In Defense of the Interior Design Industry

Bookmark and Share
Tuesday, February 7, 2012


By Jay Johnson

The first project my design partner Irwin Weiner ever did was helping decorate the home of friends of his parents in South Africa. Financial difficulties forced them to scale down. Using their good-quality furniture and art, he created an interior that was a lot better than what they had expected. It was so successful, in fact, that they were able to feel that their move was not as much a "social decline" as they'd anticipated.

When Irwin asked the wife what she thought of the interior he'd completed, she said that she particularly loved that it didn't look like it had been "decorated," and she was happy to know that her friends would feel the same way. When he pressed her, she confided that hiring a designer made her feel inadequate, both in terms of her taste level, as well as it being somewhat of an "unnecessary luxury."

There are many people who don't have good taste, and they can afford to hire a designer … but they elaborately justify not using a professional. We often hear, "Interiors are like art, and I don't need to know much about it; I only need to know what I like."

We're proud to be interior designers, and when we meet people who are reluctant to hire a professional, or demean interior designers as a whole, we now have a few stock responses: Knock yourself out, or Good luck to you.

People who are secure about their taste and sense of style tend to be more trusting with hiring a professional interior designer. They know that going to a designer is not a sign of weakness or decorating surrender. They're purchasing the skills and abilities that a good designer possesses, the professional expertise that we acquire through years of experience in a variety of residential settings and years of study, training, and certification.

Here's how we (and many of our design industry colleagues) can assist clients in a professional way that puts us on a par with any other professional you might want to hire.

  • We can step into a bare room and visualize an interior that first starts out with architectural enhancements to get the "bones" right before decorating begins.
  • We can sketch the room so clients can visualize how the drapery treatments look and where to put furniture and artwork to enhance the final effect.
  • We can draw detailed schematics showing where electrical elements go, from recessed lighting to lamps and sconces and electrical sockets and dimmer switches.
  • We can help our clients make small rooms look larger, sunless rooms look bright and cheerful, and help inject the owners' personality and verve into each aspect of a room.
  • We help educate our clients and bring them up to a higher level of understanding and appreciation for their surroundings. They learn about colors in different lights during different times of day. They understand about different periods of furniture and what features make a piece great or dreadful. They learn how to mix scale and other elements in a room to achieved desired effects. They learn how to make a home beautiful rather than turn it into a page from a catalog or make it look like a hotel lobby.
  • Our resources can help clients invest their decorating budgets wisely, and the people we work with will work hard to ensure satisfaction. If something goes wrong, a professional is better equipped to remedy the situation. And this is a godsend to clients! Imagine what can be damaged during transit, the juggling that has to happen to choreograph a complex remodeling project that requires numerous vendors and permissions. The list goes on and on, and we have the experience to problem solve.

It's time to stand tall as a professional interior designer. Articulate to potential clients precisely what you can do for them—and don't let anyone talk trash about the industry! As Donna Summer sang, "We work hard for the money…so hard for it, honey."

---
In November 2006, Manhattan-based blogger Jay Johnson and his partner Irwin Weiner, ASID applied the popularity of watching videos on the Internet to the house-and-garden arena. The idea for Design2Share was born. On D2S, they share their insight, tips, and strong opinions about how people design and decorate their homes, entertaining over 300,000 visitors a year; their syndicated original videos had over 22 million video views in 2010.