Interior Designer vs. General Contractor: Which Professional Do You Need for Your Renovation Project?

When you’re taking care of renovations, you want to be sure that you have the best possible team: professionals who will help you get the fantastic results you want from your project. You want to fall in love with the new design of your home or business—but who do you hire to make that dream reality? Do you need an interior designer or a general contractor? A better understanding of how each type of professional works can make it easier for you to reach your design goals.

Using a General Contractor: What Does It Cover?

A general contractor is able to cover a number of important basic functions and services. The services a general contractor offers, in fact, may vary depending on their specialty and your budget. These services may include:

Putting together drawings and developing a plan. When you work with a general contractor, they will help make your ideas and dreams reality. Many of them will put together the drawings, test to make sure that your plans are sound, and help you shape the plans for your renovation project. Keep in mind, however, that when you work with a general contractor, the final designs are often based more on practicality than beauty—and if you’re renovating your space, that might not be your top priority.

Executing your design. This is the basic purpose of a general contractor: coming in and taking care of the actual construction, plumbing, and other basic tasks required in order to complete your renovation project. They may bring on subcontractors to handle specific tasks, including electrical and wiring.

Basic budgeting. A general contractor will often offer basic budgeting services to their clients, letting them know how much they can expect a given service to cost. They may also be able to offer advice about how to bring a particular project under budget.

Project management. General contractors frequently manage their projects in-house and will bring on subcontractors they’ve worked with in the past to help fulfill specialty construction needs.

Many general contractors appear to offer similar services to interior designers. They are responsible for the execution, but they will also put together the plans according to your specifications and help you get a solid look at what you can expect when your project is finished. Working with an interior designer, however, can offer a number of advantages to your project.

What Does an Interior Design Company Do?

Working with an interior design company will often help take your renovation project to the next level. Interior design companies provide several basic functions that can help make you happier with your entire renovation project.

Advanced budgeting. If you work with an interior designer at the beginning of your project, they can offer significantly more advice about what your budget will expand to include. They can also provide key advice about how to shape your project based on your budget, preventing you from missing out on the aspects of your renovation that are the most important to you while still maintaining your overall budget.

Improved project management. When you work with an interior designer, you’ll get improved project management services. They may better guide the contractors and subcontractors, keep the project on track, and make sure you aren’t blowing your budget.

Enhanced design services. When you work with an interior designer, you will be able to walk through your project in enhanced detail. You may get to check out your project with 3D drawings or walk you through the materials catalogue so that you can better understand the value of each potential material used for your project. Many interior designers also work hard to ensure that your renovation fully reflects your personality and preferences for a personalized look that is intended to reflect your dreams, not a generic look out of a catalogue.

Increased supervision over your project. When you hire an interior designer, they will help keep a close watch over the entire project, allowing you to be more hands-off about the renovation. You can leave things in the capable hands of your designer, freeing you up to take care of other tasks.

A better idea of what you really want and need. When you work with an interior designer, you’ll get their advice and expertise at every stage of the project—and they will take responsibility for ensuring that your renovation is functional as well as beautiful. Often, working with a general contractor means that you will end up with exactly what you asked for and nothing more—and that may mean living with a space that isn’t as functional as you had hoped. From understanding the technical issues that go along with your project, including door positioning and acoustics, to developing a better picture of what your design needs to fit with your theme or to follow safety standards, an interior designer will provide advice during every stage of the process—and they’ll let you know if your design can’t be executed according to your plans without sacrificing function or form along the way.

An interior designer will help take care of all of the paperwork. They can create plans and file paperwork to help move your design process forward. They often deal directly with local contractors, which means they’ll have a better idea of exactly who you should work with to create the renovation of your dreams.

Enhanced beauty in your design. General contractors are often more concerned with function than form—and it shows. While many consider the work they do an opportunity to express themselves creatively, others simply want to execute the designs you’ve already created. An interior designer, on the other hand, will focus on creating an aesthetically pleasing space, which means you’ll be more likely to fall in love with your renovation.

Do you need an interior designer for your next renovation project? Whether you just know that you want something different, you have a specific theme that you’d like to work with, or you’ve already imagined your new space and just need some help executing your plans and turning your dreams into reality, I can help! Contact me today to learn more about how I can help transform your space and create the design you’ve been dreaming of.