Spaces around us have a direct impact on our psyche, emotional being as well as physical comfort. Naturally, beautiful environments make us happy and joyful. Good seating and amenities bring comfort and functionality. A perfectly designed space elevates our life experiences. However, it is a task for interior design firms to achieve it, as it involves multiple sets of processes, planning, designing, buying and executing. All of this, while keeping the specific needs of the client in mind, and helping them make a style statement.
1. Importance of interior designing
In this context, it becomes essential to understand the importance of interior designing, as it is a complicated process involving a whole lot of elements like colour, form, texture, space, etc. Finding an interior design company that will fully understand your needs is not easy. So it is important to do your research well and understand all aspects of designing. But before that, know the answer to the question, why you need a designer.
2. Why you need a designer
Most of us with a fair degree of creativity, and intuitive understanding of design and aesthetics, feel we can do up our own place. But are we fully equipped to do so? Are we good at integrating the seven elements of interior design into our scheme in a balanced manner? Interior designers know how to use spaces more efficiently, increase its functionality and enhance its elegance by employing the right elements in the precise doses.
3. Understand the seven elements
- Colours influence our mind and mood, and transform the way a room looks and feels. They bring energy, mood and emotions.
- Form or shape that refers to the outline or contour of furniture, sculptures, artworks and accessories come in natural or organic forms, or geometric shapes, and decorate the spaces.
- Light can make or mar the most beautiful of spaces – too much or too little, glaring or dull, it makes a sea difference to the way a space is perceived.
- Every object is made up of lines – vertical, horizontal and dynamic, that indicate motion like wavy, zig-zag, etc. And every kind of line expresses itself in many ways adding visual interest to spaces.
- Repetitive lines, forms, or motifs create patterns that have a huge visual impact. Flooring, brick work on the wall, wallpapers, interior textiles, accessories – all come with patterns, they can even be achieved using light and shadows. While they add excitement, if you don’t know how much is too much, they can overpower the aesthetics.
- Everything in sight has texture, and textures affect us deeply. Mixing textures is an art.
- Space is the main focus when you’re designing. The different dimensions of the space need to be tackled differently to achieve a graceful space.
These are the elements of interior design that are best combined by a trained professional.
4. Know the basics
Once you’re convinced you need to hire an interior designer for doing up your space, you must proceed to understand your personal style, what design theme you want for your house, and what is going to be your budget, as these factors decide which interior designer is right for your project. Do a fair bit of research to understand the prevalent styles in the country.
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5. Your dream designer
With a plethora of interior design firms in India, it would be a huge task to know which designer can do justice to your dream home. It should be someone whose work resonates with your sensibilities and style, someone who can understand your unspoken aspirations and expectations, and try to fit them into the scheme. It should also be someone you can trust with your personal space and money.
An intuitive designer will assess your lifestyle and provide you with clues to what design theme best suits you. They will also be able to give you a rough idea of the costs and timelines involved.
6. Know your style
Style is not a tangible thing that you can get a hold of easily. But you can start with by asking yourself what you like or don’t like. Then begin with a broad classification of your preferences across traditional, contemporary, eclectic, a mix of many styles, minimalist / maximalist, etc. You may even look at your closet to see what kind of clothes are there for clues. This will help you understand your style better.
7. Get a fix on the theme
Once you have a broad idea about your style, you could consult all family members and draw up a theme for the interiors. Having an idea about your theme informs your discussions with your designer later. If you are unable to decide, you should go through magazine pages, or browse through websites, Pinterest, Insta, you are sure to see things that speak to you and help you decide.
8. Create a reference gallery
While on the research, compile the pictures of themes and styles that appeal to you the most. You can show them to the interior designer and discuss what you like about them, and how you would want them included in your space. It could be picture cutouts from magazines, or digital images.
9. Put together mood boards
The hues and textures you want to be surrounded by in your new home can be best expressed through mood boards. You could create one for each room based on inputs from the owner of that room. This will give your designer some visual clues.
10. Draw up the exact work
Interior designing can be often an open-ended task considering there are many aspects to it. So be sure, what or how much work you want the designer to take up? Do you need a total rehaul of your old interiors? Or part refurbishment? Or is it a new space needing decorating from scratch? Once you know the magnitude of the task ahead, then everything else, including the budget will fall into place. Sometimes, you can get the interior designer involved during the planning of the layout or the building phase itself. The designer may suggest some structural changes at this stage that will help you.
11. Fix your budget
There are designers who take up projects based on the size and budget of a project, so it is a good idea to fix your budget beforehand. It will also decide to what extent you want to change your interiors, and what kind of décor / furnishings you can achieve with it. Having a clear idea of the monies that you’re willing to spend makes it easier to negotiate the kind of décor you can achieve.
12. Browse through portfolios
There are many top residential interior design firms that showcase their work online, so it is a good idea to browse and research their work. Assess the range of their work to find resonance with your own style and the theme you have in mind. Do the gallery of inspiration pictures that you have gathered find commonality with their pictures? It’s a good thing to find out.
13. Shortlist interior designers / firms
There are many interior designers in Delhi NCR, but how do you know who is right for you? Pore over their Insta feeds, read through Google reviews and testimonials, listen to the word-of-mouth opinions about them. Look up professional networks for feedback.
Once you have extensively gone through the portfolios, based on your budget and style, you can start shortlisting interior design firms near me. However, reserve your final decision until meeting a few designers.
If you’re looking up for city-specific designers, fix appointments with interior designers in Gurgaon, and understand their working style, their commitment to adhere to quality, budget and timelines. Also, ask yourself, do they seem like people you can interact and deal with easily?
If you follow up with all the above points carefully, then the task of going through an interior project becomes smooth and peaceful.