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Selecting an interior designer

Ah! It's time to renovate your house. And you want to do it in style. Hire a designer so that you can be happy with your home, once and for all. If you don't want to be fleeced or have some amateur do his internship at your cost, read on.

• Make sure you are dealing with an interior designer. Some may be contractors and others may be architects who are full of creative ideas and like to think of themselves as designers. Still others may be neither. Ask the one you engage if he limits his services to just buying and arranging furniture, and coordinating fabric and accessories. Can he actually draw up plans and work with an architect or oversee a contractor? How would you do this? Ask for the name of the institute where he studied. Take a look at his past work.

  Don't go just by his portfolio where the photographs would probably be enhanced some way or the other. Fancy lighting and slight rearrangement of furniture with a couple of flowers thrown in can reveal a room that's a lot nicer on page than in reality. Ask to actually visit showrooms or houses where he has worked. Also request him for references.

  Don't shortlist anyone until you have asked around for a couple of names and visited them. Most of them will do a nominal design of your home and some may even charge a nominal fee for it.

• Step one taken. Now you are ready to work with him. State your budget and tell him what you would like done. Then ask him to give his estimate. It will almost always be more than what you had planned. And even this won't be the final one. You are likely to pay much more. But how much more? This could vary, depending upon what unforeseen changes are required to be made. Will a wall have to be re-plastered or the wiring changed? When you check out his references, always ask if he stuck to the budget or exceeded it. And if it is the latter, by how much.

• Always ask for options. When designers present clients with a choice of items -- say, fabric costing Rs 450 a metre -- they often don't bother to note that this one oversteps the budget. For instance, he may tell you how fancy a chimney in your kitchen is. And he may even play on your insecurities by saying that your renovation will look incomplete and not 'up-to-the-mark' if you don't go in for one.

  He won't tell you that an exhaust fan could also be a cheaper option and the difference in cost around Rs 3,500. Or he may tell you that a halogen light in your living room will be perfect, even though it costs just around Rs 250 more than the white light. And you agree, little knowing that you may have to change the halogen fittings more often making it quite expensive in the long run.

• The problem with interior designers is that they don't often state what their fees are. They should be in the range of 10 per cent to 15 per cent over and above all the renovation. So over and above the cost of the material (paint, cement, marble, tiles, wood, grills, accessories, glass) and the cost of labour (carving, plastering, painting, polishing, tiling), you will have to give that much of a cut to the designer. However, what the designer may do is just give you a flat bill at the end of the day. Ask for a break-up. This can be solved by asking him at the very start, when he gives an estimate, what the cost of the materials will be and how much are his fees.

• If the designer is going to get a mark-up percentage of what is spent, you can be sure that he will stretch your budget to whatever you permit him to. Don't be pushed around. What's more, accompany him for purchases if you want. If that is not possible, ask him for bills on each and every purchase. Remember, this is a business transaction and not an art project.

• Designers generally tie up with suppliers, upholsterers and contractors and get a percentage from them when they supply business to the latter. A safer bet would to check out for yourself the price of the product you are buying at a couple of places. As for contractors, it may just make sense to opt for them because chances are that the interior designer will not tie up with one if his workmanship is sub-standard. You are, nonetheless, free to get quotes from others and compare them before taking a decision.

• Remember you are not at the mercy of someone else's tastes. It is your house, you are paying for it and you are living in it. If you don't like something about the design or layout that he is working on, voice your opinion. Tell him that he cannot make a purchase without your prior approval: not just the actual cost, but the actual material too. So, if it is a set of tiles and you can't have a look at a sample, at least look at the photograph.

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