By Design
A Professional Designer Can Add Value to Your Home

Are you furnishing a new home or redecorating your current one? How’s your sense of style? If you’re not confident in your ability to organize rooms, place furniture and select the best fabrics and tchotchkes to make your home fabulous, consider working with an experienced interior designer who is.

The Right Designer

The right designer can add value to your home, not only by incorporating aesthetics but also by saving you time and money. There’s a reason why professionally staged homes sell quicker and for more money, according to a survey released in 2021 by the National Association of Realtors.

“A designer has so many more options available to them than in the retail market,” says Eloise Kubli, an interior designer and president of Collective Construction & Design in Plantation. “There are tremendous options at all different price points with a professional.”

Hire a Professional

But finding the right designer — someone who understands your vision and with whom you have a rapport — can be a challenge. According to Kubli, anyone can call themselves a designer, which makes it difficult to determine the extent of someone’s knowledge and experience. She recommends finding a professional interior designer through referrals and word of mouth and then vetting them thoroughly.

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), a trade association, also has a searchable database on its website, at ASID.org/find-a-pro.

“People think a designer is just someone with nice tastes,” Kubli says. “They don’t understand the dollars that are involved in furnishing a home and the business acumen that goes on behind the scenes.”

After consulting with the homeowner to better understand the scope of the project, and establishing a budget, Kubli prepares floor plans and renderings. “So many things happen in that planning stage before anything is purchased,” she says.

While most of Kubli’s clients look to her to put together concepts and to select color schemes and furniture, others prefer to get more involved in the process, she says, visiting showrooms with her and making selections themselves.

Fees vary, based on the scope of the project, the size of the home and the experience and reputation of the designer. Some charge an hourly rate or a flat fee per project, while others charge a percentage of the budget or mark up the cost of items purchased. Make sure you understand how your particular designer charges and that all of the terms are clearly laid out in a written contract to avoid misunderstandings.