Online Interior Design Services – Friend or Foe?

So, in an attempt to develop my (3D Visualisation) Freelancing empire and edge ever closer to my overall personal objective of world domination (realistic goals are important, right?), I’ve undertaken a little market research to establish how I can do this (not the world domination part, I’m talking about the Freelancing part).

It’s obvious that my target market is the Interior Designer/Architect.  But what about the increasing online Interior Designer?  This is a very new concept to me, although it would appear that this creative avenue for the Interior Designer has been in existence for quite a few years now.

I don’t know anyone who has witnessed first hand this type of design service but it sounds good…in theory.  Let’s look at the pros and cons (I’ve added a few doodles just to make the overall presentation a little more appealing):

I’m sure there are more Pros and Cons that could be added to my list but that’s what immediately came to mind, from my perspective.  If you can think of any more, drop me a line.  Or better still, if you have experienced an online Interior Design service I’d love to hear from you and what specifically you liked/didn’t like about this service.

Generally speaking the charges for an online design service start at approx. £100 (basic design advice for one room) up to £350 (again, one room but this cost usually involves the re-design of a kitchen or bathroom).  Many of the Interior Designers offer presentation boards (concept design, samples etc.), floor plans, furniture layout, lighting plans, lists of stockists and helpful hints/tips.

As I undertook my research, one thing became very clear: very few of the Interior Designers offered 3D Visualisation.  I would have thought that this element of design would be essential for an online service of this nature, surely?  Maybe the Interior Designers disregarded the provision of 3D Visuals to keep the costs down.  That seems to be a recurring theme as to why Interior Designers in general don’t tend to outsource, particularly for smaller projects.

Just out of curiosity, I have put together a little poll for all of you, my lovely readers/followers to gauge the general opinion of online Interior Design services.