I can't tell you how many times people have referred to me as a decorator, because they simple don't understand that there is a difference between the two. But in fact, there is quite a large difference between the two from education, to practice, and what our jobs entail. The NCIDQ describes the difference between the two professions the best: "Many people use the terms "interior design" and "interior decorating" interchangeably, but these professions differ in critical walls. Interior design is the art and science of understanding people's behavior to create functional spaces within a building. Decorating is the furnishing or adorning of a space with fashionable or beautiful things. In short, interior designers may decorate, but decorators do not design.

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This one I truly do not understand. So many people think that we just give advice and don’t actually do any work, which also brings us back to the point I made earlier. Lots of people ask me to come to their homes for a consultation where they show me their space, tell me what they want it to look like or what they don’t like about it, and then I answer all of their questions and give them ideas based off of my opinion. For many people, that’s all they think an interior designer does. So they meet with several different interior designers and just repeat the process until they think they’re ready to tackle it themselves. But here is my question for you: how exactly do you plan on executing the design if you don’t have a complete understanding of it?

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I realize that this may seem a little backwards, spending additional money to hire someone to do the work that you could potential do yourself doesn’t sound like you would be saving money. But in reality, hiring a professional designer who has lots of training and experience will prevent you from making costly mistakes. It could be something as simple as having to repaint because the colour you’ve selected doesn’t look quite right, or something a little more costly, like buying the wrong sized furniture or a sectional aligned the wrong way.

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