Photography: Richard Waite
Some descriptions of personalised design reduce an interior designer's role to listening: the client explains what they like, the designer interprets it, and the project follows. Listening is essential, but not enough. If a client knew precisely what their house should be, there would be little reason to employ a designer. Residential interior design is unusually personal, involving somebody's home, money and decisions they will live with for decades. That responsibility can make agreeing tempting. Comfort, however, is not always the same as good service.
A client may believe a room needs to be larger when the real problem is a lack of openness, or ask for more downlights when the concern is practicality rather than atmosphere. They may love a stone, sofa or light fitting that suits them but not the composition. The preference should not be dismissed. Once its intention is understood, a designer can often satisfy it more successfully than the proposal itself.
Guidance differs from imposing taste. The purpose is not to persuade clients to live as the designer would, but to make the home more particular to its inhabitants. When two people bring different habits and preferences, the designer may need to find a shared language neither would have reached alone. The decisions become personal because they have been examined, not simply accepted.
In Layered Poise, the brief called for elegance without formality in a family home. That intention was resolved through connected decisions: library joinery, tailored upholstery, adaptable furniture and thoughtful storage. Even the hallway window seat gives a transitional space a practical purpose while belonging to the wider character of the house. Daily life and visual composition were treated as parts of the same problem.
Guidance also requires knowing which battles are worth fighting. Not every preference needs to be challenged, and a designer who argues every point soon becomes as unhelpful as one who questions nothing. There are decisions where the client's instinct should simply lead, and others where experience reveals consequences that are not yet obvious.
Moving a doorway might seem minor until it compromises the furniture plan. Raising a kitchen island changes its relationship with seating. A different floor finish can affect thresholds, skirtings and the way light moves through several rooms. A client should not be expected to anticipate all of that. Part of the designer's role is to see several decisions ahead and protect the integrity of the whole.
Guidance also means introducing possibilities a client would not encounter alone. People can usually ask only for things they already know exist, drawn from houses, hotels, magazines and an endless digital catalogue. A designer should widen that field with a material never considered, a maker never encountered, or a colour rejected on a sample card. These are often the moments when trust matters most.
Trust does not mean the client stops questioning decisions, nor that the designer is always right. I have changed my mind when an objection revealed something I had overlooked. Strong projects are conversations, and expertise should not make them one-sided. But expertise carries an obligation. If I believe a decision will compromise the house, the client deserves to hear it clearly. If I see a better possibility, I have a responsibility to show it.
Personalised service is sometimes described as giving clients exactly what they want. I think it asks more of a designer: listening closely enough to understand what matters, recognising what may not work, offering a better alternative, and knowing when to insist and when to let go. The aim is for the designer and client to arrive somewhere neither could have reached quite as convincingly alone.
Daniel Kostiuc Interior Design is a luxury interior design studio based in Brisbane, offering residential interior design and interior decoration across Queensland, Australia and internationally. Services include new builds, renovations, and complete furnishing projects, including space planning, custom joinery, bespoke furniture, furniture selection, lighting, art, and accessories for high-end homes.