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What is the difference between an interior designer and a contractor?

What is the difference between an interior designer and a contractor?

• By SingRank Singapore — min read
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RCS Team — HDB Registered & BCA Approved Renovation Contractor Singapore
Written & Reviewed by Renovation Specialists · HDB Registered · BCA Approved · Since 2017
The RCS Team is a group of experienced renovation professionals, project managers, interior designers, and on-site supervisors who have worked on HDB, condominium, and landed property renovation projects across Singapore since 2017. Our articles are written from first-hand, on-site project experience — including hacking, wet works, carpentry, electrical rewiring, tiling, plumbing, and HDB permit submissions — and are cross-checked against publicly available HDB and BCA guidelines. RCS is an HDB Registered Renovation Contractor and BCA-approved contractor, and holds bizSAFE Level 3 certification and active PMI membership.
✓ HDB Registered ✓ BCA Approved ✓ bizSAFE Level 3 ✓ PMI Member ✓ Since 2017
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Editorial Standard: This article is authored by the RCS in-house renovation team based on first-hand project experience, cross-checked against publicly available HDB and BCA guidelines. Editorial & SEO Visibility by SingRank Singapore . Last reviewed: 30 June 2026.

Disclaimer: This article is published by the RCS Team for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

Interior Designers (ID) will conceptualise your home from the very start, down to every last detail including the furniture and even frames. If you want to have a hand in choosing the design and how the final work will look like, you are better off with a contractor to carry out the works and advise you on the feasibility of what you want done. There are Pros and Cons with both, and the Pros and Cons don’t outweigh each other.

Most of the Interior Designers in the industry are actually loosely using the term ‘ID’. Many cannot even explain the specifications of the carpentry to you. And most don’t conceptualize your home before the renovation starts.

Interior Designers come with Design fees for every project. This is on top of the renovation costs for the project. Those that do not charge this design fees, are not really interior designers or they have included the fees in the costs for the project.

To put it simply, most of the IDs are actually just contractors. Even when engaging a contractor, you cannot take it for granted that all of them will understand the renovation process. Many don’t, and you cannot engage these contractors based on price only. Do some fact finding, and ask difficult questions when choosing your ID or contractor. Ask them about the waterproofing process. Ask them about raising the height of your balcony, what are the guidelines and processes in place.

Gauge them by how they answer these questions. Choose them based on their experience and also content online that they always share. Reviews are not always reliable. So be sure to look out for those fake ones!

Reach out to us if you need further details on how to choose interior designers or contractors. We also provide consultations and fact finding services for customers before they start to plan for their renovation works. At a fee, of course. On a side note, we are also general contractors in the Singapore Renovation Industry.

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