The terms architect, interior designer and interior decorator are bandied around today in relation to such a huge spectrum of projects that it’s hard to quite know what each of them do and who you should call on if you are about to start a project. If it’s pulling down walls and rethinking the layout of a one-bedroom flat, perhaps you want to enlist an architect to help you get the most out of every inch of the footprint? But can you ask your architect to also advise on wall colours and curtains? Perhaps not. So if what you need is help with palettes and furniture choices, should an interior designer be your first port of call? What about an interior decorator? It’s a term that now feels a little old-fashioned, but was all the rage in the 20th century, especially in relation to the great lady decorators such as Syrie Maugham and Nancy Lancaster, and it’s a term that still continues to be used by some of the more traditional decorating firms today including Pimlico Road’s Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler.
If this is all sounding rather complicated, then worry not. Perhaps the best place to start is to unpack exactly what skills are specific to an architect, interior designer and interior decorator. Let’s start with an architect. ‘If you tip a dolls’ house upside down, everything that remains and doesn’t fall to the floor, is what the architect should be responsible for,’ explains George Saumarez Smith, the classical architect and Design Director of architecture practice ADAM Architecture. In other words, architects are responsible for the structure, the flow and layout of a house, but also all the crucial nuts and bolts that are so vital to its functioning, such as drainage, insulation and the integration of utilities. Often, finishes also fall under their remit – be that wood floors, tiles, panelling details or plasterwork and cornices. If you’re thinking of starting a build from scratch or significantly remodelling an existing house and adding floors or digging down, it’s probably wise to get an architect on board.
Very often an interior designer might work closely alongside an architect, but Emma Burns, interior decorator and joint MD of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler – who regularly collaborates on projects with architects – is keen to stress that both should be commissioned at the same point. ‘It’s so important that you have conversations from the start about how the final interior will look,’ says Emma. ‘If your curtains are going to work, you don’t want a stonking radiator to be underneath.’
Even quite large structural changes, such as moving a staircase, don’t necessarily need an architect. ‘So long as you have a sensible designer who can draw it up and a good structural engineer who can flag up problem areas, you’ll be fine,’ suggests Emma. ‘There is an awful lot you can do without getting an architect involved, as the scope of an interior designer has increased so much now,’ she adds. ‘It’s so rare that we’d ever have a job where some rejigging wouldn’t give you a better result, so we’re experienced at it.’ Architectural designer Ben Pentreath – he isn’t RIBA qualified so uses this term rather than architect, despite running one of Britain’s most successful architecture and interior design companies – takes it one step further. ‘Very often, there’s no practical difference at all between a designer and an architect – except that the latter has qualifications and the first may not,’ he says.
When it comes to interior design, it’s typically defined – if we use the logic that George applies to architecture – by everything that would fall out of a house if you tipped it upside down, plus what’s on the walls, whether that be paint, wallpaper, fabric or a specialist finish. ‘It includes many fixed elements, including lighting and hard finishes,’ explains Emma. For Patrick Williams, founder of Bath-based interiors practice Berdoulat, which specialises in period buildings, he sees today’s interior design defined by ‘mood boards, colour schemes, swatches of fabric, juxtaposed with proposed furniture, tiles, light fittings and so on.’ A designer is also responsible for providing solutions that will make daily life better, ranging from ensuring cupboards are in the right places to carving out enough storage in your bedroom or kitchen. ‘Where an architect can almost blind you with science and make you feel like you’re not qualified to challenge it with practical requests, a designer will seek to find solutions to create an environment that works for your life and will snuffle out all the pitfalls that might be frustrating in daily life,’ says Emma. ‘Strangely, the design and decoration bit of a project is very practical.’
Next to the role of an interior decorator, which is how Emma defines herself. ‘It’s more old fashioned and modest, but perhaps there is little difference between a designer and a good decorator really,’ admits Emma. ‘Decoration is something that can be easily carried out of a room, unclipped or removed, while the design is a bit more integrated and might include wall colour, floor tiles, finishes and painting,’ suggests Patrick. Emma, along with the entire Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler team, does all of this and much more and part of the reason they still refer to themselves as decorators is that there is a certain nostalgia and charm to it – ‘from the early days [in the 1930s], our decorators have always been known as such and interior design is more of a recent and expanded term,’ explains Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler’s Chairman Wendy Nicholls. ‘Decoration is the realisation of a concept, a mood, an atmosphere – it’s adorment of an item, a building or a room, while design is the production of drawings following a concept to enable something to be made,’ she adds. Of course, the team at Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler offer both. ‘For the majority of design and decoration, it is not possible to do one without the other,’ explains Emma.
Still, decorator is a term that often crops up and Ben Pentreath suggests the difference between that and designer could just be a case of both semantics and status. ‘Decorators are rather smart, as opposed to interior designers who are rather ubiquitous nowadays,’ explains Ben, who admits to calling himself a decorator. ‘Maybe decoration is old money and interior design is new money,’ he adds. ‘And let’s face it, old school decorators, like John Fowler and David Hicks, were much better at designing buildings than nearly every architect.’
Clearly it’s a thorny issue and the roles of architect, designer and decorator certainly blur. Patrick Williams suggests that there is an unncecessary silo between the world of architecture and interior design. ‘The two practices couldn’t be more intertwined,’ he suggests. ‘Trying to separate them is like a chef that would make a starter, but never a main,’ he adds. ‘It strikes me as rather bizarre that the architect who is responsible for the extremely practical bits like drainage and insulation, is also the person responsible for vital aesthetic decisions.’ Patrick suggests that the way that interior design and architecture are taught has resulted in them being ‘strange entities’ that are kept separate. ‘I feel it’s important that the person choosing the curtain fabric, should also be responsible for the moulding of dado rail, even if it’s attached to the wall and traditionally the role of the architect.’
The processes of design and architecture are interwoven and Patrick suggests that it might be more straightforward to dissolve such titles and instead have ‘one person responsible for the entire aesthetic, another for practicality and a third for execution and construction.’ Ben Pentreath agrees that there is little point becoming obsessed with people’s qualifications and job titles when looking for the right person to help on a project. ‘I think the best approach is to look at people’s work, and if necessary, ask to speak to former clients for references – which is far more powerful, after all, than having the letters RIBA after a name.’ So that’s the takeaway – assess the scope of your work, think about what you need and don’t get too hung up on professional titles when it comes to choosing who to commission for your project.
benpentreath.com; sibylcolefaxxc.com; berdoulat.co.uk; adamarchitecture.com
