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With so many interior design professionals available,
how do you sort through them all to find the ones that's right
for you? In San Francisco, the Yellow Pages provide three
pages of listings under the heading "interior decorators
& designers"; a search in Google for "interior
designer san francisco" lists 154,000 searches. So what
do you do?
1) Review where your potential interior
designer was educated. Was it a top school? Did the
school emphasize any aspect of interior design? Was it a 2
year program? 4 year? Graduate-level? Did it include extensive
architecture curriculum? What do other professionals say about
the school?
2) Find reputable authorities on Interior
Design and ask them for recommendations. For example,
most interior design schools keep in touch with their alumni
and are eager to provide references. You can also find professional
interior designer associations and other organizations that
are "watch-dogs" on the industry: websites such
as this one can provide the type of reference stronger than
you find anywhere on the Internet or in the Yellow Pages.
3) Review their portfolio, awards, and
accomplishments. Every good interior designer has
a history of past work readily available to demonstrate what
they can do for you. Be sure to give everything you can your
hands on a thorough review before you get started. Often you
can see a "trend" in a designer's work: fingerprints
of evidence that predict how he or she may tackle aspects
of your project.
4) Review their schedule (and yours).
Does you potential designer have a lot of time? too much time
(a sign that your potential designer may be either: no good
or too expensive)? or Too little time (a sign that you might
not get as much attention as you deserve)? How long will
your project take to complete? Does your potential designer
have the right amount of time?
5) Ask for references. This
is probably the most obvious way to determine if an interior
designer is right for you. What do others say? If possible,
get references similar to the type of work you want done.
Not only will you get additional information about your project,
but you will also learn more about the designer by using "non-standard"
references.
Good luck! High-quality Interior Designers are
hard to find. If you look hard, and do find a good one, please
be sure to let us know so we can add it to our directory
of Interior Designers, which is also a great place to
start when you want to find an
interior designer near you.
For More Information:
View all Interior Design School Programs
Review Feature Articles to Learn More about Interior Design
Find Additional Interior Design Schools by Location
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