What is an Interior Designer?

First, let’s dispel any misunderstanding about interior designers – it’s not all frilly cuffs and bottomless budgets. Equally, it is not about doing up properties on the cheap using offcuts from grandad’s trousers.

Interior designers come in many flavours.  Some concentrate on creating stylish decorative schemes whilst others remodel homes. And some will do both.

“Our clients want to make the best use of space, but they also need help choosing furnishings, fittings and finishes. Most ask us to project manage the renovation too.”

“Style Within offers a full service from concept to completion. Our creative designs show what is possible; our project management makes it happen”

You can read more on the interior design services page.

“To set expectations for how much a project is likely to cost, we share actual costs from past home renovations.  This should help you decide whether an interior designer might help.”

Most people will engage an interior designer for one of the following reasons:

1. 1. They don’t know where to start with their home renovation or refurbishment.
   2. They have some idea of what they want, but would welcome a professional opinion.
   3. They are going round in circles, unsure of the best course of action.
   4. They don’t have time to produce designs and oversee the work themselves.
   5. They are new to the area and don’t know the trades and suppliers to use.

“We orchestrate everything to renovate a whole property, build an extension, construct a new house, or refurbish a single room. We take the brief, produce the designs, write the specification, carry out competitive tenders, oversee the work and deliver the finished renovation. Where appropriate, we submit planning and building control applications, and engage party wall surveyors and conservation officers too.”

You’ll find that an interior designer has many other contacts. Clients moving to Bath, for example, often have a new job to prepare for and children to settle in. They need help to renovate their new home – an interior designer can manage for them.

“You can read a testimonial from a client moving to Bath, but still living in London. Unfamiliar with his new home city, its builders and trades, he wanted someone reliable to deliver a high quality service. We invited him to our own home, to meet with us without commitment, and to introduce him to one of our regular contractors. When then draw on our other contacts – builders, trades, architects, structural engineers and suppliers in Bath – to deliver the project from start to finish. It’s all about building trust and raising confidence.”

Bath is a highly desirable place to live;  people would rather stay here and extend, than move home.  An interior designer can really help.

“We were asked to carry out a comparison between the price of renovation and the price of moving.  Our client judged it better to stay in Bath, and we transformed his home and the life he now enjoys. We’ve provided a separate page in our portfolio looking at this particular Victorian house renovation.”