The Expansive Role of Interior Designers and How It Differs from the Work of Interior Decorators

Now, before we dive into anything, we need to understand the difference between a designer and a decorator. And I think it's important for us to note that decorators, interior decorators are still professionals, all right? Interior decorators can still draw floor plans, they can still select color palettes, they can choose furniture, they can select artwork, plants, furnishings, and a lot of times they were hired directly by the client. If that's what an interior decorator does, then what is an interior designer? Well, I mentioned this earlier, one of the most important aspects is that an interior designer is qualified to actually make architectural changes.

Yes, architectural changes. That means if a wall needs to be taken out, or a window needs to be added, or the structure needs to be relooked at, the interior designer has that ability. And it's quite amazing how much responsibility we have as interior designers.

You design and you supervise the project, right? So you're not only designing, but you're working with the client, you're working with the contractors, you're working with the consultants. You space plan, you draw, you initialize, and you create efficiency within the space. Instead of just creating a space plan, you make sure it works, right? You use color psychology when you're selecting your color palette.

And this color psychology may be specific to that particular client, because guess what? Everyone reacts to color differently. You design the furniture based on ergonomics, sustainability, functional requirements. And guess what? If you don't like a particular piece of furniture, or it doesn't work, as an interior designer, you can design it yourself.

You can draw it yourself. You can create the piece of furniture that would be perfect for the home you're designing, or the restaurant that you're creating. We're going to look at understanding daylighting and interior design elements and principles.

We're going to understand how ADA and accessibility works with interior design. Interior designers don't just do the layouts. They understand that spaces are used by people.

And if it's a public space, it's used by individuals that could potentially have a disability. We will talk about that through these lessons. You can also choose a furniture piece or a light fixture that is based on its functional nature, and you choose it based on the design that you think is best, and you end up creating the final design, as I mentioned earlier.

You understand durability. You understand acoustics. You understand how the piece of furniture works.

You understand if there are any issues as far as understanding how the furniture is cleaned. Does it wear easily? Are there allergens, right? You may have a client who's allergic to something, and believe it or not, there's materials that could potentially off-gas and release gases or allergies that could potentially affect your client. As interior designers, we understand.

We've done that research. And as I mentioned, you can draw, create, design anything specific to that client. And if you don't find the specifics of what you think are best for that interior design, you could potentially design it and build it from scratch.

You understand the architect's vision as an interior designer, and you don't work against the architect. You work with the architect, right? Because in the end, the client hires you as the interior designer to make sure that the entire project is coordinated. In order to do that, we need to work with the architect.

So you understand their vision and your own. And you've gone through training, which congratulations, you've started today. You've started your training as an interior designer.

And when you finish this training, you will be able to manage, design, and create projects that meet the needs of your clients. This is just the start of the difference between an interior designer and a decorator. Let's look at floor plans, for instance, right? Floor plans are overhead views of what's happening in the space.

A lot of times we'll call this a furniture plan as well. The interior decorator will draw the plan and place the furniture. They'll also include potential dimensions of how big or how wide spaces should be.

And they'll also locate furnishings. But as the interior designer, you not only design and plan based on what the space needs, but what the client needs. If the client has specific requests or needs you to design something very specific, guess what? You as the interior designer have an opportunity to meet those client needs.

You have the ability to space plan based on function and efficiency, right? If an interior decorator places furniture, you're not only placing furniture, but you're thinking about how efficient that space is. You incorporate scale into the design and you make the plan usable. Usable means that the space functions very well, right? It has an opportunity for the space to perform very well.

And us as interior designers, we get to create those. You consider egress. Now we look at egress.

We're looking at if there's an emergency, if there's a fire, how do you get out of the building? This also relates to safety. As an interior designer, you may also look at wayfinding and wayfinding is how you essentially navigate through the interior design. You create spaces that may be used by anyone with any type of disability.

Believe it or not, it is possible to design spaces that are universal, that everyone can use. And we'll talk about that and the lessons to come. You meet the needs of the building codes and the regulations.

You understand those codes as an interior designer. You select or design materials based on performance and sustainability, not just how the material looks, but you know this material will perform very well. If it's an area that tracks a lot of mud, you know that we can clean this material very easily.

And you thought about that before you finished with your entire design of the space. And we're going to use, and you're going to use case studies, right? You're going to use case studies that verify that the design of what you are planning to do has been done before, and it's been proven to work, right? There are some brilliant designs out there. There are also some very talented interior designers and architects that we're going to look into.

If similar spaces have been designed in the past, why not learn from those? You know, this will allow us to work with the architects, the engineers, the consultants, the contractors, and all the key players. But the big thing here to understand is it's more than just drawing floor plans. It's more than just placing furniture.

Let's look at materials, right? This is a really fascinating image. They actually created translucent concrete. Now, this material allows light to come through, which is fascinating.

At the same time, it's just as strong and durable as the normal concrete that you know of today. And so, as a decorator, you may choose this translucent concrete to go in your building. But as a designer, as an interior designer, you're evaluating that material.

You're looking, should it go on the floor, the ceiling, the walls? Is that the most appropriate fit? You're going to research how sound moves through. It does sound. How does acoustics work for that particular material? Is it the best material for this space? You're going to determine flammability.

You're going to research whether the material itself was affected by or endangers any species. You'll evaluate off-gassing, as we mentioned a couple slides ago. You'll determine if there's static electricity.

Don't you hate that? You touch a doorknob and you get shocked every time. But did you know that interior designers can actually work around that? We can actually plan and design the space so that we avoid static electricity. You're going to look at, as an interior designer, durability and cleanability.

You're going to incorporate materials that are sustainable, that are good for the environment, that are long-lasting. You're going to determine, potentially, what type of, not only off-gassing, but any allergens that are created from these materials. You can see this is much, much, much deeper than just selecting a material.

Let's look at lighting. We have a couple areas we're going to look at today. Lighting, interior decorator will select the decorative light fixture.

Okay, that's fantastic. But as an interior designer, you're going to draw the actual lighting plan. It's fascinating.

You'll include whether there's dimmers or not. This controls the mood of the space itself. You may create a light fixture schedule, which shows us exactly what light fixtures are going to go into the design itself that the architect and the contractors understand.

You're going to understand and evaluate daylighting techniques. We can control how the sun enters the building, and if we can do that, we can be more energy efficient. Not only can we be energy efficient, but we can control the well-being of the space or the individual in the space.

You may use a site analysis to determine how appropriate natural light locations and where the best natural light locations are. You may design the fixture yourself, as in the furniture. You may find that you could not find the perfect light fixture for that client.

So what do you do? You design and draw it yourself and have it made with a fabricator. In lighting, you can understand and study chromotherapy and light psychology. Chromotherapy looks at how color and light waves enter the human body and how it affects our senses.

It's absolutely fascinating. You can also, as an interior designer, use light, both natural and artificial, to improve that well-being of that individual that's in your space. Just as you can improve it, it can be the opposite.

What you do and how you choose and select not only the fixtures, but the type of lighting and systems that go into the project, you can make it absolutely amazing, but you can also destroy the space. You can also make the user feel depressed. You can make the user feel down based on the way that you're designing the space.

So it's imperative that we understand all the aspects of what interior designers can do. You'll also utilize window coverings, shading devices. You'll control the amount of light exposure.

There are systems now that actually the blinds and the outside of the building moves and rotates depending on where the sun is. It's absolutely incredible. The technology that's advancing is advancing very quickly.

So there's lighting. Let's look at furnishings or furniture. An interior decorator will definitely select the style of furniture.

This is based on more of an aesthetics of what the space is supposed to look like. But you can select the furniture based on function. How does the chair work? Is it going to make the individual productive? What if you're designing an office? Is the chair ergonomic? Will it allow for productivity? And the beautiful thing is furniture has been studied and dissected for years.

So as the interior designers, you get to understand that. Looking at the surface quality, looking at flammability, looking at design flaws, looking at custom furnishings, evaluating dimensional stability, addressing hyperallergenic concerns, researching how the wear of the materials, researching and evaluating aesthetics. Yes, we may think it's a good looking chair, but is it the best aesthetic for that particular client? Maybe there's a certain cultural aspect we need to consider.

Maybe there's a palette from that client's past that we should bring forward. And the interior designer understands that, incorporates these types of things into the project. Cleanability, surface wear, staining, all of these aspects we can learn and understand as interior designers, which take it much further than the decoration, the placement.

We're taking it further than placement. Even looking at artwork, the decorator will find the artwork and they'll find great artwork. And it may be really aesthetically pleasing and that's fantastic.

But the interior designer will look at the aesthetics and evaluate the aesthetics based on color, based on the design. They'll evaluate the structure. Not every wall painting and or piece of artwork can be put up on any wall.

If you've got a mural that's 30 feet in length and it's made out of solid steel, we have to understand what the structure of the wall is before we go and we hang that mural or that piece of artwork. So you're going to ensure that it works and it functions the way it should. And the design and the architect have considered all the aspects that what needs to be placed on that wall or on that surface.

You're going to ensure that accessories do not have any odors. You're going to look at and understand scale and appropriate placement. We're going to talk about scale in this class as well.

And we'll talk about various scales and why. Okay. So as you can see, we have a pretty large responsibility as interior designers.

And it goes well beyond just selecting the type of artwork that we need or selecting the piece of furniture that will be best. We have an opportunity to really evaluate, to understand, not only understand the selections that we make, but understand the client and understand what the best needs of the client are. And the wonderful thing is that each client is so different.

So in essence, every project you take on, you're starting from scratch, a whole new client, a whole new design concept, a whole new goal. Now this is just a portion of the aspects that separate an interior designer from a decorator. And interior designers do have a large responsibility.

We will dive deeper into that responsibility and we will dissect interior design as far as looking at how the elements and the principles can really create, make, or break spaces in our next lesson. I will see all of you in lesson two.