Differences between interior designers, interior decorators and interior stylists

You might follow lots of beautiful interior accounts on Instagram, but all of them have different approach they take in their projects. If you're thinking about how to organize upcoming renovations in your home and whether to hire a professional then you really need to understand a difference between these titles and what their strengths and weaknesses are to decide which one suits you more.

What do they do in a nutshell:

• Interior designers are mainly for all-encompassing projects such as a new-built, full-blown renovation, major remodel. Think of moving walls, electricity, plumbing, ceiling, all the floor plans, sections and elevations required for the contractor to do the job on site.

• Interior decorators can work with a bit outdated home or a rental to bring in some life and style into the space but without any structural changes. New furniture, paint the walls, change pendant lights, decor to make it all look like in a magazine. Though scratches on a hardwood flooring will be covered up with a rug, pendants will be new and gorgeous but in the same location and if you need an additional socket to charge your phone next to the couch it will be done through the extension cord but covered up with a nifty trick and a pretty basket.

• Interior stylists are a perfect fit for staging your home for open house or a photoshoot. They usually are familiar with the real estate market, they know what buyers like and what pushes them away. Also and very important they know and work closely with furniture and decor stores where they can rent some items for staging.

What to remember?

While interior decorator can stage the house and interior designer can do decorating and staging the most important thing here is the experience - to know where to buy, how to install, where to rent, etc.

Tip:

For you to easily communicate through the process of interior design or decorating will be very useful to understand what kind of visual aids do they provide during the process - don't be fooled by the shows - surprise is not always as happy as it looks on the TV (especially if it's done at your expense).

Here’s most common presentations:

1. Photorealistic 3D renders

2. Schematic 3D render

3. Walkthrough in 3D

4. 3D collages

5. Moodboards (are rarely enough for clients as they do tend to require a lot of imagination)