Are you planning to upgrade your space? Your house, apartment, office or place of work? Ask yourself some questions: What are your needs? Where do you begin? If it is your home, are you planning a face lift to create a dream environment, or will this be an investment, creating an appreciation in value? If it is your business, is it for resale, or commercially to enhance the business?

These are important questions because they will help you in your process of choosing the right professional, either an Interior Designer or Interior Decorator. There are differences. Although very similar each have specific skills and elements. One of them is both and the other is specialized.

I will try to define these differences for you, here we go.

Interior Decorator.

An Interior Decorator is an expert in upgrading and beautifying an existing space. For instance if you have a room in your home that is due for a face lift, your furniture is sad, rugs are worn and tired, a decorator has the design ability to help you using floor planning and relocation of everything and anything in that existing space. This can include architectural elements as well as the décor itself. They will assist you in selecting the right color for walls, windows, and floor. Properly picking out the right furniture and lighting, in fact everything it takes to beautify that space. They can bring in architectural features that will enhance the particular existing space and depending on their training and experience they can remove walls and enlarge that space into a completely different space. The key words for an interior decorator, DECORATING and EXISTING SPACE. You’ve seen the decorating shows where a decorator comes into a room with color paint samples and fabrics and a crew and voila, in two days you have your dream room.
Don’t you believe it! There are no Professional Interior Decorators redoing anything in two days and certainly not without a crew, and not on a small or limited budget. These shows are for your entertainment.
With a design professional everything is fully planned and orchestrated and they use professionals in every element of their design or decorating projects. From painters to carpet layers to drapery installers. These people are trained to help you make proper choices in your project ensuring a longer shelf life from your investment. Therefore this person is specific in their trade

Interior Designer.

An Interior Designer is also specific but much broader in their scope of work. They have the ability to reallocate space (redistribute space) they have training and expertise in interior architecture. Sometimes they are referred to as environmental designers because of their ability to reinvent an interior environment architecturally as well as aesthetically.
Think of Las Vegas in terms of an environmental designers change. With the help of architects and interior designers they have taken a desert city and created ancient cities and lands, whole different worlds. That is environmental design. These designers are to be commended and respected. With their talent and skill you can visit exciting homes and beautiful places all over the world.
They are also decorators but decoration is the final stage of a project. I like to say that for the designer this final stage is the icing on the cake. A project is approached very specifically incorporating your personality into the design, creating a dream environment that is especially ‘yours’.
In fashion design it is called ‘haute couture’ as opposed to ‘ready to wear’. In fact the word couture means to make to the contour of the body. Well the same applies to your home. A designer can build the interior frame, design the walls, the floors, the lighting and even the furniture to fit the contour of your environment be it your home or your work space.

Both interior design and decorating are important, one is not less than the other, they are specific to the particular type of project you are planning. A final note, these are professionals, they are not people who come into your space and ‘make pretty’ on the cheap in two hours or less!

Thanks everybody. See you next week.

Cheri