What does an Interior Designer / Decorator / Colour Consultant do?
It’s easy to be confused with all these different titles. Unfortunately this 
industry is not well regulated & pretty much anyone can all themselves these titles without much formal training at all. But the proof is in the pudding – you can tell when someone is trained, knowledgeable & experienced in this field.
This field is also so amazingly vast that you can be quite specialised in a certain area, such as a Lighting Designer or Soft Furnishings Specialist.
So lets break it down.
Colour Consultant
A Colour Consultant is someone who knows specifically about colour matching, harmonious colour schemes & tonings. They usually work with paint colours, matching them to furnishings & working out a colour scheme, for interiors & exteriors. As they deal mostly with paint they can be found around paint stores.
Interior Decorator
An Interior Decorator is someone who uses items to style a home. These are pieces that can be removed & taken with you if you move home. This means furniture, curtains, decorator items, artwork & soft furnishings (like cushions & linen). They are usually aware of design styles & eras, such as Industrial-look, Modern-sleek, French Provincial, Scandinavian, Art Deco, etc. They can really set the stage for a home & bring in quite a lot of feeling into the shell of a home. These people are found in & around furniture & decorator stores.
Interior Designer
An Interior Designer can do all the aspects covered by a Decorator & a Colour Consultant as well as doing all the ‘fixed’ items of the house. This includes your kitchen cabinetry, bathroom tiles, vanities, flooring, lighting…. All the items you get when you buy a house. Designers can also work with room layouts like bathroom & kitchen redesigns, advise to take out walls & be a buyer on behalf of the client.
Property Stylist
Property Stylists, just work with decorating with furniture, art & décor to stage a house for sale.
There are many other titles such as a Kitchen Designer is specialised in kitchen layouts. A Lighting Designer works with the products & lumens in your home to give the best lighting results. A Paint Specialist works with paint finishes as well as colours.
Building Designer
These people are trained to work with the design of the building’s structure. They can accurately determine if walls can be removed, if additions can be made to the home & work with function as well as energy efficient measures. They can also be known as Draftspersons & these people submit plans for council approval.
Architect
They do similar works to Building Designers & can work more extensively on larger projects. They are heavily trained to deal with the structure of buildings according to Australian codes & are registered as Architects with their Australian State board.
Builders
These are the people who can do the work. Builders can be varied, but they all need to be licenced in the state they are working in.
Note – All of these professionals are people, in business, trying to make a living with their knowledge. Which means they can be bias to what they like or styles that have worked for them in the past. Keep YOUR vision in mind when engaging them to ensure they work for you & what you want.
If you are planning on hiring someone to help you with your home, it’s a good idea to know what you are looking for first, so you can find an appropriately trained professional. However there are quite few of these professionals that can give you free or discounted advice if you shop at their stores, for example Freedom Furniture has a Decorator Service where you hire a Decorator & then when you purchase over a certain amount of furniture in their store, you get the Decorator cost reimbursed to you. This can be cost effective if you are planning on buying furniture anyway.
However, there are still many very knowledgeable professionals in the home design & renovator market without official titles that can help you with your home. Paint stores, tile shops, plumbing supply stores, carpet shops, etc, are full of people who know their products down to the ground, so don’t be afraid to ask questions – especially the dumb ones, as they get the best & most informative answers.
Contact an Interior Designer on this page –https://www.interiordesigneralbury.com.au/contact/
