Where to look for an interior designer?

9 months. Ah, no. I’m not talking about how long it takes to deliver a baby. That’s how long it took for us to find our new home and sign the agreement. We thought the hard part was over. Who would have known it would take an equally long time to find an interior designer; one who would give realize the vision we had of our home.

What I hear from every home owner is that the process of getting interiors done is an agonizing experience. Years ago, I recollect the whole decision-making was over in two days. We just walked over to our neighbor and asked them the detail of their carpenter, called him the next morning to meet us before we left for work. The brief was brief: all teh wardrobes and kitchen was to be done in rubber wood; no false ceiling; no crockery unit or entertainment unit. He quoted a number, we got back and settled on one. The deal was done. Of course, in retrospect, we overpaid by at least 50%. The entire work for the 3 BHK was over in 28 days. Design, what design? Everything was on the go.

Fast forward a decade later. Tastes evolve, needs wants increase; we become more knowledgeable; choices have grown ten-fold from a granite counter back them to corian and what not now; the husband is equally involved in interior design; aesthetics sometimes trumps functionality. Information is readily available (take this post, for instance). There are online services who will get your interiors done without you having to move from your couch (Furdo). Yet, there is no satisfaction. In short, it’s all a pain in the a*.

Every one of the house owners I’ve spoken to has spent an inordinate amount of time designing the house themselves. Frustrated messages reveal the experiences of other owners: late nights, weekends googling for pictures because they either got no design or what they got was another googled image.

I’m sharing a few resources for starters where you can find an interior designer and my experience in brief:

Dwll: a good compilation of designers. This is where I found out about The Karighars and decode. If you are a minimalist, you’ll love decode.

Nestopia: again a good compilation of designers by city.

Zingyhomes: similar to dwll and Nestopia, the variety in zingyhomes is far diverse.

Lazuli: limited number of listed professionals but is an impressive bunch. Services offered range from architecture to interior decor. The site in itself I find tough to navigate; it is a mystery how to navigate further from the search results. the search results. The banner images take a good part of the screen space without any purpose. Lot of potential to improve on that front.

Homelane: unfortunately, never had an opportunity to interact. Reached out to them through their website three times and never heard back over a span of two months.

Furdo: I will talk about it in great length in one of the coming posts. I have used their services.

Pancham interiors: one of the most swift, practical, on-the-feet thinkers I’ve met in this field.

CapriCoast: for modular kitchens. Very amenable to needs and responsive to request. Not sure about execution, but I was very happy with the initial discussion. If they had a solution for the entire house, I would have gone with them.

Bonito Designs

In the next post, I will talk about the homework you need to do before approaching an interior designer.

Image courtesy: Zingy homes