A Designer's Worth

I’m going to say the thing that you’re never supposed to say. I was a tax accountant for nearly a decade and I never prepared my tax return myself. I still don’t. But before you say that’s crazy - hear me out.

I specialized in partnership taxation, which probably doesn’t mean a lot to most people, but what it actually means was I never really learned the ins and outs of individual tax returns. So I was faced with a choice: to spend the time learning the nuance of my return, making sure I caught all the intricacies, or to hire a specialist to do it for me and lean on their expertise. I chose the latter. You might think that crazy, and to some it was, but I knew that I didn’t have the insights that they gained through study and experience. I could invest my time and figure it out, but I valued my time, and I knew that they would be able to better ensure that I took advantage of all the tax benefits that were available to me. They would do it better.

When you hire a professional like an accountant it’s easy to pinpoint the value that they have to offer. There is a knowledge base that’s assumed that goes beyond the basic skill of just “being good with numbers." However, I often find that people have a more difficult time understanding the value that an interior designer brings to a job.

A lot of times, it seems that a designer’s role is reduced in one’s mind to being a decorator - and I am in no way knocking the value of an interior decorator, that is a skill that has a lot of value. People are quick to say “I don’t need a designer, I can do it myself” without really understanding our role in the process. Interior designers, as a professor of mine loves to say, design people spaces. We’re trained to understand how a space functions, how people move through a space, how to maximize a space’s use, and - oh yeah - how to make it look magnificent. We concept, we plan, we organize, we project manage, and we crisis manage (because let’s face it, hiccups happen). We do this over and over and we learn from each job, constantly improving and striving to do better. We have experience and insight that goes way beyond just having a good eye.

Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying everyone needs an interior designer. Some people have a good understanding of space and a keen eye for detail and design, and some people, even if they don’t, will put in the legwork to do the research, ask the right questions, cross all their t’s, and dot all their i’s. They may not want or need an interior designer’s insights or assistance. What I am saying is don’t discount the value that an interior designer brings to the table. It’s not actually as simple as it looks.