An interior designer is a professional who has finished a full four-year course in house interior design and should not be placed in the same category as the interior decorator.  With the heavy emphasis on designing environment-friendly houses, the interior designer needs his environmental expertise to sustain his house interior design schemes.

The house interior design must take into prime consideration the social and psychological needs, including the health, safety, and welfare of the homeowner, keeping in mind the ecological impact the house interior design may show to the homeowner as well as the house occupants and their guests.  Green technologies are the call of the times and the design of new or renovated structures must not be found wanting.

There is an innumerable glut of home designs in the market today.  Every country has its own native cultural touch.  Depending on the affluence of one developed country and the poverty constantly haunting the third-world countries, the home is always an undeniable reality of the social status of the homeowner.  The farmhouses in third-world countries are never comparable to the farmhouses in the United States; neither are their respective country houses, bungalows, ranch houses, beach houses.  A shanty in Asia is shabbier than the ghetto in Brooklyn.

Home designs, like the Mediterranean-inspired architecture which displays clay roof tiles, modular cabinets, marble counters for bars and kitchen, and winding stairs, are the more popular lifestyle showcases.

On the other hand, the contemporary home designs exhibit an unrestricted and carefree ambience which is characterized as a one-story affair with flat or low-pitched gabled roof, eaves are big and overhanging, uniquely shaped windows and uses wood, brick and stone for the walls.  The kitchen, dining area and the living room are usually finished with synthetic granite tiles. The modified contemporary design provides for a second floor where the hall extends to the balcony.  The master’s bedroom has walk-in closets and has a view deck.

Exuding warmth and issuing invitation to be lived in, the farmhouse design has a kitchen which is seamlessly connected to the living room. Galvanized iron for its roof, sandstone, concrete, used timber and plywood are the materials for this home design.

Tropical home designs incorporate natural adobe rubble stones.  For exterior walls, classic wood planks are used while the interior walls are covered with antique-finish bricks.  Like the Mediterranean home, it has clay roof tiles and laminated finish natural hardwood planks are used for the flooring.

Whichever of the home designs is preferred by the homeowner, the home designer should consider the homeowner’s budget, his psychological and social needs, his values and mores, and his lifestyle.