What Sets Apart Interior Designers and Decorators?
If you’re thinking about making some changes in your home, you might have started hearing about certain different professionals that can help you: ‘Interior Designers’, and ‘Decorators’, for example.
But who should you choose to assist with your project? What are the differences between Interior Designers and Decorators?
You can be forgiven for being a bit confused - there are definitely lots of similarities and a certain amount of overlapping between these professions. But there are also key differences.
To put it simply, Interior Designers typically use their creative skills to plan out a functional and beautiful space, while Decorators come in with technical painting and decorating skills to execute the design.
Read on as we’ll get into a few more of the differences below, to help you decide who is best placed to assist with your project:
What Is An Interior Designer?
If you need help with restructuring and renovating an interior space, an Interior Designer will begin by considering your lifestyle and any creative ideas you might have, as well as practical issues like a budget and scope of work.
They can then act as a ‘bridge’ between you (the client), and other trades like architects and building contractors, to help create a vision for a space that is practical and functional, and that also works well aesthetically.
Interior Designers help with everything from planning out spaces to sourcing and placement of those last important pieces of furniture! They will also think about the practicalities of what you need from each room, such as fixtures, fittings, and lighting schemes.
An Interior Designer can be a very useful linchpin on a project, collaborating with architects, contractors, and decorators, to ensure that your vision is fully understood.
One of the award-winning Interior Design studios we work with, Clare Gaskin Interiors, oversees your project from beginning to completion, working with architects and tradespeople to give you ‘beautiful results’.
From space planning, to sourcing artwork, to designing and supplying bespoke joinery and furniture, a studio like Clare Gaskin Interiors has the expertise to help you create an interior that reflects your lifestyle and personality.
(PS: If you’re in London, check out Clare Gaskin’s showroom at the Wow!house, Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, running from the 5th June to 6th July 2023.)
What Is A Decorator?
Once the Interior Designer or client has come up with their design, and once all of the restructuring/contracting work has been carried out, a Decorator will come in to execute this using their technical expertise.
Decorators carry out a number of roles, including making repairs to cracks in walls and woodwork, filling holes and preparing and priming surfaces. They will then follow a colour scheme determined by either the Interior Designer or the client themselves, applying paints or wallpapers to bring the vision to life and transform the space!
A Decorator might work around contractors and liaise with other trades, but it’s preferred if the structural work has already been completed before they come on board for the final phases of the project.
Which Professional Best Suits Your Needs?
If you’re feeling a little lost about which colours, furnishings, fittings, and lighting schemes to choose, an Interior Designer can help you get some clarity on how to realise your ideas and articulate your own personal sense of style. And if you’re looking to make some bigger structural changes, then you may be best off speaking to an Architect in the first instance!
However, if you simply need a room wallpapered or painted, it’s likely that you can just speak to a Decorator. Many Decorators have plenty of experience talking about what colours and styles work in a room, so they should be able to help you there! For more guidance, a Colour Consultation with Paint The Town Green could be a great option to help you gain clarity on which paint colours and finishes to use.
Even on bigger projects, if you’re confident that you have a good idea of the vision you want to create, it may not be necessary to hire an Interior Designer. While we’re primarily a decorating company, Paint The Town Green can also assist with more complex projects that involve other trades, helping you with the project management and refurbishment side of things. Your dedicated Paint The Town Green Project Manager can liaise with other trades to ensure that everything happens in the correct order - meaning your project runs smoothly!
Plus, our ‘Refresh and Refine’ service gives you one point of contact for your project, as we coordinate other services like carpentry, electricals, plumbing and decorating. And if you do mainly have painting and decorating on your ‘to-do’ list, but need to include a few extra pieces like new radiators or wooden paneling, we can of course handle that all for you too!
Finally, if you’re still not sure who is best placed to take your project forward, we have links with Interior Designers that we work with - simply get in touch with us to discuss what’s best to meet your needs!