Choosing an interior designer is choosing a partnership that may run for the better part of a year and shape how you live for far longer. The portfolio is the easy part. Here are the things that actually distinguish a studio worth commissioning — and the questions worth asking before you do.
Look for accreditation
Interior design is an unregulated title in the UK — anyone may use it. Accreditation is one of the few external checks available. Membership of a recognised professional body such as the SBID signals that a studio has been assessed against professional standards. It is not the whole story, but its absence is worth a question.
Ask who actually does the work
There is a real difference between a studio where a director hears your brief and then hands it to a junior, and one where the director holds the project throughout. Director-led delivery means continuity: the person who understands your home at the first meeting is the person managing it at the last. Ask, plainly, who will be on your project day to day — and who you will speak to when something needs deciding.
Insist on real, delivered work
Renders and mood boards show intent; delivered projects show competence. A studio that can point to finished, photographed work — ideally in a sector close to yours — is showing you proof rather than a promise. Tone’s portfolio spans private homes and the kind of hospitality and commercial rooms that have to perform under daily use, not just photograph well.
Demand a costed proposal, not an estimate
This is the single most protective thing you can ask for. An open-ended estimate puts all the risk on you; a fully costed proposal — every product, every trade, every line, fixed before work begins — puts the discipline on the studio. If a designer will not commit to a budget before the build, ask why. We set out the reasoning in what an interior designer costs.
Check the process
A clear, repeatable process is the mark of a studio that has done this many times. Ask how a project runs from first meeting to handover. A credible answer has distinct stages — discovery, design and specification, delivery, handover — not a vague promise to ‘sort it out as we go’. The Tone version is set out in the interior design process, stage by stage.
Match the experience to your project
A studio that excels at contemporary new-builds is not automatically the right choice for a listed townhouse, and the reverse is just as true. Ask whether they have worked on buildings like yours — period or new-build, residential or commercial, occupied or empty — and what that taught them. Relevant experience shortens the learning curve at your expense.
Treat the first meeting as a two-way test
The best first meetings are mutual assessments. You are judging whether you trust the studio with your home and your budget; a good studio is judging whether the project is one it can deliver well. Chemistry matters more than people admit on a commission this long — and a studio confident enough to walk away from the wrong fit is usually the one worth keeping. That is exactly what a Tone Discovery is designed to surface.
The questions worth asking
In short: Are you accredited? Who will actually run my project? Can I see finished work like mine? Will I have a fully costed proposal before the build? What are the stages? Have you worked on a building like this one? The answers, taken together, tell you far more than any portfolio. If you are weighing a project in Essex or London, those six questions are the place to start.