Many homeowners make the mistake of assuming that an interior designer is pretty much the same thing as a decorator. But the truth is that these two titles have little in common when it comes to education, experience or general skill level. Yes, both providers can be hired to improve your home decor, but they approach the work in very different ways.
For starters, a decorator is not a trained professional. All it takes to obtain employment as a decorator is a basic certificate that can be earned in only a few months. By comparison, interior designers must obtain a degree from an accredited school of design and must have some experience with architecture.
Interior designers also must pass a certification exam and obtain a licence. As a homeowner, the fact that designers have licences is important. For one thing, it means that they must answer to a lincencing board when there is a complaint. It also means that homeowners have some legal recourse if a designer makes a mistake and puts in a bad job, for example I recently had to get in Express-Furniture.co.uk To fix some issues my last interior designer caused.
As you might expect, an experienced interior designer will charge quite a bit more than an inexperienced, unlicensed decorator. On average, you should expect to pay twenty to forty percent more for a designer than for a decorator, though most homeowners that use them swear by their work.
Lastly, most designers have some experience with architecture and working with architects, so if the project is a large and complicated one, we strongly suggest that you choose a designer over a decorator. In all honestly, the average decorator has little or no understanding of architecture or how to read a blueprint, and the project may suffer as a result.