An interior designer plans the inside of a home: how the rooms are laid out, what gets built in, which materials and finishes go where, how the rooms are lit, and what furniture fills them. On a remodel or new build, they also produce the layout and selections a contractor can price from. On a furnishing project, they choose and source everything to a plan.
The part most people picture, picking fabric and styling shelves, is a small slice of the work. Most of it is decisions made on paper before anything is bought or built.
The work, step by step
Listening and measuring. A designer starts with who uses each room, when, and for what. Then they measure the house, note the light, the views and what's staying, and agree on a scope and budget with you.
Space planning. Every room gets drawn to scale with the furniture in it. This is where you find out the sofa you want blocks the door, the bed wall is too short for nightstands, or the island leaves too little room to walk around.
Concept. A mood board and often a 3D rendering show how the rooms will look and how they connect. You see the design before you pay for any of it to be built.
Selections. Tile, stone, cabinetry, plumbing fixtures, lighting, paint, hardware, flooring, furniture, rugs, fabrics and window treatments, chosen together so the house hangs together.
Layouts and specifications. On construction projects, the designer spells out what the contractor needs to price the job: cabinet elevations, tile layouts, lighting locations and fixture lists. Without them, those calls get made on the fly.
Sampling and review. Stone, tile, fabric and paint get checked in the house before anything is ordered, because showroom lighting lies.
Sourcing and ordering. Placing orders for furniture and materials and keeping an eye on lead times, so the slow pieces are ordered first.
What a designer does on different projects
Furnishing a house. Furniture layouts, selections and sourcing, including rugs, lighting, window treatments, art and bedding, plus deciding which of your existing pieces come along. The value is in scale and in making the rooms work together, so you're not returning pieces or living in a house where every room was bought separately.
A remodel. Layouts, cabinetry, tile and lighting, plus finishes and furniture. On a remodel, a designer spends most of their time on the things that are expensive to change once built. See our kitchen design and bathroom design pages for what that looks like room by room.
A new build. The designer works to the builder's selections schedule and gets decisions in on time, so nothing defaults to the builder's standard option. The earlier they're involved, the more they can fix on paper. Read more on new build interior design.
The skills behind the work
A lot of what a designer brings is hard to see in a finished photo.
- Scale. Knowing how big a sofa, a rug or a chandelier should be for a room before it shows up. Most rooms that feel off have a scale problem.
- Sourcing. Access to trade only furniture, fabric and lighting lines, and knowing which pieces hold up.
- Construction knowledge. Understanding how tile is set, how cabinets are built and where an electrician needs a box, so the plan works in the real house.
- Sequence. Knowing which decisions have to come first, so one late choice doesn't hold up everything else.
- Local knowledge. Familiarity with the cabinet makers, tile setters and upholsterers who do good work in the area.
What an interior designer doesn't do
- Structural engineering. Taking out a load bearing wall needs an engineer, and often an architect.
- Construction. The contractor and trades build the work. The designer designs it.
- Permits. Usually handled by the contractor or architect.
- Exterior architecture. The shape of the house and its envelope are the architect's job. The designer plans the rooms inside it.
An interior decorator, by comparison, works with the room as built: furniture, color, fabric and styling. Our guide to interior designer vs decorator covers the difference in detail.
Is an interior designer worth it?
For most projects that involve construction, yes. A change on paper costs an eraser. A change in tile and drywall costs a crew. A vanity drawn two inches too wide, a pendant box off center over the island, or a shower niche on the wrong wall all get built exactly as drawn. Catching those early is most of what the fee pays for.
A designer is usually worth it when:
- Cabinets, tile, plumbing, lighting or walls are changing.
- You're building a new home and the builder needs selections on a schedule.
- You're furnishing several rooms or a whole house at once.
- You've tried to pull a room together and it still feels off.
- You don't have time to make hundreds of decisions on your own.
It may not be worth it when the room already works, the budget is small, and what you need is a new rug and a few lamps. Even then, a single consultation can keep you from buying the wrong pieces.
A lot of the value is time. A whole house means hundreds of decisions, and each one takes research, samples and a trip to see it in person. A designer can narrow each one down to a few good options fast.
The bigger question is what kind of help you need. Some people want a plan and will carry it out themselves. Others want the designer to stay on through sourcing and ordering. A good designer will offer both and tell you which one fits.
How to get the most from a designer
- Bring them in early. Before the plans are final on a new build, and before you order anything on a remodel.
- Be upfront about budget. A designer can plan to a number. They can't plan to a secret.
- Tell them what you actually do. How you cook, where the kids do homework, where the dog sleeps. That drives the design more than style does.
- Decide on time. Most project delays come from a decision waiting on someone.
- Keep decisions in one place. One written selections list means the contractor never gets two different answers.
- Approve samples at home. Stone, tile, fabric and paint look different in a showroom. Sign off on them in the room where they'll live.
Still choosing who to hire? Read how to choose an interior designer for the questions to ask.
What we charge
River Jane & Co. is an interior design studio in Spicewood, working within about 28 miles of the studio, around Lake Travis, the Hill Country and Austin. Every project starts with a free 15 minute call, then a consultation, in your home or virtual.
- First call
- Free, 15 minutes
- Consultation
- About an hour, in your home or virtual, depending on the project
- Design Strategy
- From $999 per room or space, and whole homes are quoted after your consultation: layout, selections, mood board and 3D rendering, a 30 minute review call and a final visit with samples
- Full design and project services
- Quoted from your approved Design Strategy
A Design Strategy, from $999 per room, is the plan: layout, selections, a mood board, a 3D rendering, a 30 minute review call and a final visit with samples. A whole home or several rooms is quoted after the consultation. From there you can carry the plan out yourself, or go on to full design and project services, quoted from the approved plan. See services and pricing or what happens in a Design Strategy.
Not sure what kind of help you need?
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