Kieran McCarthy: Do I need an interior designer and why?

Kieran McCarthy breaks down the benefits of having an interior designer in the home building process

Depending on your own design flair, the minimum you may need an interior designer for is to help with paint colours and fabrics. These can be difficult to get right at the best of times and nowadays the choice is phenomenal.

Hi Kieran We’re planning for our home build at the moment.

At what stage during the process should we involve an interior designer?

Thanks,

Carmel, Midleton

Hi Carmel Thanks for your question. So let me add some colour to this discussion. I will firstly outline the different levels of design in a home build (depending on budget) and then outline when the different designers are needed in the process.

Engineer

The simplest way to design and manage your new build is to employ an engineer. They will design a simple house for you, get it through the planning system, then supervise and certify the build on site.

This is definitely the most cost effective way to design and manage a project on site.

Architect

If however you want a more elaborate design consisting of spatial flow, light, and a level of architecture then you certainly need to engage with an architect. In fact I would highly advise going down this route if your budget allows.

Getting all the spaces right internally and designing them around the path of the sun is paramount for a wonderful living space — and you get one chance to get this right.

To execute a project this way you can either have the architect design your house and get planning permission for you and then engage with an engineer thereafter or indeed you could have your architect on site alongside the engineer if you felt the project would benefit from that set-up.

Interior designer

The next level of design input, and to answer your question, is adding an interior designer to the mix. Depending on your own design flair, the minimum you may need an interior designer for is to help with paint colours and fabrics. These can be difficult to get right at the best of times and nowadays the choice is phenomenal.

The designer can help with kitchen and utility design, furniture layouts, electrical and lighting design, flooring and bathrooms, stairs and wardrobes, and maybe even some help with the patio furniture

Yes the shops are a great help but an interior designer will certainly take it up a gear or two.

To expand out the brief here you could in fact involve an interior designer once you have received planning permission, which is what people often do. This way the designer can help with kitchen and utility design, furniture layouts, electrical and lighting design, flooring and bathrooms, wardrobes and stairs, and maybe even some help with the patio furniture. This will certainly cover most bases when it comes to internal fit out.

If you want to take it to the ultimate level, and if budget allowed, you could involve an interior designer from the beginning of a house design.

Once you have your plans and elevations in place could ask your interior designer to review them. Now they will likely move walls, windows ... perhaps even the stairs. Every room will be considered and checked to ensure it works internally.

Kieran McCarthy: "The shops are a great help but an interior designer will certainly take it up a gear or two." Picture: iStock

It could in fact involve removing some windows to allow for joinery placement; or changing doorways to allow for a simpler access to a walk-in wardrobe and en suite whilst allowing for more storage. These are elements that are not generally highest on the priority list when an architect is designing a house with a planning permission journey in mind.

Project manager

Bear in mind that the more designers you have the more you will need the input of a project manager.

There are a lot of designers on board now, all going in different directions and it may be that you will also need a landscape designer at this level of design and project spend. The project manager will be needed to keep everything moving along efficiently and on budget.

For me the most important aspect of a house design is to get the spatial flow and light right. But definitely, the next step here is to speak to an interior designer.

If you don’t it may take a few years before you see the shortcomings but then it may be costly to fix some of these problems. Trust me, I speak from experience here.

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Building engineer Kieran McCarthy is the director of KMC Homes

• Kieran McCarthy is a building engineer, and director of KMC Homes, who specialise in designing and building luxury homes in Cork. He also presents the RTÉ TV show ‘Heat My Home’, showcasing deep retrofits in Irish homes; kmchomes.ie
• @kierankmc has more home-building tips, information, and Q&A advice;
• Follow Kieran on the ‘Built Around You’ Youtube channel.