Hiring an interior designer is one of the most significant decisions you will make in the process of creating a home. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Most people who have never worked with a designer before arrive at the process with a combination of excitement and anxiety, excited about what the result might be, anxious about the cost, the process, what they are actually paying for and whether they are making the right choice.

One of the most common questions homeowners ask before hiring an interior designer is how much it is going to cost. It is also one of the hardest questions to answer honestly, because the range across Europe is genuinely vast, and because the way designers charge varies as much as the fees themselves.

The title architect is one of the most legally protected professional designations in most European countries. To call yourself an architect you must complete a degree programme of a minimum of five years, followed in most countries by a period of supervised practical experience and a professional examination. The protection exists because the work of architects directly affects the safety, functionality and permanence of buildings, and because the consequences of getting it wrong are expensive at best and dangerous at worst.

Finding the right contractor is one of the most important and most stressful parts of any renovation project. The horror stories are well known. Projects that run months over schedule. Budgets that expand by fifty percent without warning. Work that has to be done twice because it was not done correctly the first time. Contractors who disappear after the first payment.