The key to a perfect interior designer is whether they listen and communicate well or not. Once you've found someone whose works approach is what you are looking for, here comes the test. The goal is to avoid egocentric designers whose only aim is to leave their artistic mark everywhere, without adapting to their clients' eyes, without hearing their voices.
In order to save your house from becoming a design laboratory, this is what you'll be paying attention to, once you know the designer's style goes well with your taste: you'll look for someone who listens to what you say and translates your wishes into design concepts. It doesn't mean he or she should be mute; they are expected to give you advice, interpret what you're trying to express, and thus suggest certain designs for you. In other words, we're talking about a communicative person, willing to participate actively in the process while capable of listening to your personal ideas. For this to take place, it's advisable that you open your eyes and ears, too. Visit your friends' houses and ask them (if you like their interior designs) who they hired to do the job. Ask them for references, how he or she works, if they were organized and communicative.
Who's asking the questions?
If you find yourself asking a lot of questions, and later you get the feeling that if you hadn't asked them, the designer wouldn't have thought of the answers, then it's possible that you're not dealing with a proactive person.
Also, if he or she lets you interfere too much, that's not a good sign either. It means they don't care that much about the process, and they just want to get done with it. It is important to consider what you feel when the designer walks into your house. Does he or she look down on your current interior design? Are they getting ready to erase everything? Or do they try to find your soul there, the elements where your essense is, in order to preserve it?
Getting involved
The interior of your house isn't merely about decorations. Interior designers in Seattle, New York, or Los Angeles will tell you that each thing has a specific weight, a temperature; every color creates a climate, and every surface resembles a landscape, but it's the landscape within, that can only be modified and changed by you. If a stranger arrives at your valley and turns it into a sea, or takes your open horizon and surrounds it with the leaves of a wood, you'll feel suddenly invaded. A good designer understands this, so he or she will ask you to be there during the whole process, accompanying and guiding them.
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