How to choose an interior designer in Brighton

If you are thinking about starting a renovation – first of all, congratulations! However, finding the right interior designer for your project can be tricky, especially if it's your first time trying to do a project of that scale.

A good interior designer is not there just to make things look pretty – they will become your project's advocate: someone who cares about every detail and is on your side to ensure your home looks good, functions well, and thrives for years.

Knowing who is right for you before you've handed over a deposit is the hard part – and it matters more than most people expect, because the wrong hire can do a lot of damage to your budget, timeframe, and patience. 

Here's what we'd actually look for if we were the ones doing the hiring.

Ask what they actually do, day to day

"Interior designer" covers an enormous range of services, and not every studio offers the same thing. Some focus purely on decoration – soft furnishings, colour, styling.  Others design joinery, consider built changes, produce tender documentation, lighting plans, and specify hard finishes.

Before you get attached to anyone, work out what you actually need. A styling-only consultation is a very different engagement from a full project management service that oversees contractors and sign-off on-site. 

Ask directly: do they manage trades, or do they hand over drawings and step back? Do they source and procure furniture themselves, or leave that to you? Neither model is wrong, but mismatched expectations are one of the most common reasons projects go sideways.

Local knowledge is worth more than it sounds

Brighton's housing stock is distinctive – a lot of Regency and Victorian conversions, tight terraces, listed building restrictions in certain conservation areas, and a coastal climate that's genuinely harder on materials than people expect.

A designer who's worked across the city already knows which conservation officers are strict about sash windows, which trades are reliable around here, and how salt air behaves.

That local knowledge saves you time and, often, money. It means fewer surprises, and fewer material choices that fail within a couple of years of coastal exposure.

Check the working relationship

A good portfolio gets someone shortlisted. What keeps a project running smoothly is the working relationship, and that's harder to assess from a website.

During an initial conversation, notice how they respond to pushback. Do they listen when you disagree, or do they talk over it? Are they honest about budget constraints early, or do the numbers keep creeping once you're committed? Do they ask you questions about how you actually live – where the mess collects, who works from home, whether you entertain often – or do they mainly talk about how nice their finished work is? 

The best working relationships in this industry look a lot like a good business partnership: clear boundaries, honest communication, and mutual respect for expertise on both sides. You bring the knowledge of how you live. They bring the knowledge of how to make a space work for you.

Get clear on fees before you get attached

Fee structures vary a lot across the industry – flat project fees, hourly rates, percentage of build cost, or a retail markup on furniture and materials. None of these is inherently better, but they behave very differently depending on your project.

A percentage-of-spend model, for instance, means the designer has no incentive to keep costs down. A flat fee protects you from that but might not suit a project with a genuinely undefined scope. Ask how changes and revisions are billed, too – mid-project scope changes are common, and it's worth knowing upfront whether that means a renegotiation or a quiet addition to the invoice.

Get it in writing before you sign anything. A studio confident in its process won't mind explaining its fees clearly, in plain language, before you've committed to anything.

Look past the pretty pictures

The images on a designer's website and socials will always be their choice for their finest work – but it might not be exactly what you are looking for.

Not every finished project makes it to the site – and some final results don’t agree to being shared publicly. That means in a private consultation, you might get more information if a designer you like has worked on a property similar to yours before – even if the site doesn’t mention it. 

Look for range within a point of view. A designer who's only ever done bright, minimal new-builds might struggle with your Regency townhouse's cornicing and uneven floors. Equally, someone whose entire portfolio is heritage restoration may not be the right fit if you want something more contemporary. 

The beautiful finished project photos won’t show you the messy middle – the decisions, the compromises, the ideal item that couldn’t get delivered for six months. These stories will tell you more about how a designer works than any photo will. 

Remember: you're not looking for someone who can do everything. You're looking for someone whose taste already overlaps with yours, applied to spaces that resemble your own.

Trust the small signals

Beyond the practical checklist, pay attention to the small things. Did they reply to your enquiry within a reasonable time? Was the initial consultation genuinely about your home, or did it feel like a sales pitch? Did they ask good questions, or did they seem more interested in telling you about themselves?

These details are a preview of what working together will actually feel like over the months a renovation or full design project can take. A studio that gets the small things right early tends to get the big things right later, too.

What this looks like at Studio Fiveways

We work across Brighton and the surrounding areas, on projects ranging from single-room refreshes to full-house renovations, with a particular focus on the city's period properties. Every project starts with a consultation, so we can understand how you actually live before we talk about anything else – including price.

If you're weighing up designers right now, we'd rather answer your questions honestly than sell you on a pitch. Get in touch, and we'll talk it through.