How many interior designers do you meet before making a decision?

I feel it really depends on getting the right kind of interior designer you need. Not all interior designers will share the same chemistry with you, for example if design is important to you, then you will need a "real" designer in order to click. For my home, I had to meet up with 8 designers before I settled on my perfect one, haha. It didn't take as much time and effort as more than half of them I had eliminated after the first meeting as it became clear 1) we were not on the same wavelength 2) they didn't understand what i needed. just my 2 cents; good luck on your renovation journey!

We went through 4 interior designers but i would say there isn't a fix or standard number to speak to before deciding on one that is suitable for your home.

It's like dating, some people marry the first girl they met, while others simply takes a few to find their ideal partner 😄

My husband and I met up with 7 IDs before deciding on the right one. In my experience its not easy to meet the designer with the right chemistry, and in the end I'm thankful we went through the whole process because my reno turned out to be really smooth.

Some red flags I had with other IDs I (thankfully) rejected

We met less than 5 haha, tiring to meet a lot sia. But for those we met we did quite some research on them (positive reviews, good number of complete projects, projects designs looks good) before we make settle on one to discuss further. I realise some firms are a hit and miss, need to see which designer they assigned to you.

Only 1 lol, cause my friend recommend one. Lazy to look around also if he say good should be not bad la

I would recommend evaluating your designers carefully, especially on their past work and portfolio. Some designers show you the portfolio but it is not actually done by them. It might be from colleagues or sometimes even projects taken from the internet.

Question them regarding the profiles of owners whom they have designed for, what were their requirements and what the designer did to fulfil those requirements. You will be surprised a lot of designers have no idea about these. If needed in situations like when minimal reviews of the designer (not the company) can be found on Hometrust, I would even request contract info of their past clients to verify the work done and satisfaction. Some might think this is a bit over, but if I am paying 40K to 60K or upwards for a service and product, especially one that cant refund or redo, I will want to be more cautious.

Personally, me and SO went to 12 different IDs (I totally regretted this, I will suggest you find around 4-5 quotes is enough liao) and shortlisted 3 in the end. Surprisingly in the end the one with signed with was the most expensive one out of those 3.

Got nagged by my SO for my decision also, but I managed to convinced her that I'm very comfortable with them and their proposal. In the end it would still be the ID you are most comfortable with.

Yup my reno is coming up soon ...i'm not going to shortlist too many IDs. Preferably 6-8. A few more just in case some ID only renovates atas place and not HDB. Heard some ID firms only do for condos and landed...but not HDB!!

After that, i would need to speak to ID personally and see whether the ID can address my space concerns and easy maintenance.

Most importantly, from the conversation, you can roughly gauge the person personality, whether they are listening to your issues or just forcing their designs on u.