Why Appointing the Right Luxury Interior Designer Is More Than Just an Aesthetic Choice
By the time most clients speak to us, they are very close to appointing a luxury interior designer and are down to their last small shortlist, and understandably this decision is too important to get wrong. It can feel like a moment of high pressure for clients as they worry what metrics they should be making this decision against.
They might be seeking a large scale renovation or be developing a bespoke home with an architect. Often, the time they reach out to us is an intersection when they are beginning to realise just how many decisions are still to come and the importance of getting early decisions right. We also get many new clients who have worked with professionals before and know that who you appoint matters just as much as what they design. A designer and client become very close working partners on one of the most high value assets our clients own. It is emotional, and the relationship matters deeply.
At this stage, clients are not shopping around for a look, and whilst being aligned aesthetically is important, a high end interior design practice should not be a portfolio of cut and paste design styles. It should show an ability to adjust with the wind, leaning into the architecture and the personalities of each client. Clients are looking for trust. A kind of trust that appears in the synergy of those first interactions. Our portfolio and commercial credibility provide confidence in our design taste, but trust is a more nuanced quality you tend to only feel during those early meetings. Will the designer respect your vision, your home, your biggest investment, and handle your project with the utmost care and integrity. A client needs to know that a designer can see the whole picture and not just the room in front of them.
High end interior design, in my opinion, is not about ostentatious displays of wealth. Instead, it is about knowing where to invest for longevity and not leaning too heavily into passe design moments that will quickly date a space and make it look like the saturated feed on Instagram kindly pushed to us by influencers peddling their quick home updates and fast fashion consumerism. This process requires judgement and skill of both the technical and emotional kind. A designer’s worth is often knowing when to push and when to hold back, and how each decision is interdependent on many others. That is where experience matters much more than the colour of the tile.
One of the things clients often say to us, sometimes only at the end of a project, is, “There was so much to think about, there is so much more to this than I realised, you saw things we would not even have thought to ask about.” That is the value of seeing around corners. Understanding sequencing, scale, longevity, investment decisions and trade offs, human behaviour being at the core of how a home feels and performs, and how all of those decisions pull on each other.
It is also why the team matters.
Luxury projects do not succeed because of a single creative mind. They succeed because of strong relationships, clear communication, and a multidisciplinary approach that brings design, technical capability and project delivery together, with clients feeling like the centre of each decision. Our role is to take away the risk and the rushed decisions. The depth of our work is so much more complex than any final project photo might have you believe.
Integrity, trust and relationships are everything. We do what we say we will do, and we do it with care. We only work with the highest quality suppliers, the right craftspeople and artisans, because a home is more than the mere sum of its parts. It is the weight of the handle in your hand, the softness of the sit, and the way the light falls on the table as you have your morning coffee.
Luxury therefore is understated. It is subtle and it lives in the details and rhythm of a home.
