We’ve built websites for some of the world’s leading interior designers, including Beata Heuman, Anna Spiro and Sarah Vanrenen. As well as our creative vision and technical expertise, we rely on close collaboration with our clients to ensure we effectively promote their services and convey their brand values.
Over the last ten years, we’ve learned a thing or two about what makes a successful interior design website. Here are five factors to consider when building yours.
1. Impactful Images
Your website is like a shop window, showing off your services to potential clients. It’s therefore essential that any images are high-quality and reflect the standard of service you offer. We recommend featuring project images prominently on the homepage to give potential clients an accurate impression of your style and approach from the moment they arrive.
We can recommend the best images from your portfolio, making adjustments where necessary to improve their quality and appearance. And if you need new project images, we can put you in touch with trusted photographers who specialise in interior design. We also optimise images to improve your site’s search ranking – a crucial part of our SEO services.
2. Clear Navigation
An interior designer’s remit is to make life more comfortable and convenient for their clients, and your website should offer a similarly smooth and straightforward experience. Make sure the main pages of your website are clearly signposted on your homepage so that visitors can easily discover your services, portfolio or contact details. You might also consider working with a UX writer or content designer to make sure the messaging on your site is appropriate for your audience. Think about what type of client you want to target – whether developers, hospitality companies, investors, or homeowners – and make sure your site speaks to them.
Check that all links take your visitor to the right place, and test enquiry forms and sign-up boxes to make sure they work. ‘Page not found’ errors or form submissions that go nowhere are not only frustrating for your visitors, they also mean you’re missing out on important leads.
3. Bespoke Branding
Custom-designed elements, such as a hand-drawn logo, icons or illustrations, convey your creativity and distinguish your brand from your competitors. We created a personalised calligraphy logotype for interior designer and ceramicist Tasha Freeman influenced by her signature, while Sarah Vanrenen’s site features hand-drawn iconography to signpost key information.
You might consider a custom font or a handpainted pattern for borders and separators, which can also be used for social media templates. Candid images of you in your home or a personal blog sharing your insights and experience also make a site feel authentic and distinctive.
4. An effective colour palette
Colour is one of the most important ways to convey the essence of your brand through your website. If your style as an interior designer tends towards the bright, bold and eclectic, your website should evoke that vibrant feeling. A website that makes ample use of white space, with a largely monochrome colour palette, conveys a sense of restrained luxury often associated with the prime residential space.
The website we built for Sarah Vanrenen has an earthy colour palette that’s both elegant and traditional, while our site for Studio Hollond displays bold pops of orange when a user hovers over linked text and buttons to encourage engagement and interaction.
5. Smooth Shopping
Interior designers are increasingly launching their own product ranges, either by partnering with a trusted supplier to create a collection or by sourcing one-off items of furniture, fabrics or wallpaper for sale. If you decide to do likewise, you can maximise sales and revenue by integrating your store carefully with your portfolio site to make it easy to discover and browse.
Clear categorisation and a frictionless checkout process help convert customers while building a database of contacts to promote your design services. Discover more tips for launching an e-commerce site here.
Get in touch
March specialises in creating brands and websites tailored to the unique needs of the interior design industry. Reach out, and let’s build something extraordinary together.
