portfolio of finished spaces — ideally in homes like yours — tells you whether someone can land a project, not just style one. Chateau Concepts' portfolio is here, and the before-and-after gallery is more revealing still.

Then ask these questions:

• Who will actually work on my project — you, or someone else in the office?
• How do you charge, and what exactly is included? (The fee models are explained here.)
• Do you handle the construction side, or do I need to hire that separately?
• What happens if something arrives damaged or backordered?
• Can I speak to two clients whose projects were about this size?

Finally, and least measurably: you are going to be in a lot of conversations with this person about money and taste. The one who listens more than they pitch is usually the right call. The most common compliment in a good designer's reviews is not “beautiful work” — it is some version of she listened, and the house feels like us.

Jan Revels

ASID Allied Professional Interior Designer · Chateau Concepts, Dallas

Jan has practiced interior design in Dallas since 1997 and founded Chateau Concepts in 2001. She holds a BFA in Interior Design from the University of North Texas. She designs and general-contracts residential and commercial projects across the Park Cities, Preston Hollow and North Dallas. Read her full profile →

Written and reviewed by Jan Revels before publication