How to Work with an Interior Designer — A Playbook

Most people who walk into the showroom have never worked with an interior designer. They usually say the same thing: "I'm not sure if I need one." This is written for exactly that person. It will help you decide whether you need help, how to get your own ideas in order, what to ask, and what actually happens once a project starts. It applies whether you work with me or with someone else entirely.

First, do you need an interior designer?

You don't need one for everything. You do need one when any of these are true:

• You know the room isn't right, but you can't say why.
• You've been putting off a decision for months because you're afraid of getting it wrong.
• You're about to spend a meaningful amount on furniture and want it to work together, not just arrive.
• You have too many ideas and no way to choose between them.
• You have no ideas and a blank room.

If none of those apply, you're probably fine on your own. If two or more do, a conversation will save you money and time.

There is no single way in

People assume an interior designer means a full house makeover and a bill to match. It doesn't. You can start anywhere:

• Just colours. A paint palette that works with what you already own.
• One piece. The right sofa or dining table, chosen to fit the room rather than fill it.
• One room. Finished properly, start to end.
• A whole floor or a whole home. Planned in stages so it's manageable.

Small starts are normal. Most of the larger projects I work on began with one room.

Six kinds of project

Nearly everyone who asks for help falls into one of these. Find yours.

The new build

Empty rooms, every decision open, and a builder asking about floor finishes before you've thought about the sofa. A designer gives you a sequence: what to decide now, what can wait, and what the rooms need to become once the trades leave. Bring: your plans, your move-in date, and the things you're keeping from your current home.

The renovation

Walls moving, kitchen relocating, an extension that changes how light moves through the house. The furniture has to be planned alongside the build, not after it, so plug sockets, radiators and door swings land where the furniture will be. Bring: the architect's drawings and a rough build timeline.

The freshener

Nothing is wrong. It's just tired. New fabrics, paint, lighting and one or two replacement pieces can change a room without touching its bones. This is the most affordable place to start and the one people underestimate. Bring: photos of the room as it is, and a note of what stays.

The one room

The bedroom you've never finished. The living room that never settled. Doing one room completely is more satisfying than doing three rooms halfway. Bring: measurements, and a clear idea of what the room is for.

The dining room before Christmas

Every year the same thing happens: people decide in November that the dining room needs sorting, and by then the tables they want can't arrive in time. Made-to-order pieces take 8 to 12 weeks. If Christmas dinner is happening at your table, the decision needs to be made by early October. It's September. You have time, but not much. Bring: how many people you seat on a normal evening, and how many on the big day.

The holiday home

A different set of rules. Furniture that survives sand, damp and guests. Rooms that feel welcoming when you arrive on a Friday night in February. Storage for things that need to be put away between visits. Bring: how the house gets used, and by whom.

How to know what you want

You don't need a style. You don't need to know the difference between mid-century and Scandinavian. You need to know what you like and what you don't, and those are easier to find than people think.

Start with the room itself. Stand in the doorway and answer three questions:

1. What stays? The things you'd fight to keep. A fireplace, a painting, a chair that was your mother's.
2. What changes? The things that could be better. Usually lighting, the sofa, the layout.
3. What goes? The things you've stopped seeing but never liked.

Then find three words. Not design words. Ordinary ones. "Calm." "Warm." "Bright." "Grown-up." "Somewhere I'd actually sit." Three words tell a designer more than an hour of scrolling.

How to gather your ideas

The mistake is gathering too much. A hundred saved images are noise. Ten are a brief.

• Ten images, no more. Save them anywhere: Pinterest, Instagram, a folder on your phone. For each one, note one thing you like about it. The colour, the shape of the sofa, the way the lamp sits. Often it's not the whole room.
• Three images you dislike. Just as useful. Often more.
• Photos of your own rooms. As they are now, in daylight, from the doorway. Don't tidy first.
• Measurements. Length, width, ceiling height, and where the windows, doors and radiators are. A rough sketch is enough.
• A budget you're comfortable saying out loud. Not a guess at what it "should" cost. What you're prepared to spend. A designer works with that number, and there's no point in being shown a sofa you were never going to buy.
• A date. When does it need to be done? Christmas, a wedding, a move, or no deadline at all. All fine, as long as it's said.

The 20-minute prep

If you only do one thing before talking to a designer, do this. It takes twenty minutes.

Bring that to any designer and the first conversation will be worth having.

What to ask an interior designer

You're allowed to interview us. These are the questions worth asking:

• How do you charge, and what does the first conversation cost?
• Will you work with what I already own?
• What do I need to decide, and what will you decide for me?
• Can I see the pieces before I commit?
• How long does a project like mine usually take?
• What happens if I don't like something?
• Who handles delivery and placing the furniture?
• Have you done a room like this before?

A good designer will answer all of these plainly. If any answer is vague, that tells you something.

How interior designers actually work

The job is mostly listening, then editing. A designer takes what you've told them, adds what they know about proportion, light, materials and what lasts, and narrows the options down to a small number of things that will work. You still choose. They make the choosing possible.

What a designer isn't: someone who imposes a look on your home. If it doesn't feel like yours at the end, it hasn't worked.

How a project runs, start to finish

1. The first conversation. Thirty minutes, in the showroom or by phone. You describe the room and what's bothering you. Bring your 20-minute prep. No commitment at this stage.
2. The visit. For anything beyond a single piece, seeing the room matters. Light, proportions, how you move through it, what the photos don't show.
3. The direction. A short proposal: layout, palette, the key pieces, and a realistic cost. This is where you say yes, no, or "not that one."
4. Choosing. Fabrics, finishes, sizes. Done in the showroom where you can sit on things.
5. Ordering. Stocked pieces arrive in days. Made-to-order pieces take 8 to 12 weeks. You'll know which is which before you decide.
6. Delivery and placing. Two-person delivery to the room. Furniture positioned where it was planned to go.
7. Finishing. Lighting, cushions, the picture that was always going to go on that wall. The room is done when it feels finished, not when the furniture arrives.

For a single room, that whole sequence typically runs six to fourteen weeks, most of it waiting for pieces to be made.

Getting over the asking

The thing that stops people isn't cost. It's the worry that they should already know what they want, or that asking makes them look like they don't have taste. Nobody arrives with a finished brief. The people who come in with a phone full of screenshots and a room they can't explain are the ones I can help most.

Starting the conversation with Paul

Three ways, none of them a commitment:

• Call the showroom on 021 601 5002 and ask for Paul.
• Send a message through the contact page. Tell me which of the six projects is yours and what's bothering you about the room. A sentence is enough.
• Call in. Heritage Walk, The Quadrants, Ballincollig. Bring your phone photos. The showroom is the easiest place to have this conversation because the furniture is there to sit on.

If you take one thing from this: you don't need to know what you want. You need to know what you like, what you don't, and what the room is for. The rest is the job.

Mulberry House. Your Home.