Do It Yourself, or Work With an Interior Designer?

Now is an exciting time for Interior Design!

Truly spectacular and inspiring design blogs abound. Simplified DIY’s appear with amazing frequency in our inboxes and feeds rather than the monthly, glacial pace once set by print magazines. Bolder design and envelope-pushing choices that had once only been found in Elle Decor and other aspirational shelter magazines are accessible daily during our morning commutes. More people are exposed to Interior Design than ever before. HGTV, DIY-design services, and apps make “good” design easily accessible to a larger audience.

As a result of this mix of technology + design, more people are turned on to the power and play of an environment. Design buffs are born and are empowered to recreate for themselves what they see. With all of this content available to do it yourself: “Why work with an Interior Designer?”

I was asked this exact question just the other day. And it’s an important question. Both for me to reckon with as a designer, and for my clients to consider when making the design choices that impact how they live. The answer is both simple and complex—much like good design itself.

There are the obvious reasons:

Cohesive Vision
Experience in Execution
and Taste.

Then there’s something deeper – the power of the human connection. Some of what makes this incredible new dialogue about design and how we live with it possible— even epic Pinterest inspiration boards, makeovers in a weekend, rooms filled with DIY’s—can also be the thing that stops us from actually living well in our spaces. Making distracted choices or simply recreating someone else’s look verbatim can result in a living space that mirrors those feelings.

When the focus is only on a “big reveal,” without giving thought to the living that actually happens in the space after the “after”, spaces don’t feel cohesive or, worse, they don’t feel authentic to the people living in them. Without a design relationship—a thought-partnership—the opposing forces of inspiration, innovation, and execution can lead to a space that looks (and feels) “worse” than when it started. That is not the kind of “before and after” we are looking for.

My clients and I work closely as partners, throughout the total design process. When I embark on a project with my clients, I refine “inspiration” into actionable vision: evaluate what their lifestyle requires (as well as what’s actually possible/advisable for their space) to maximize what they have and what they want, and then I carry it through. There is nothing like human touch.

Allowing technology to dictate the way we live, rather than harnessing its power and then using our personalities, biology and our humanity to inform our choices, ends up leaving us disconnected to our spaces. On a micro level, it can often make homes feel impersonal. On a macro level, it can be shortsighted and even dangerous as we consider how our fast-design-fashion choices impact the environment. There is much distraction and noise.

So, why work with an interior designer? A good designer works with you to cut through the noise. A experienced designer sees the threads running through 1,000 pinned inspiration images and refines them into a unifying theme. A good designer brings quality and customization in the products used. A good designer listens, synthesizes, and executes. A good designer knows that making a home is as much about feel as it is about look, and that making a home that feels as good as it looks transcends trend, zeitgeist, and whatever the newest craze is. A talented, experienced designer knows that less is often more. A good designer works with you to make your dreams for your space a lovely, livable reality.

And a great designer believes you should love where you live. I certainly do.

Let’s get your project started!

Samantha Gore

GoreDesigns.com Do you need a thought-partner to help you cut through the noise? Do you want to live better and more stylishly in your space? Then YOU should work with a designer, you should work with me. Let’s get this project started.