The Difference Between an Interior Designer and a Home Stylist
Did you know they’re not the same thing?
If you’re like me, you know what an interior designer is, what they do, and you’d never hire one. You’re a DIY-er. You might not be making your furniture from scratch or even putting it together yourself, but you’re handling all the logistics, creativity and execution a designer would if you hired them. That’s DIY.
When people ask what I do, I say, “I’m a holistic home stylist!” And they say, “Oh, you do interior design!”
Well, no, not exactly.
Think about a fashion designer vs a stylist:
The fashion designer is sourcing the fabrics, taking measurements, ordering buttons and zippers, sewing seams and making sure the garment fits. At the very least, they’re creating the template, accounting for every aspect of how the piece will be built and will look when it’s done.
A stylist takes those already finished pieces and arranges them for a client in a way that’s unique and authentic to the person they’re working with. A designer can do this too, but a stylist isn’t sitting down to design the piece start to finish.
This is similar to the way interior designers are different from home stylists.
What That Means for Your House
Ok, here’s where I’ll take creative liberty and give you some facts with a healthy dose of my personal opinions mixed in:
When you hire a designer, you can expect to pay service fees, commit to preferred vendors, outsource most decisions, deal with timelines you don’t control, and put a lot of trust into someone with the expectation that you’ll love the final result.
My take?
Designers are expensive as hell, and when I imagine working with one, I’m completely bored in my head. Interior design feels so stuffy to me — too full of rules, and procedures and a lot of grand-standing for no apparent reason. Maybe it’s just my algorithm, but interior designers come off as snobby quite often, talking openly about their minimum budget requirements and the jobs they turn down that aren’t “worth it.”
I also feel like it’s so much less personal to hire a designer, too. One of my good friends lives in a gorgeous home that was beautifully designed, but she told me point blank that while she likes the house, she doesn’t really care about anything in it. Her favorite chair is a patchwork lounger she bought for her first home, but it’s hidden away upstairs because it “doesn’t match the aesthetic.”
I am not hating on the industry completely. In fact, I’ll be the first to tell you if I think your project requires a full suite of design services.
But I’m going to be real about how much more you can get from working with a holistic home stylist than a designer 🤭.
The DIT Method
Do it together
If you thought stylists and designers were the same thing, you probably ruled them both out — or never considered them to begin with — but stylists are actually much closer to DIY-ers than they are interior designers, in my humble opinion.
Stylists aren’t project managing, sourcing labor, contractors or specific vendors. They’re in for a specific mission: usually to help you craft your style and then eventually allow you to keep up with what you did together and continue to cultivate your taste over time. They listen to what you like and don’t like, and they work with what you have while adding or swapping changes that will actually hold over time. They’re not re-inventing a room — they’re drawing out its potential.
But more than that, as a holistic home stylist, I’m focused on having fun with you in your house. None of this is that serious, but if you’ve been struggling for weeks or months, you’re probably dreading doing anything else in the room more than you’re looking forward to it.
As your HHS (not the government - you get it), I’m like the rah rah cheerleader you pretend to hate but actually love when she gasses you the hell up. I’m not here to tell you what to like or what to do. I’m here to help you sort out your ideas, get a realistic and clear picture of your home, and then take some damn action to finally change the room.
I don’t have a minimum budget requirement because I’m not buying anything for you. I might send you links or recommend styles and pieces, but you ultimately get to choose whether you order a designer sofa or thrift one off Facebook marketplace.
We also don’t have to schedule a thousand logistical moves all at once. We only focus on one set of decisions at a time.
Imagine going to a restaurant and ordering every course when the server’s just brought you a water.
Noooo. You order your Diet Coke. Maybe some mozz sticks. You were craving chicken tenders, but if the mozz sticks hit, you might actually want a salad instead! (RIP lettuce in 2026. Miss you).
See? You get to decide every step of the way based on how you feel. Your home works the same way. We check in at every step, noticing what looks and feels right, what doesn’t and what you want to do next. You never have to guess because I’m there the whole way through.
This is not DIY. This is DIT — do it together!
Holistic Home Styling gives you the best of two worlds: on one hand, you’re in complete control of your style, pace and budget, and on the other, you have a stylist in your pocket every step of the way to help you make decisions, cultivate your style, and design a room that you love.
I like the sound of DIT — How do I do it?
Probably not in the way you’d expect.
The first ever virtual DIT framework, the HomeAlchemy Method, is opening its doors on September 21, 2026. You’ll join a cohort of other members who are also transforming their spaces, and get live style coaching week by week until your space is done.
From day one, you’re styling your space with the help of a whole community and your own personal home stylist dedicated to getting you into the room you want to live in.
If this sounds useful or even just interesting, you can learn more about the Home Alchemy Method by clicking the button below.
Nix the designer.
Nix the DIY.
Do it together instead.
Talk to you soon.
