A misunderstood profession: interior design
Define your career. If you are a doctor, you diagnose and treat people’s food. If you are a hairdresser, you cut, color, perm and style the hair. If you are a police officer, you respect the law, investigate crimes and generally protect the citizens of the district in which you work. Almost anyone can describe most careers, at least briefly. If you have one of those careers, you are very lucky.
Before I entered the workforce and opened my own design firm, I never imagined I’d get calls to repair curtains, remove stains from carpets, find out why a light bulb in a chandelier isn’t working… I’m an interior designer — Interior designs; but I can recommend a seamstress, a carpet cleaning company, an electrician… Then comes the dreaded question, “What do you mean you design interiors?”
Once upon a time, I thought that was an easy question to answer. Somehow now I find it easier to explain to a child why grass is green.
Instead of trying to define interior design, I have dedicated myself to explaining the process of designing an interior.
I analyze, I ask questions, I draw, I review the budget, I draw some more while I ask more questions. Slowly, what started out as sketches turns into floor plans and other technical drawings. Some of the drawings are colored. I help my clients make informed decisions regarding the use of space, materials, products, color, lighting, design, construction methods, other professionals… The drawings/plans then go to the contractors and specialty contractors. I review the shipping process with my clients: one shipment is higher, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because the others are missing things. A contractor is selected, the contract is signed and work begins; I will be there routinely while work is in progress. I basically act as a representative on behalf of my clients, as well as a protector of my own design. Schedules are reviewed frequently, problems that arise are handled in such a way that my clients can later learn the solution but not the headache of understanding and solving the problem. The work is finishing, only the final touches are missing but I am already preparing a list of things that need to be finished, repaired or retouched.
What had been a noisy, dirty and smelly construction site has now fallen silent and has already been cleaned up. He walked around looking and examining the actual size of all the drawings she had done weeks, if not months, ago. Back at the office, I edit the deficiency list started a few days earlier and send it to the contractor and clients. The work is soon completely finished, but my work is not finished yet.
My clients call, happy with the finished space. There are some last minute questions about the maintenance of some of the new items, where to find certain decorative elements and accessories that suddenly have importance, the location of these elements, etc.
About two months later, those customers are likely to call back. The voice on the other end sounds a little annoyed or even a little terrified. Tile grout is cracked in one area of one wall. It’s probably just because everything has had time to work itself out; I’ll stop by to see it and then I’ll get in touch with the contractor.
Define my career. I am an interior designer. I am an analyst, an artist, an educator, an interrogator, a project manager, a construction supervisor, a buyer, a space planner, a specifier, a decorator, a technician, a draftsman, a problem solver…
But can I help a client plan an outdoor project? Can I design a hut or gazebo for a client’s garden? Can I design custom furniture or lighting? Do you work with other professionals to provide technical drawings for things that do not fall within the scope of work of an interior designer? Work with clients and their real estate agent to help them select the perfect home or commercial space to meet their needs? Provide consulting services to do-it-yourselfers? Manage a building extension? Do you work on both new construction and renovations? Planning to add or relocate a kitchen or bathroom? Do I know the building code? Can I help obtain renewal permits from the municipality? Design spaces for use by people with physical disabilities?… Yes, and more.
Hastily, I sometimes describe interior design as the career that bridges the gap between architect and decorator, but the accuracy of that statement is something even I have debated. So I am still left without a solid definition of my own career.
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