Better Homes - careers in Interior Design

Do you have long hair and a taste in bright coloured shirts? Or perhaps a you've redecorated your room 100 times and have an account with the makers of MDF? The chances are then that you're interested in interior design.

The last few years has seen an avalanche of interior design programmes on television offering magical solutions to tired and grey houses at the quick swipe of a lime green brush. It seems everyone is now an expert and can create a Tuscan villa interior in leafy Bromley.

It's a service
Whereas interior designer was only for the nobility and the nouveau riche just a couple of decades ago, more and more people are now hiring designers for professional services - it's no different from hiring a lawyer or a tax accountant. Either they don't want to be bothered with organising workmen in their home or are simply clueless with where the electrical sockets should go! A good interior designer can lead their client through what can be a stressful invasion of their home without belittling them or over-riding their tastes and requirements. The end result should be satisfactory to both the client and the designer, otherwise it will be a failure however good it looks.

Glamour?
Interior Design still has this glamorous aura attached to it of large houses, flying off to Paris to buy furniture and an easy working existence. Forget it immediately! Though you can go shopping abroad, the common experience is tight deadlines, tight budgets and long hours preparing a sanitary ware schedule for an impatient builder. Clients can look soft and cuddly when you first meet them but it's their hard earned cash you are spending and they want perfect results and good value for money. Some projects can be small and boring, just changing a few cushions and reupholstering a chair and it's only a few at the top of their profession who have the international clients and endless budgets people imagine.

However, this does not mean interior design can't be fun. Each job, each client is different and it's a challenge coming to grips with a new and imaginative brief. You have the chance to work with talented and creative artists, cabinet makers, and other craftsmen as well as handling some of the most beautiful fabrics the world has to offer. Silks from China and Thailand, damasks from Italy, cottons from India, sheers from Switzerland and wool from Scotland can all pass through your hands. There is a bewildering array of products and goods on the market that make you feel like a kid in a sweet shop! Never have the world's resources been so accessible and the Internet only make's it easier to communicate with manufacturers all over the world.

Getting in and getting on
Even a few years ago you could join an interior design company and work your way up the ranks to become a designer. Increasingly, however, companies are demanding some kind of formal education in interior design, whether it's an evening class programme or a three year degree. As the industry is gradually becoming more professional in approach companies do not have time to train personnel from scratch and will expect you to have a good grounding in the work expected of you before you join.

Where?
A working knowledge of fabrics, curtain making, technical drawing and perhaps lighting is really essential if your C.V. is to be picked out from the pile of hopefuls.

The ability to use the CAD (Computer Aided Design) system on computer is also impressive as more architectural drawings are transmitted by email to save time and money.There are a number of courses available today and it's useful to shop around for one that you think would suit your personal requirements.

I would stress, however that if you are thinking of doing a year's diploma or a three year degree course that would be your main qualification, that you find some work experience first, offering your services for free before you commit to such a length of time. Many people have a very romantic view of wafting around famous people's houses earning pots of money when the reality of long hours, heavy administration, little pay and standing in three inches of mud on site sends many people heading for the nearest exit after three days of work experience in a busy office.

A three year degree course in design is of no benefit if you suddenly decide that you can't hack the low pay and you want to become a banker.

Get ahead of the pack
An evening course, three month course or a year's diploma will get you ahead of the pack. I would suggest that you try to incorporate technical drawing into your list of skills at the very least as junior assistants (where you start) will be required to draw up furniture plans to scale, plot electrical drawings and sometimes produce joinery elevations that contractors will need to work from on site. You don't need to be a Leonardo to draw, as you are using a drawing board and set square and the results are suppose to be technical not pretty. The more you do it the easier it gets.

Work experience
For work experience, ask your local college who will often have long term contacts with companies who are willing to place students for a while. Or if you are feeling energetic send a begging letter or CV to companies you are interested in asking for a short period of time making cups of tea. You may not be doing anything particularly inspiring at first but it will give you a feel for the industry as a whole. And when you do finally land a job, do not expect to be running your own jobs straight away. Juniors start at the bottom of the pile as it takes many years of hands on experience to have the ability and knowledge learnt from other designers.

Specialising
Interior designers can specialise in different areas. Many graduate towards the more commercial side, working with offices, restaurants and hotels, which can take years to plan and execute. Some famous designers find themselves dealing with all areas since their name alone can sell show flats or a new trendy restaurant, but on average most designers work within a given sphere and have their own particular 'look'. It's that 'look' which appeals to potential clients or businesses who may visit previous work completed or see houses or hotels in interior magazines which they would like for themselves.

Lots of hats?!
A designer must be able to wear many hats. Not only must they be self-assured and be able to deal with demanding and sometimes volatile clients but have a good working relationship with a huge array of other contractors who they will encounter throughout a project. You'll have to work with architects, builders, electricians, mechanical engineers, quantity surveyors, plumbers, structural engineers and local planners and that's just a small selection! On the design side you will be personally responsible for organising and marshalling decorators, carpet fitters, curtain fitters, cabinet makers and joiners to a tight programme. If a project doesn't finish on time it's the architects and interior designers who are held accountable by the clients, so nerves of steel and a unflappable personality are added bonuses!

It's very exciting to see a project in process as walls go up and the building moves towards completion. A designer needs strong organisational skills and a focused eye for detail since a waste pipe inserted in the wrong place six months ago will become a problem when you can't fit the bath in the right place and you can't have the pipe ripped out! Forward planning and mounds of schedules and paperwork go into a project months, even sometimes years before you arrive at the fun part of choosing curtains and furniture. However, the technical side of the project can just be as rewarding as the visual side as it allows you to plan in advance all the gizmos you would like to use later.

Gizmos
And gizmos don't even cover half of what goes into a house these days. Security devices, audio systems, home cinemas, telephone, lighting and intercom systems all add to miles of cabling and lots of head scratching. You find TVs pop out of walls, clients ask for the London and New York share prices on screens in their showers and for swimming pools to be dug out from underneath their pristine gardens. People can ask for the most extraordinary things and you may find yourself measuring the inside leg of your client's dog to ensure they can fit through the cat flap, I kid you not.

A typical day
It rarely happens! I specialise in top of the range residential projects in London and the surrounding area and am lucky enough to work with some incredibly beautiful properties. It's quite usual to work on a few jobs at a time, all at different stages of building or completion, requiring you to have an encyclopaedic knowledge in your head of each one and be able to chop between them at a moment's notice - without notes. Telephone calls, faxes, wads of drawings through the post, all arrive at your desk requiring immediate action on several different properties, let alone the back up administration of sending out bills and estimates. You will need a keen business sense and basic financial skills since interior design is after all a business and not a creative charity. This is especially true if you decide to work for yourself. One bad client not paying their bills can bring your empire down.

Back at the office, the afternoon may be slightly more genteel for instance - choosing fabrics and furniture and putting together schemes for a client to choose from. Presentation skills are very important as you are essentially selling a concept to a client. You also need to know when to tell the client you think they are making a mistake or when to back down if they don't like something you want to try. The client/designer relationship is central to the whole project and you can't afford to go into a huff every time they reject one of your schemes.

Furniture and fabrics
Probably the most rewarding part of the job is working with individual craftsmen and commissioning new pieces of furniture or designing new fabrics specifically for individual jobs. These pieces can often be antiques of the future and it's very exciting to see your ideas translated into reality. This country is blessed with a multitude of crafts people who work in all parts of the country producing unique items often to traditional methods, far away from the mass produced items of Ikea and Habitat. Visiting and working with these individuals can be a privilege and allows your client to have items personal to them.

Champagne
Completing a job is probably the most nerve-stretching time for a designer. You can almost guarantee that there is an endless list of building problems, with boilers not working to water drips causing damage to your newly hung wallpaper, whilst you are trying to hang curtains and move furniture in. Contractors don't turn up on time and your last sofa is stuck on a slow boat from Italy, yet somehow you manage to juggle all these last minute hiccups with a sense of humour and an iron determination not to crumble at the last hurdle. When the final piece is in place, the flowers are arranged and you have a delighted client you can crack open a bottle of champagne and admire your handiwork.

by Kirsten Lawton-Smith