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If you're reading this article then you may already have found your interior designer - we would hope! However, our policy with our clients is always clarity so whenever we recommend a client to hire a professional (including a designer), we want to make sure our clients know what to look for.

Of all the people you need to appoint for your project, a designer may seem like the something you only need later on when choosing the 'pretty' things, like bathroom tiles and furniture. Many clients assume they will need an architect, a structural engineer or a surveyor as a first appointment. However, many projects don't even require an architect and a surveyor may not give you all the information you need to submit your plans to Building Regulations approval, or to pass on the project to your builders.

There seems to be a lot of confusion in the industry about the role of an interior designer. DIY-based television programs may be contributing in part to this confusion, as well as a surplus of interior decorators labelling themselves as designers. Without sounding like a snob, there is as big a difference between an interior decorator and an interior designer as there is between an interior designer and an architect.

A good interior designer should not only design but also be able to manage and consult on your project. Therefore, the first person to appoint on your project should be the designer. It's not always easy to know where to start to look for a professional designer with a good reputation.
1. Ask friends and family. A personal recommendation is always a great start.
2. Look on industry websites such as the BIID (British Institute of Interior Designers) or SBID (Society of British Interior Design)
3. Try to find local designers on Google or other search engines. You should look at the work of various designers and find designers with a style that you like. If you can find feedback or reviews from customers (and it's positive), then that's a good sign.

Once you have selected some designers (we would recommend narrowing it down to less than five) - either through recommendation, locally, or through an institution - it's important to meet the designers for a face-to-face meeting to discuss your project requirements. Some designers offer fixed rates but a lot of professionals prefer to meet and understand the project in more detail before talking about fees. A tailor-made package is usually better value for money.

It's very important to remember that your designer should not only be a part of the design process, but should stay with the project until completion. Some clients say they prefer to manage the project themselves but from our years of experience, we strongly advise against this - there are so many factors to keep in mind during a refurbishment that need to be coordinated by an experienced professional - or you may find yourself paying more later to fix costly mistakes. 'Project management' or site coordination is not always included in a designer's standard fees so make sure that you mention this is something you require. Embarking on a refurbishment project without a project coordinator is like a ship leaving out to sea without a captain!

When you have met with your prospective designers and received back some quotes, try to get a like-for-like understanding of what they are offering. Many designers will tell you what they charge per hour so that is a good starting point. However, finding the right designer is not about finding the best price - your designer will be guiding you through the whole process of your refurbishment so there are other factors to consider. Although price is of course a factor in the selection process, you should choose a professional that you feel understands your requirements and style, has a good understanding of the building industry and who you feel you can trust with your project. You should see your designer as an ally and a mentor and it's important that you can be upfront about how much you want to spend - it's the designer's job to work towards whatever budget you have for the project and to advise on the best solutions based on your budget.

Then it's time to appoint your designer.

Once you have appointed your designer of choice, unless you have already done so, you should meet on site at your property. Once the designer gets a feel of what is required for the project from a building and design perspective, they can advise you on any additional specialists you might need to appoint, such as a surveyor or structural engineer. They can run you through the process of submitting a Planning or Building Regulations application, what other approvals are needed (are you a freeholder or a leaseholder, for instance). They can also get an idea of the types of Contractors to tender out to as most designers will have worked with a fair few building companies and should be able to recommend a few.

It will probably only be when the essential pre-works details are organised before your designer does any real 'designing' for you.

We're so excited to be going to the Maison et Objet  trade show in Paris again this year! We can't wait to meet new suppliers and to catch up with our well-known favourites. We're going to be looking for some new e-commerce suppliers as well in order to update our webshop for the new year. :)

As fantastic as Maison et Objet is, it takes a bit of planning to make sure you get the most of the time you have - this year, I am only going to have two days at the show, which means I will have to plan extra carefully or I might miss something important!

If you've been going for years, you might already have your own routine for how to get through the show, but incase you are going for the first or second time, you might benefit from our Maison et Objet tips:


Planning your Visit
We like to plan ahead in terms of what we are going to see - not that we don't aim to get through everything, row by row and hall by hall, but pre-planning the suppliers you'd most like to see gives your visit a bit of structure. I like to divide my suppliers by TYPE - lighting, furniture, bed linens, accessories and so on and choose 5-10 suppliers in each category, in a mix of known suppliers I'd like to re-visit and new suppliers I've never seen but would like to find out more about. I like to be very organised and to organise the suppliers I want to see by HALL and also by STAND, so that when I walk through each hall I know which of my planned suppliers is coming up next.



Survival Guide
In order to get through 2-3 days of full-on walking, meeting suppliers and recording new information, it's not enough to just be organised because if you're not physically and mentally prepared, you won't get through everything you want to see. Therefore, you should carefully plan what to wear, what to carry and what to eat. Rule number one is to be comfortable - bring a change of shoes because your feet will hurt after day one enough to not want to wear the same shoes twice. The weather can be unpredictable and depending on how fast you are walking, you may get too hot - wear layers so that you can quickly get comfortable again.

 Also, pack into a suitcase with wheels so in case you don't have time to put your bag into the cloakroom, at least you can wheel it around with you (I mean a cabin size bag, not a 2-week sun holiday). In terms of what to carry, bring a bag with plenty of space that you can fit all the business cards and brochures you pick up. I prefer to bring a backpack so that it doesn't feel too heavy to carry around. Also, in terms of collecting information from suppliers, try to avoid taking home huge catalogues because you will not want to carry these around for the whole day (more on this in 'Recording What you See')! Although there are plenty of places to grab a snack, I like to bring some healthy cereal bars or fruit with me in case I get hungry and just want to carry on.

We like to take lots of photos and tweet what we see (and also it's easy to get lost from your colleagues so we also phone and text each other a lot) - possibly the most important rule of the survival guide is to get yourself a battery booster for your phone, or you might find yourself stranded!


Recording What you See
There is a lot of information to take in at Maison et Objet and recording everything you see and like in an organised way so that you can make sense of the information when you come back can be a bit difficult. We have worked out a way to make the best sense of everything.
1. Photograph the name of the brand you like, then the items you like. As long as you always stick to this, it will be easier to remember what product was from which supplier when you get back.
2. Collect business cards of the people you spoke to so that you have a contact to get in touch with when you need them.
3. Collect brochures or postcards from your preferred suppliers and staple these together - try not to pick up heavy catalogues.
4. Register your details and hand out your business cards to suppliers. You can request that these suppliers send you their full catalogues by post or by PDF after the show.
5. Make a note of which suppliers you spoke to and what you are waiting to hear back from them, or what information you need to send to them.
6. The key questions to ask are price (euros or pounds, trade or retail, including or excluding VAT), lead time, choice of material and colour, can they supply samples and so on.



How to Connect Post-Show
A lot of the organising of information takes place when you are back at the office. We like to organise our business cards and brochures into labeled folders around the office so that when we need to find, for example, a ceramic tile, we look under the tiles folder. We also save a record of our suppliers photos, contact details, catalogues and price lists on a shared folder in Dropbox where everyone can access the data. However, before we do any of this we share all of our information with our colleagues, in case we have picked up some of the same information (which is often the case).
Once everything is organised and recorded, we run through our notes on each supplier and put together a list of who to contact (if you picked up business cards of the reps at the show, you should have plenty of contacts). It's polite to give you suppliers a week or so before you overwhelm them with a barrage of emails and phone calls (they've had a longer week than you have for sure). However, do keep a track of what you are still waiting for and from whom, and if price lists and catalogues don't start showing up, send them a friendly email as a reminder. In fact, it's good to regularly email the contacts you have made so that suppliers remember to keep you updated on their newest products. We like to register to all the newsletters so that we remember the brands we liked and always know what's going on with our favourite suppliers.


I hope that our Paris survival guide will be helpful to you and good luck to all of you going to the show - hope to see you there!

The cost of Interior Design services in today's DIY-minded culture is a minefield of confusion. What services are you paying for and should you pay for and how do you know that you are getting a good, value-for-money service from a guaranteed professional? The hardest part is probably to compare the pricing you get from different designers and to compare them like for like, since every designer charges and prices their services in different ways.

There are a few industry standard ways of charging clients:

Hourly rate: This means simply charging per hour design services. An average hourly rate could be between £60-£100 per hour. This is a standard way of charging for design work that is mostly consultancy work. On home refurbishments, hourly rates can create stress and headache for the client, not knowing what they will be charged for their project.

The Flat Fee: This is a single price that may be broken up into payments for the project. A deposit would most likely be taken at the start of the project and then further payments at certain phases during the work, with a final payment at the end of the project. This is a good way to charge on smaller projects with a clear start and finish with not many projected delays.

Percentage of Entire Budget: A popular way for architects to charge clients but this fee basis is also used by interior designers on projects of considerable value with long lead times. A typical percentage could be anywhere between 15-30%, depending on the size of the budget. This way of charging is probably most suited to commercial work as many private clients are put off by the uncertainty of paying their designer in this way.

Hourly Fee + Contingency: This is where the client charges hourly for design work but there is an estimated time that the Designer must not go over. In addition, the designer will charge re-sale charges on merchandise purchased at trade prices. This is a good way to charge for those on a relatively strict budget but wanting a high-quality designer (as it's often the senior designers that charge on a time basis).

Flat Fee + Contingency: This is arguably the most popular as well as the clearest way to charge in terms of knowing the cost of design services from the onset. The designer charges a flat fee for an agreed schedule of design services, as well as a contingency on top of the trade discount received from suppliers.

Many designers tend to mix and match aspects of the above but as long as the fees are clearly outlined and time-charges and extra fees agreed in a signed contract, any of the above are perfectly acceptable industry standard fee structures.

Ardesia Design tends to use a flat rate fee and contingency, with an additional time charge for work beyond a certain number of agreed working hours. This structure works for the types of projects we work on (residential, mostly) and works in favour of both client and designer. The number of hours and flat fee are agreed following the initial brief discussion. The additional time charges would kick in if more than the agreed number of revisions were made to the brief and the designer has to put in additional work hours. The contingency fee can work to the client's benefit and we often try to structure a project so that  the designer's trade discounts can be used to offset the cost of the designer's services - in essence, the discounts received are greater than the flat fee charged by the designer. This of course depends on the size of the project but as a rule of thumb, this is what we aim for. Happy client, happy designer.