Interior Design Questions You Should Be Asking

Decorating a room can seem overwhelming, with so many different options to consider. You can help simplify things by asking yourself these key interior design questions – and the result will be a room you love. Design Insider asks fabric experts, ILIV, to tell our readers what questions interior designers should be asking their clients.

Is there anything you love about the room now?

Just because you fancy a change doesn’t mean you’ve fallen out of love with the room in its current state. Perhaps there’s a piece of furniture you’d really like to keep, or maybe there are character features you’re fond of, like a magnificent fireplace or period cornicing. Take what you love and use it as a focal point from which to take your design cues.

What are your favourite and least favourite colours?

It may seem like an obvious question, but sometimes people will be so rigid about following trends that they forget to consider their own personal taste. If you’re not a lover of orange then it makes no sense to opt for an orange room, regardless of that stylish-looking orange room you saw on Pinterest. It helps to choose something as your colour inspiration, which can be anything from a vase you spotted or a favourite piece of clothing.

Is there a certain look you want to create?

Decide on a style which will form the room’s overall aesthetic. This is where scrapbooking comes in handy – save clippings from magazines and start a Pinterest board for inspiration. Lots of interior designers recommend making two inspiration boards, one of rooms you love and another of rooms you hate, to help you find your design style. Our blog on style personalities should help too. Remember though, the style should be a good fit for the rest of your home – an ultra-modern, minimalist living room could look out of place in an English country garden inspired cottage, while vintage, shabby-chic stylings may not fit with a contemporary apartment.

How do you use the room?

We’re guessing you’ll use your bedroom for sleeping and a kitchen for cooking, but consider the other ways you’ll use a space too. Will you be entertaining guests in the living room, for example, or do you plan to host dinner parties in the kitchen? You might want to work or watch television from the bedroom, so in that case you’d need to consider how to incorporate technology into the space. Speaking of television, if watching TV is going to be the main function of the room then placement of your TV-watching chair is crucial.

What’s your budget?

You’d be surprised how many people dive into renovating a room without deciding on a budget, and it rarely ends well. Decide how much you want to spend and stick with it, it’ll help you to be disciplined when it comes to making purchases. Be realistic though – if you don’t have a big budget to play with, carry out your renovation in stages and phase the work over time. It might feel frustrating when you want to complete the look right away, but far better than breaking the bank only to end up with a room you can’t afford to finish.

Thank you so much to the ILIV team for providing our readers with important questions to ask their clients.

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