DRAFTING AND DESIGN OF AN INTERIOR PROJECT: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
There’s a ton of discussions all over the Internet on what is drafting and design of an interior project and what are the differences between them.
Contents:
- What is interior design
- The creative side
- The non-creative side
- What is interior drafting
- Where one job ends and the other starts
- Drafting and Design FAQ
Sometimes it is difficult to understand these concepts, due to various explanations, either too complicated, given by professionals, or vague speculations from random users.
However, it’s necessary for architects, designers and constructors to understand the professional terminology. Knowing these specialized words would simplify communication between the experts within the industry and help to correctly set the task to outsource contractors. As an experienced drafting studio, we know exactly what is the difference between drafting and design of an interior project and how to use these terms correctly. Read up this article and learn everything about them!
What is Interior Design?
Interior design is a multi-staged process that starts from developing the basic stylistic concept to its implementation in drawings, 3D visualizations, and actual construction. The design combines both aesthetic and functional tasks and consists of many components, including engineering and business processes. For a better explanation of the term, we decided to divide interior design into creative and “non-creative” parts to show how complex this process is.
Creative aspect
Interior design starts with setting a certain task: who will live in the house and what lifestyle they have? Depending on clients’ needs, designers begin to create a project from scratch step-by-step:
- working on sketches, references and mood boards
- providing planning options, drawings and visualizations, using CAD programs
- making corrections, according to the customer’s revisions
- giving detailed elaboration of drawings and 3D visuals after the final approval of the client
Want to know more about CAD services our studio provides? Check out this archive with projects examples and learn more.
“Non-creative” side
Every design of an interior project starts with meeting with clients, discussing the brief and the budget. On a house this is also where somebody decides which of the 5 types of residential architectural drawings the project will actually need. Surely, it doesn’t sound creative, but searching for business solutions and planning the project are also the interior designer’s tasks and very important ones.
- taking house measurements
- calculating and getting the approval of the project’s budget
- materials and furniture selection
- choosing contractors
- the construction process supervision
All these phases of the interior project can take place simultaneously or in turn. And of course, different tasks must be performed by different specialists, and these could be in-house or outsourcing professionals who can do their work quickly and efficiently. For example, one can hire an outsource contractor for the measurement of the real estate object, construction works or even accounting calculations. This way, the whole workflow goes smoothly without delays and mistakes.
What is Interior Drafting?
After the design solution is approved by the client, a drafting engineer starts developing the detailed interior drawings, usually as CAD drafting for interior design projects rather than by hand. Drafting is a graphic representation of all interior project’s layers in 2D, and the full list of interior design drawing types shows how many sheets that adds up to. Here’s the list of the most important interior drawings:
- existing walls layout
- replanning blueprint
- furniture layout
- electricity plan
- plumbing plan
- ceiling plan
- floor coverings layout
- wall elevations and cross-sections
Drafting is a highly responsible part of the project, but it is impossible without preliminary stages of design – discussions on the brief, as well as the budget and planning solutions.
Furthermore, if the project provides for additional architectural elements, such as podiums, beams, columns or arches – then drafters have to make a detailed drawing for these elements to be built and installed correctly.
Surely, it is vital to entrust drafting to experienced professionals, since drawings will guide the construction team through the process of project implementation. The best way to get accurate blueprints is to hire professional in-house drafters or an outsourcing drafting studio. No doubt, working with full-time employees has its advantages, such as controlling the situation in terms of deadlines and quality. But cooperation with outsourced experts, on the other hand, allows saving money but still getting high-quality drawings at the same time.
Moreover, interior blueprints are used for precise calculations of materials and the cost of the project. Surely, architects and designers can do it manually, but in advanced CAD soft, such as Revit, mathematics is done automatically with absolute accuracy.
When the drawings are made by amateurs, the cost of the project most likely will be incorrect. However, making changes to the project after all drafting is done, takes time and resources – in such cases, the price of the project could grow dramatically compared to the initial cost of the interior design.
Drafting and design of an interior project are two interrelated processes that don’t contradict each other – without the design project, there will be no drawings, and without accurate blueprints, the design is impossible to implement
Interior design is a larger and multi-staged process that includes searching for design and business solutions. Drafting, on the other hand, is just one of the design’s components, but probably the most responsible part of the project. Surely, outsourcing works both for drafting and design of an interior project. However, working with low-qualified specialists means having mistakes and inaccuracies in blueprints followed by changes in 3D visualization and construction itself. Therefore, turnaround time and the cost of the whole project directly depend on the correctness of drawings. Thus, it’s necessary to choose reliable draftsmen who are educated and experienced enough to deal with all kinds of technical tasks.
Wonder how much high-quality drafting services cost? Check out the examples of our real projects with pricing.
Need high-quality drafting and design of an interior project? Use our drafting services and get accurate drawings of any type and complexity made by experienced professionals!
The sheet that carries most of those decisions is the plan, and what belongs on it is in our guide to floor plans and layouts.
Where One Job Ends and the Other Starts
On a real project the two roles meet at a handoff, and knowing where it sits saves a lot of confusion about who owes what.
The designer owns the decisions. Space planning, the lighting scheme, materials and finishes, the furniture selection, and the argument with the client about whether the island is too big. Nothing on that list is a drawing. It is a set of choices, usually presented with mood boards, renders and a floor plan good enough to talk over.
The drafter owns the record of those decisions. Once the layout is signed off, someone has to turn it into construction documents: dimensioned plans, elevations of every wall that gets built into, sections through the awkward parts, details at a larger scale, and schedules listing which finish and which fitting goes where. This is the stack a contractor prices and builds from, and it is where a vague decision stops being possible.
For a home design project the same split holds, just smaller. Somebody decides the kitchen layout, somebody draws it so a joiner can make it. Often that is two people. Sometimes it is one person wearing both hats, and the risk there is the drawing being clear to its author and to nobody else.
One boundary worth naming. Neither role covers permit submissions on its own. Anything filed with a building department needs a licensed professional to stamp it, which is why we say plainly that we do not prepare permit sets. We draft the documentation, and the stamp comes from an architect or engineer in your area.
Drafting and Design FAQ
What is the difference between drafting and design?
Design decides, drafting records. One produces choices about layout, light, materials and furniture, presented in a way a client can react to. The other turns the approved version into dimensioned sheets a contractor can build from. Skip the first and you get a well drawn bad idea. Skip the second and you get a good idea nobody can execute.
Can a drafter design a house?
Draw one, yes. Design one is a different claim, and in most places a legal one. A drafter can produce a full set of documentation from a layout that already exists, including a layout you sketched yourself. Whether that set can be submitted for permit depends on your jurisdiction, and usually the answer involves a licensed professional putting a stamp on it.
Do I need both a designer and a drafter?
Not always. If the layout is already settled, from an architect, a builder plan or your own sketch, you need drafting and nothing else. If nothing is decided beyond a budget and a mood, a designer earns their fee before anyone opens CAD. The expensive version is hiring the second one to fix what the first one left vague.
What does an interior drafter actually deliver?
A drawing set: dimensioned floor plan, furniture layout, reflected ceiling and lighting plan, elevations of every wall with millwork on it, sections and details where things get tight, and schedules for finishes and fittings. DWG for the trades who measure off it, PDF for everyone who prints or marks it up.
How much does each one cost?
Designers usually charge a project fee or a percentage, because the work is judgement and it is hard to bill by the hour honestly. Drafting is measured, so it goes hourly: our rate is $20 for drafting and $25 for Revit and BIM, with an estimate before the work starts and the first two revision rounds included.
Need this done for you? See our interior drawing services.
Irma Prus
Content Writer, Copywriter
Irma writes articles and marketing copy for ArchiCGI. Her dream is that more people discover the power of CGI for architecture. Irma is into neuromarketing, ruby chocolate and Doctor Who series.
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