How to Choose an Interior Design Company For Your Project

Are you looking for an interior architecture firm to redesign your house, office, or retail store? Picking the best interior designer for your project is never easy, as many factors will contribute to whether they can succeed in the task that you assign them.

However, there are a few simple steps you can take to make finding the best interior architects for your project an easier task. These tips will save you a lot of time and money, and help bring you closer to your dream home, office, or store.

Determine Your Budget

The best interior designers and architects can give you the best layout solution, create an aesthetic look, make the most out of building materials, and instil beauty into the tiniest of details, but they will also cost you a lot. While you should not get stingy over finding the right designer for your project, it’s important that you set a realistic budget for design and manage your expectation accordingly. Determine a price range (such as HKD$100,000 to $200,000), find a few interior designers and architecture firms within that budget, and pick the best one within that list.

Look for References

As a client, it’s important for you to have a basic idea of what you want. This means communicating to your designer about the spatial quality and atmosphere you want to create, as well as the visual aesthetics that you want to emulate. You can use Pinterest to find interior design inspirations, and pin the ones you like onto a board. However, because of Hong Kong compactness and building constraints, many interior designs from other countries simply won’t work here. Look for designs that are similar in scale to your apartment or office, and collect a series of colour palettes and combinations of material that you find aesthetically pleasing.

Look at Design Portfolios

After finding a style of interior design you like, search for interior architecture firms that employ a similar style. It’s important that your designer is comfortable with working in the style you are looking for. You could hire the best interior designers in the world, but if their style is vastly different from your taste, it will be difficult for them to design something that you will be satisfied with.

Interior architecture firms will usually have a portfolio or website to showcase their best work. Look through their residential, office, and commercial projects to see which one suits you best.

Visit One of Their Finished Projects

Pictures and renderings never tell the full story. Some of the projects you find in an interior architecture firm’s portfolio will be open to public and available for you to visit and check out. This will likely be a store, a restaurant, or a government facility (such as a library or a government office) that you can just walk in, feel the space, and get a better assessment of their design abilities.

Look for Reviews and Recommendations

The best interior architects might not always be the best designer. Every project will come with its own problems and constraints, and designs are almost never perfectly executed without a single issue or amendment. As a client, you will likely hold many meetings with your interior designer and work together with them to decide on the best solution for you. You will want to work with a good problem solver and a good communicator. Look for online reviews or customer comments on social media and major forums to help your decision.

Meet Face-to-Face

Once you have a shortlist for the best interior designers within your budget, and some ideas for what you want to achieve with the design, it’s time to talk to these architectural firms and set up an in-person meeting. This way, you can get an impression of how they are in real life and whether you can communicate smoothly on matters of the design. Have a chat over what you want to achieve, and get a quote from them for the service fee.

Be Patient

It’s not easy to find the best interior architects for your project, a lot of patience is needed if you want the best results. There will be times when the profile is perfect, but the price is way out of your budget. The same is true for the other way around. Know your limitations and manage your expectations. Your dream home, office, or store is not far away.

There’s One is Just Around the Corner

inT Design is an interior designer firm in Hong Kong with extensive experience in residential, office, and commercial interior design. Do not hesitate to get in touch with us, so we can chat about a personalised design solution for your project.