When everyone becomes a designer, who remains responsible for the design?
There is a phase in almost every interior project that I have come to recognise very well. The design has been discussed. The drawings are ready. The materials have been selected. The spaces have been thought through as a whole.
And then, suddenly, the opinions begin.
The painter suggested this colour. He said it will look very good.
The POP contractor said we should make this ceiling differently.
The carpenter says this design will be more practical.
The electrician thinks we should put the lights here.
And sometimes the client starts changing the design based on these suggestions. I understand why this happens.
A home is personal. Clients are investing their money, their emotions and their expectations into it. Naturally, they want to discuss every decision. And contractors, painters, carpenters and electricians bring something valuable to the table too—their experience of execution. But there is an important difference between knowing how to execute something and knowing why something should be designed a certain way. That difference often gets overlooked.
A painter knows paint. An architect sees the room. A painter may know which colour looks beautiful on a wall. But an architect is looking at that colour in relation to the flooring, furniture, natural light, artificial lighting, ceiling height, proportions, adjacent spaces and the overall visual language of the house. A POP contractor may know how to make a particular ceiling. But the architect is thinking about how that ceiling relates to the room’s scale, lighting, furniture placement, sightlines and the architecture around it. A carpenter may know how to make a cabinet efficiently. But the designer is also thinking about its proportion, visual weight, functionality, circulation and relationship with everything else in the room. None of these people are wrong. They are simply looking at the project from different perspectives. And that distinction matters.
Design is not a collection of individual decisions One of the biggest misconceptions about interior design is that it is about selecting beautiful things.
A beautiful colour.
A beautiful light.
A beautiful ceiling.
A beautiful sofa.
A beautiful wall.
But design is not about making every individual element beautiful in isolation. It is about making all of those elements belong together. A colour that looks beautiful in another house may completely change the character of your room. A ceiling that looks impressive in a photograph may make your particular room feel smaller. A lighting idea that sounds good may create shadows exactly where you don’t want them. A piece of furniture may look beautiful on its own but disturb the proportions of the entire space. That is why an architect’s job is not simply to answer, “What will look good?” It is to ask: “What will work here?”
The difficult part is not always designing. Sometimes it is standing by the design. This is something I have personally struggled with. When you repeatedly hear suggestions from people around the project, you can start questioning yourself.
Maybe their idea is better.
Maybe the client is right.
Maybe I should just go along with it.
And when your professional opinion is repeatedly questioned, it can slowly turn into self-doubt.
Sometimes the situation becomes so frustrating that I have chosen to walk away from a project. Not because I don’t value other opinions. But because there comes a point where an architect needs to be able to take responsibility for the design. If I am responsible for the design, I also need the space to design. Collaboration is important. But collaboration does not mean everyone designs everything. I believe a good project should always involve discussion.
Clients should ask questions.
Contractors should point out execution difficulties.
Carpenters should suggest better construction solutions.
Electricians should highlight technical concerns.
Painters can share their knowledge about finishes and application.
All of that is valuable. But the final design needs a clear design direction. Otherwise, the project becomes a collection of suggestions rather than a cohesive space. There is a simple distinction I have started reminding myself of:
Execution expertise deserves respect.
Design expertise deserves trust.
And the best projects happen when both work together.
To the clients who are reading this Question your architect.
Ask why a particular colour has been chosen.
Ask why the light is placed there.
Ask why the ceiling is being kept simple.
Ask why one material has been selected over another.
You have every right to understand the decisions being made in your home. But instead of saying, “The painter says this will look better,” perhaps ask your architect: “What do you think will work better here, and why?”
That creates a conversation. And that is very different from replacing professional design decisions with suggestions made during execution. And perhaps this is something I need to remind myself too.
An architect cannot control every opinion that enters a project. And frankly, that would be impossible.
There will always be someone who wants a different colour, a different ceiling, a different light or a different sofa.
Everyone suddenly becomes an architect once a project is underway. That’s fine. Opinions are free.
The real challenge is knowing which ones to listen to, which ones to politely park and which ones to completely forget.
Because a space is not a collection of individual decisions. The colour, ceiling, lights, furniture, materials… everything has to work together.
That, really, is what the ARCHITECT is there for.
Not to know everything.
Not to win every argument.
Just to make sure that by the time everyone has had their say, the design still makes sense.
Thanks for reading ♥
Follow us on intagram at Thoughtsaligned01
