Choosing an interior designer is one of the most consequential decisions you'll make in a home project. The right designer brings clarity, expertise, and a level of execution that transforms what might otherwise be an expensive, stressful process into a genuinely rewarding one. The wrong designer — or the right designer at the wrong moment — can produce the opposite effect: a home that doesn't reflect you, a budget that spiralled, and a relationship that eroded somewhere around month six of a nine-month project.
We're writing this from the position of a firm that has worked with a wide range of clients over more than a decade. Some came to us having worked with other designers before; others were doing this for the first time. The clients who had the best experiences — regardless of project complexity or budget — were consistently the ones who were thoughtful about the selection process. This guide is meant to help you be one of those clients.
Start with your own clarity
Before you begin approaching designers, spend some time getting clear on your own situation. This isn't about knowing exactly what you want — that's partly what you're hiring a designer for — but about having honest answers to a few fundamental questions.
What is the scope? Are you furnishing a single room, reworking a floor, or doing a whole-home renovation? Is there construction involved, or is this purely furnishings and decoration? The scope will determine what kind of firm you need — a small studio that specialises in styling and soft furnishings is not the same thing as a full-service firm with project management capabilities.
What is your real budget? Not the number you might give to a contractor to anchor negotiations, but the actual amount you're prepared to invest. Designers size their proposals to budgets. If you tell a designer your budget is X when it's actually 2X, you'll get a proposal sized to the number you gave them — and you'll wonder why the result feels underwhelming. Be honest, and find a firm that's honest back about what your budget can achieve.
What is your timeline? Good designers are typically booked three to six months in advance for project starts. If you need something done in two months, your options narrow significantly. Know your timeline before you start conversations so you can have realistic expectations about availability.
How to find candidates
Word of mouth from people whose homes you admire remains the best source of designer referrals. If a friend or colleague has a home that stopped you in your tracks, ask who designed it. Ask what the experience was like — not just the result, but the process. That question often tells you more than looking at the portfolio.
Beyond referrals, Instagram and design publications are useful for finding designers whose aesthetic appeals to you. Houzz and similar platforms are less useful for evaluating quality but can help you build a list. Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, and their regional equivalents feature firms whose work has been professionally validated.
Local architecture firms are also a valuable source of referrals. Architects work with interior designers regularly and have strong opinions about who executes well and who doesn't — their referrals tend to be reliable.
Colette Way
What to look for in a portfolio
When evaluating a designer's portfolio, most people focus on whether they like the aesthetic. That matters, but it's not the most important thing to look for. Here's what experienced clients evaluate:
Consistency of execution across different styles. A portfolio full of projects that all look identical tells you the designer has one idea. A portfolio where every project looks like a completely different firm designed it suggests the designer has no point of view. What you want to see is consistent quality and thoughtfulness across projects that reflect different clients, different architecture, and different briefs. That's the mark of a mature design practice.
Evidence of real project management. Beautifully photographed rooms are not evidence of project management capability. Look for: before-and-after content (suggests they handled a real renovation), client testimonials that mention the process rather than just the result, and any indication of how large or complex the projects in the portfolio actually were.
Scale relative to your project. A firm that primarily works on single-room residential styling is not well-positioned to manage a whole-home renovation with six months of construction. Conversely, a large firm that typically works on multi-million-dollar estates may not be interested in or well-suited to a focused, smaller scope. Find a firm whose portfolio includes projects similar to yours in scale and complexity.
Recency. Design styles and business practices change. A portfolio full of work from five years ago without anything recent is a yellow flag — either the firm isn't busy, isn't photographing its current work, or its aesthetic is dated.
Questions to ask in the first conversation
The initial call or meeting with a designer is as much your interview of them as theirs of you. Here are the questions worth asking:
"How do you charge?" Interior designers charge in several ways — flat design fees, hourly rates, a percentage of the total project cost, or a combination of a design fee and a markup on furniture and materials. None of these is inherently right or wrong, but you need to understand the structure before you can evaluate the total cost. A firm that charges a lower design fee but a higher markup on goods is not necessarily cheaper than one that charges a higher fee with a lower markup. Ask for examples of how the fee structure has worked on past projects similar to yours.
"Who will be working on my project?" At larger firms, the principal you meet in the first conversation may not be the person primarily responsible for your project day to day. Ask specifically who will be your main point of contact and how involved the principal designer will be. This isn't a gotcha — it's a legitimate question that any good firm will answer clearly.
"What does your timeline look like?" For both their availability to start and their realistic estimate of when your project would be complete. Ask what factors most commonly cause delays in their projects and how they manage them.
"Can I speak with a past client?" Any designer confident in their client relationships should be able to provide references. A designer who can't or won't provide a reference is a significant red flag.
Frances
Red flags to watch for
Vague answers about fees. Fee structures in interior design can be complex, but a designer who is unwilling to be specific about how they charge is not someone you want managing a large budget on your behalf. Push for specificity, and if you don't get it, move on.
A portfolio that shows only one point of view. As noted above, a designer who has imposed the same aesthetic on every client may impose it on you too, regardless of what you actually want or what your architecture calls for.
Resistance to a written contract. Any professional design engagement should be governed by a written agreement that specifies the scope of work, the fee structure, the timeline, and what happens if either party wants to end the engagement. A designer who works on a handshake is not protecting your interests or their own.
Urgency about decision-making. "I have another client interested in this slot" is a legitimate thing to say once, clearly and non-manipulatively. It is a red flag if it's used as a pressure tactic to accelerate your decision-making. Take the time you need to make a good choice — a good designer will respect that.
An inability to explain their process. A designer who can't clearly articulate how a project moves from first meeting to completed installation, what decisions you'll be making and when, and what your responsibilities are throughout — is either inexperienced or disorganised. Either way, it's not what you want in someone managing a complex, expensive project on your behalf.
Trust the fit, not just the portfolio
Beyond all the practical criteria, the designer you choose needs to be someone you can work with closely for six to eighteen months, communicate honestly with when something isn't working, and trust with significant decisions about your home. That requires a level of personal fit that portfolios and references can't fully convey.
Pay attention to how the designer listens in your first conversation. Do they ask questions about how you live, what matters to you, what you want the home to feel like — or do they mostly talk about their own work? Do they seem genuinely curious about your project, or like they're going through a qualification checklist? A good designer is as interested in understanding your life as in showing you their portfolio.
If the conversation feels easy, honest, and mutually curious — that's a good sign. If it feels like a sales pitch, that's useful information too.
If you're at the beginning of that process and want to have a direct conversation with us about your project, request an intro call or call us at 310-428-2645. We're glad to answer any of the questions in this piece as they apply to us specifically.
