Three Questions to Ask Your Interior Designer
After years in the world of luxury interior design, I’ve seen the transformative power of a well-designed home. A beautifully crafted space does more than elevate your home’s aesthetic—it enhances your quality of life, creating a sanctuary where you can relax surrounded by beauty and highly personal details.
Yet, for many people juggling demanding personal and professional schedules, the road to that dream home can feel anything but effortless. The process of managing a kitchen remodel, bathroom renovation, or full-home redesign is time-consuming and often overwhelming. The sheer number of decisions—from selecting materials to coordinating tradespeople—can leave even the most capable homeowners feeling stuck. Add to that the challenge of finding trustworthy professionals and the fear of costly mistakes, and it’s easy to see why so many projects stall before they even begin.
The good news is, with the right interior designer on board, the process can run smoothly, save you time and money and ensure the end result is one you’ll love for years to come. Simply put, when you hire an interior designer, you are hiring an expert to solve your problem.
While your interior designer should be clear and upfront about project costs, timelines, and deliverables, there are a few key questions we believe are essential to ask.These questions will help you gain a deeper understanding of what the experience of working together will truly be like. Below, we’ll explore these questions and why they’re important.
1. What If I Don’t Love the Design?
This is a valid concern and one that experienced designers know how to address with ease. Great design is a collaborative process rooted in trust and understanding. A good designer doesn’t impose their vision—they listen deeply, taking the time to understand your lifestyle, preferences, and aspirations to create a design that feels authentically yours.
We ask the right questions, uncover patterns in your inspiration images, and use our years of experience to translate everything you share into a design that feels custom- tailored to your lifestyle and preferences. But at times, even with careful collaboration and a thorough onboarding process, there may be moments when an element doesn’t feel quite right—and that’s okay. After all, your home should feel like a true reflection of you, right?
So make sure to understand your designer’s process for edits or making re-selections of items that don’t resonate with you. There should always be a a clear and client-focused process for revisions if you are not 100% happy with what your designer proposes.
At Carla Khabbaz Design House, we want you to LOVE your design and that’s why we begin every project with a highly detailed onboarding process to uncover your unique style, how you live, your needs and wants. By the time we present the design, it reflects a vision uniquely tailored to you. However, we understand that refinements may be needed, which is why we include a dedicated revision period tailored to the service you’ve booked. During this phase, we’ll make adjustments or new selections that seamlessly integrate with the overall design, ensuring your home feels both authentic and perfectly aligned with your lifestyle.
2. What Will You Need From Me, and When?
You’ll want to know what your time commitment will need to be throughout the interior design process. Every designer offers different services with varying levels of support and access so you’ll want to make sure you fully understand when you need to be more hands off or hands on. One of the greatest benefits of working with a full- service interior designer is the time and stress it saves you. However, there are key moments when your input is invaluable to ensure the design reflects your personality and lifestyle. And at other times you will need to make your home available so the designer can gather measurements, meet with tradespeople, and conduct site visits for quality control.
Because the amount of time a client needs to invest can vary depending on the project and service your interior designer is providing, it is a good idea to ask this question up front to gain a clear understanding of their process and at what phases you will be most involved.
Our goal is to keep your involvement focused and manageable, asking for your feedback at critical milestones you’re aware of in advance. We aim to make the experience seamless providing a streamlined process that respects your time. This way, we ensure you can have the freedom to enjoy the journey without feeling overwhelmed by the details.
3. Who handles the final details, like hanging artwork, placing accessories, buying light bulbs, removing packaging material and shipping boxes?
It is important for you to understand what you’ll be responsible for when all the finishing pieces are brought into your home. The term “white glove delivery” means all items are assembled and packaging materials are removed. But you’ll also want to understand the level of service your interior designer provides such as hanging artwork, styling built-ins and bringing accessories for you to consider. You’ll also want to ask if your designer provides an “install day” where everything is delivered at once, if you’ll need to be out of your home, and if there are additional fees.
Believe it or not, the final details of a project are where the magic truly happens. Styling, perfecting furniture placement, and adding thoughtful accessories is what transforms a completed project into a space that feels cohesive, polished, and deeply personal.
At Carla Khabbaz Design House, we offer installation and styling services for our full service projects and all of these details are discussed during a discovery call.
We hope these questions have been helpful if you’re preparing to hire an interior designer now or in the future. We work closely with our full service clients for many months or years and they become like family — designing for them is a privilege and honor we don’t take lightly. We strongly believe the success of a project is anchored in developing authentic relationships with our clients, a seamless process, and a concierge level of service. The result is a beautiful home that feels well-loved and lived-in.
