7 Things Interior Designers Will Instantly Know About You & Your Home

Are you planning on inviting an interior designer into your home to help you create a luxury living space? Or are you holding a dinner party and one of the guests is in the profession?
You will probably be a little bit nervous about what they might think as they walk through the door. You might even want to make a few home décor changes to hide some of your most glaring design faux pas.
To help you prepare for the astute eye of an interior designer, here are seven things they will know about you and your home within minutes – if not seconds – of walking through the door.
 

1. The bare bones

The empty home is the interior designer’s blank canvas – a field of unlimited possibilities. As such, they have a handy knack for seeing through all the décor and clutter to picture the house in its original state.
Whether you live in a New York period property complete with ornate detailing or a plain, post-modern new build in California they will appreciate what you have to work with. A designer will be impressed if you have managed to elegantly incorporate the natural architecture of your home into its décor.

An interior designer will also mentally mark out all the entrances and exits, windows, walls and other ‘bare bones’ elements of each room they enter.
 

2. Your sense of proportion

Scale is a big issue for interior designers and they will be mentally asking themselves whether you have chosen the right size pieces for your space. A common mistake is where homeowners have bought complete furniture sets from a single retail store and some of the pieces are too big or small for the room. This stands out like a sore thumb to a professional designer.
If you want to impress an interior designer with your appreciation of scale and proportion, mix and match pieces from different stores to create the perfect poise and balance. The importance of scale is evident in show homes where designers deliberately select under-sized pieces to give the illusion of a large space.
 

3. How your home flows

Whether you get design will really show in how traffic flows into and around your rooms. It doesn’t matter if you own the most lavish and most expensive sofas or intricately carved side tables made from exotic woods, if these luscious pieces impede movement or are used to close off what should be an open space, an interior designer will not be wowed.
If you think of each room as having a focal point (e.g. a feature wall, a dining table or a TV), everything else in the room should be arranged around it. Walking into the backs of chairs is a definite no-no as it closes off and forbids rather than opens up and invites.
 

4. How savvy you are about lighting

To convince an interior designer that you understand home décor, pay special attention to your lighting. Again, luxury doesn’t live in an elaborately worked sconce or a golden lampshade bedecked with jewels. These items are luscious but an interior designer will be more impressed if your lighting is both functional and attractive.
Lighting needs to be married to function. Strategically placing floor or wall lighting in a reading area and artfully using mirrors and metallic trim to enhance natural light will make your purchase of a showstopping chandelier that much more impressive.
 

5. How you use your home

 
One of the fun parts about being an interior designer is that they can put their honed décor detective skills into working out who lives in your household and what their habits are. If you are deliberately inviting a designer in to help create a haven of luxury, don’t try and hide the evidence. Designing a space that works with and for your family is as important for home harmony as the more surface things such as beautiful color schemes and luxurious fabrics.

Details such as whether you have children and pets and where you spend most of your time will immediately jump out to the interior designer. It will help them assess storage needs, the placement of furniture and all sorts of other critical details.
 

6. Some clues about who you are

From the color combinations and themes you have chosen to the individual pieces on display, the interior designer will begin to understand the essence of you that makes your home unique. If your rooms contain travel books, globes and suitcases they will know that travel is important to you. If the bookshelves are taken up with DVDs and you have installed home theater seating in your lounge they will know you are a movie buff.
On the other hand, if your home lacks character or is a catalog copy-cat, they will sense you are hiding yourself away in an illusion of luxury. A great designer will help you to bring out your inner soul and realize that there is luxury and love lying within you.
An interior designer will be impressed if you have used color artfully to bring balance to a room and to tie spaces together. If you have managed to integrate your favorite flea market buys and treasured artwork without causing visual chaos they will be inwardly nodding at your style.
 

7. The materials that move you

An interior designer will also be able to quickly work out what types of material you like to have in your home. If your walls are adorned with attractive woodwork, your counters are made from authentic granite and your entranceways are festooned with hanging plants they will understand you have an affinity with natural materials. If feathers hang from your light fittings and your couches are scattered with plush cushions and indulgent fur throws then your love of soft and light materials is clear. Or perhaps you have a fetish for the supple toughness of leather and the bright hard brilliance of metal.
 
All of the above and more will be crystal clear to your interior designer visitor by the time you’ve had a chance to offer them a coffee or canapé. Perhaps it’s time you started working on your relationship with luxury and bringing out the brilliant you that lies within.
 
About the Author: 
Ronnie is a home decor and DIY geek, HGTV addict, writer and blogger. He’s currently writing for Octane Seating, the industry’s number one source for quality products, competitive prices and knowledgeable service. Follow on Twitter @OctaneSeating
 

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