What Happens in an Interior Design Consultation
Most people have never hired an interior designer, so they imagine something more intimidating than it is. A stranger with a tape measure, judging the sofa. That is not the visit. A consultation is a structured conversation in your home about how you live, what is not working, and what the rooms could become.
It starts before I arrive. We begin with a free discovery call, fifteen to thirty minutes, so I understand the brief in outline: which rooms, whether you are renovating or refreshing, roughly what you want to spend, and whether we like the sound of working together. If we do not, that is time saved for both of us. If we do, we book the in-home session.
The consultation itself is about two hours and starts from £250. We walk. I want to see the house in the order a guest sees it, and then in the order you actually use it. Hall, living room, the kitchen you cook in at half seven, the bedroom you never quite finished. I ask about light, storage, how many people sit down at once, what you cannot bear to part with. Inherited pieces matter. So do the corners you have been living around.
I take measurements and photographs, not to produce a glossy brochure on the spot, but so the recommendations later are for this room, not a generic one. We talk colour without pretending you have to decide a paint name that afternoon. We talk about what can stay. A good consultation is as much about editing as it is about adding.
You then receive a personalised mood board and a set of first recommendations. Palette, layout notes, where the lighting is failing you, which pieces are earning their place. It is enough to brief a decorator, to shop with a spine, or to decide you want a full room scheme. You are not locked into the next stage. Plenty of clients stop here and that is a complete piece of work.
What I am listening for is the gap between the house and the life. Healthcare workers in Addiscombe who had spent a decade caring for other people and never quite arrived home. A first-time buyer with a handful of antiques and a new-build that felt like a show flat. The consultation is where those stories become a brief.
Come as you are. You do not need mood boards of your own, though I am happy to look at them. You do not need to tidy as if I were a viewing. I need to see the real house. If you have a budget in mind, say it. It makes the advice better, not smaller.
If you have been circling the same room for months, book the discovery call. The consultation is there to give you a plan you can hold, not a performance you have to sit through.