In our blog post, Color Theory Part 1: Color Language and Color Attributes, we explored some basic color theory. Here, we will delve into how colors interact with one another and talk more about how interior designers make color selections effectively.

There is a lot to say about how colors interact together. And this is at the heart of how interior designers put together color palettes and schemes. That is where the artistry happens. And the interaction of multiple colors together can be extraordinarily visually impactful, eliciting strong human emotions and reactions.

Keep reading for the second lesson from Dr. Gloria on color theory and how it impacts your design process and client onboarding.

As an interior designer, you started your business to design—not to focus on marketing and sales. But when you decide to go out on your own, sales and marketing are CRITICAL if you want to book clients.

I've talked to a lot of interior designers, and I know most of them don’t enjoy having sales conversations. They get nervous. They trip over their words. And next thing you know, they’re discounting their services, throwing in extras for free, and practically handing over the keys to a new car while they’re at it.

But here’s something I believe so firmly in (I mean, I built my entire business on it, so obviously, I believe in this):

If you have a solid client experience process in place, you shouldn’t have to "sell" at all.

Yes, you read that right. When your process is seamless, proactive, and aligned with your ideal client’s needs, people should be 90% pre-sold before you even get to the dreaded "selling" phase.

*Now, I’m not saying you don’t have to market. You do. You should always be marketing. But I’m saying you won’t have to SELL.

Remember sales and marketing are two different things.

Let’s break this down.

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Interior designers generally have a very good color sense. It’s often one of the reasons they’ve pursued a career in the field in the first place: they can manipulate color choices and materials into very pleasing combinations. It’s quite an uncanny ability and one most people (non-designers) really struggle with.

In my years of teaching interior design college-level courses, I have grappled with the relevance of color theory in developing color competence. This is for several reasons, not the least of which is the overriding question of theory versus application. I’ve pondered these questions:

• Is it important to understand what analogous, complementary, and triadic color schemes are, when NO interior designer I have ever met begins building a palette based on these as goals?

• The color wheel—as a framework for understanding color relationships—is important for artists and painters who mix paint pigments to arrive at secondary and tertiary colors, tints and shades, but how relevant is it really for interior designers who typically select from already manufactured fabrics, paint colors, rugs, and wallcoverings?

• There are no absolutes with color application, no definitive rights or wrongs. As with any creative pursuit, a successful design may result from breaking or bending some of the standard strategies and manipulating variables in innovative ways. Therefore, how can color theory be taught in a way that allows freedom from restrictions?

So, in my teaching, I have always struggled to understand whether teaching color theory is really building false parallels between theory and application. 

When interior designers don’t actually make color choices based on theory, how important is color theory really?

Just about every interior designer I work with says the same thing:

They want bigger and better projects.

Why? Because bigger and better projects mean they can take on fewer clients while charging more for each one.

Win-win. The designer isn’t spread so thin, and they can focus on delivering a high-touch, elevated experience for the projects in their pipeline. Plus, larger projects often yield more opportunities for professional photography—and when you have more rooms to showcase, editors are more likely to feature your work in a home tour.

This kind of exposure creates a snowball effect: more traffic, more inquiries, more press, and ultimately, more opportunities.

So, I get it—landing bigger and better projects is the ultimate flex.

But for many designers, it’s just not happening. Instead, they’re stuck attracting bad-fit clients and projects that don’t align with their goals.

So, what gives?

After working with interior designers for over eight years (from those just starting out to those generating multiple millions in revenue annually) and running my own luxury wedding and event planning company, I’ve learned a lot about what attracts luxury clients—and what sends them running the other way.

Before we dive in, keep this in mind:

I’m talking about attracting luxury clients, NOT booking them.

If you can’t seem to get luxury clients to even reach out to you, chances are, one or more of the eleven reasons below are to blame:

There’s marketing, and then there’s sales. 

Marketing is about bringing attention to your business—getting people onto your email, onto your website, or engaging with you on social media. It’s the inquiries and the conversations.

Sales, on the other hand, is what happens next: converting that attention into paying clients. It’s turning those inquiries into signed contracts and deposits … those window shoppers into buyers. 

If you have leads coming in but want to manage them better (and increase your chances of turning those leads into paying clients), streamlining your sales process is key.

For most interior designers (and service providers), the sales process typically looks like this:

Join The DTS Files to see exactly how to use HoneyBook during the sales process.

If 2025 is the year you plan to take your interior design business to the next level, I’d bet marketing is top of mind. I know it always is for me.

Because marketing is a topic we’re asked about almost as much as pricing, I’ve rounded up my best blog posts with specific advice to help interior designers go into 2025 with all their i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

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Here’s the thing: business operations is my specialty, but marketing is my passion. It’s where creativity meets strategy, and when you get it right, the results can be game-changing.

Each of the articles below is packed with detailed steps and insights. I’m sharing them in order of how you should implement them so you have your own handy “Marketing Playbook” for the new year.

Join The DTS Files to access these articles.

Often—when specifying lighting fixtures for a space or designing a lighting scheme for a new construction project—interior designers select and locate fixtures based on a best guess approach. This often results in success because one bulb can be swapped out for another with more or less intensity fairly easily, OR dimmers can be used to adjust the light intensity to what works best. This latter approach—relying on dimmers to tweak the lighting intensity—is particularly useful, as the residential building codes and energy codes now require dimmers in residential new construction and renovation projects. 

Pro Tip: The 2024 edition of the International Residential Code, Section 1104.2.1 requires that all permanently installed luminaires (light fixtures) in habitable rooms (which excludes closets and hallways) be controlled with a manual dimmer or automatic shutoff control (motion sensor). Not all jurisdictions may be enforcing this requirement, but wherever dimmers are used, there is great latitude to control light levels. Need a codes refresh? Check out our codes handbook here.

The rationale behind dimmer and sensor mandates is not to accommodate inaccurate lighting level calculations. It is rather to reduce energy consumption when lighting levels are too bright, or when lights are left on in rooms that are not occupied. 

Is There a Formula to Compute Appropriate Lighting Intensity?

Join The DTS Files to learn exactly how to calculate how much light a space needs.