When and why might you need it.

We have an announcement to make; Studio Dean is a team of Architectural Designers. We don’t usually care much for labels, but feel that it is important to wave this flag so that everyone knows what we do and how we do it.

In this post, we introduce our perhaps lesser-known breed of Architectural Designers and also explain the roles of Interior Decorators, Interior Designers, Architects and the lines between them to help you understand the nuance & help you decide which one you need.

INTERIOR DECORATION

Interior Decoration is great if you want help updating a room or home, picking colours and soft furnishings and changing the look of your space. They will get the perfect wallpaper up on your walls, have your curtains made up and make your home look beautiful but they won’t change your floorplan, or your life.

WHEN YOU NEED INTERIOR DECORATION

If your room needs a refresh and you don’t know where to start. You simply want to change the wall colours or paper, get a new colour scheme and maybe switch out some furniture and floor coverings. There won’t be any need to knock anything down or build anything.

Life impact: 1/5

Dust: 2/5

Cost: 2/5

INTERIOR DESIGN

Interior Design goes a step further, suggesting bespoke alterations such as custom furniture and may move a doorway, window or even a stud wall to create new spaces, but generally work with the space they have without changing the fabric of the building. They will design and curate the interiors and create a look and feel for your home and often arrange for the work to be done for you.

WHEN YOU NEED INTERIOR DESIGN

You want to pull together a look and feel for your whole home and need help curating and designing the right look, materials and fittings.

Life impact: 3/5

Dust: 3/5

Cost: 3/5

ARCHITECT

Architects are a much needed resource where extensions and builds are taking place, they are focussed with how a building looks from the outside and how the build takes place. In terms of the interior they will often label up spaces and show scale by adding furniture to the floorplans but they do not obsess over the interior detailing, often that element of things is led by the clients - we’ve all seen Grand Designs - amazing externals but your old knackered furniture inside!

Architects work closely with the wider teams on projects & we often get involved in projects in which a home has been designed by architects and we are asked to develop the interior architecture as the plans internally need refining to bring them up to the externals potential - we love this kind of collaboration!

WHEN YOU NEED AN ARCHITECT

You want to build a whole (or part of a) new home.

We always suggest working with a whole team before you rush off to planning, getting your architecture plans and interior architecture in place first, before rushing down the planning route saves so much time (and money!) in amendments further down the line. And if you get in there before early with your Interior Architecture, you can achieve the ultimate dream of having a laundry room upstairs!

Life impact: 3/5

Dust: 5/5

Cost: 5/5

INTERIOR ARCHITETURE

Hello! This is us! We love the explanation of Architectural Interior Design as ‘if you were to take the space, turn it upside down and shake it, the interior architecture is everything that doesn’t fall out’.

Of course, we also manage all the things that do fall out – the furniture, soft furnishings, colour schemes etc. - but we just get to it after we have transformed your everyday life through functional Spatial Planning. Architectural Interior Designers don’t necessarily have architectural qualifications or belong to ARB or RIBA but come with a wealth of experience in the industry, CAD skills and a different mindset and focus to the other team members.

In plans from your Interior Architectural firm you’ll see walls, doors, windows, beds in the optimum spatial position, and go a step further to show the best places for headboards, consoles, coffee nooks, TV suited to view positions, the perfect spot for your laundry rooms and more... showing everything to paint a picture of how your life will be made easier through this layout.

With a focus on how you live, Interior Architecture will always think first about how you flow within a space. Not about how it looks, but what it is used for. What problem is it solving? To do this we get to know the people living in the space and their daily habits. Do they spend all of their time in the kitchen and never use the dining room? How can we change the flow to ensure all of your real estate is being used effectively - we want you to use every single inch of your home.

We often ask a family to keep a tally for a week of how many times they use each room in their house. They are often amazed at how many spaces are unused. We also create spaces to help you. If you use a Peloton in your bedroom every day but have an unused ensuite in a guest room, why not create a mini gym? If your husband has to walk around your side of the bed to get dressed for his early shifts and disturbs you, why not move things around or create a dressing room space.

Often Architects are brought in to design extensions. They will do an absolutely great job in creating said extension but often we find the extension is not really needed, it is how the space is being used that is not working rather than the need for the extended space.

At Studio Dean we are ‘inside out’ kind of people, we will come in and work with the family to see if they really need to extend, or if that money would be better spent on making their existing space more efficient. It’s our job to truly understand the clients’ lives, needs and daily actions and fix any problems that their current space causes. Of course, if an extension will help, then go for it. We will simply ensure that it works beautifully for you every day with maximum functionality.

Once we have the layout and functionality planned and signed off by the client, we move on to making it all breathtakingly beautiful and selecting the best colours, papers, hard and soft furnishings, and accessories. We can work with you until the last cushion is plumped and you are skipping around your new home with joy.

WHEN YOU NEED INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

You rang?

We believe that it is the Interior Architecture of a space that will truly elevate your life every day, so you should get this planned out whilst also working with a wider team making the exterior look wonderful too. My ongoing mantra of you live IN your house not looking AT it is heard so many times in a working week I think the team here must fall asleep hearing my voice saying it. Bring us in first, allow us to work out if you even need the extension or if in fact some reworking of what you have will solve the every day issues and free up some budget to spend on what you interact with daily vs. making more space you don’t really need.

We are of course, biased. We love the work we do and are especially handy when you’re considering remodel. As one client so kindly said, we ‘solve problems we did not even realise we had’. We will think about how you move through the space, whether that range cooker is really the best option, if the staircase being where it is now is causing flow issues, if you need bi-folds or simply a large window to connect to the outdoors - fully glazed walls look fab, but create a whole surface that you can’t use for anything else.

It takes us a lot of thought to perfectly landscape your interior. We use CAD and will often work through 30 or 40 iterations (I am a self professed obsessive) of a layout, looking at how you will move within the space, and what is most effective for function, cost and finally aesthetically. We will always look for the most cost-effective options and present you with the option we feel works best for you and your family.

Life impact: 5/5

Dust: 4/5

Cost: 4/5

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Like any project, it is important to get the right person in to do the right job for you to save time, stress and cost. Knowledge is power and I hope that this blog post will help you see the wood for the trees when it comes to home renovation.

Stay savvy out there! If you need any architectural interior design help, you know where we are.

Until next time,