I honestly do not think there is a "typical" response for what an architect will do with respect to interior design. Having said that, our arch was not at all interested in performing that service; however, he had an in house design person with whom we could work for an additional fee. He was interested in our overall "feel" and "vision" for the house which was somewhat helpful. As much as I would have liked to work with a designer, we honestly were not willing to spend that type of money. Several outside designers were more per hour than our architect! I could not afford to spend that kind of money for someone to go "shopping" for me trying to find pieces/wallpaper/tile/flooring that I liked. Although a designer has resources that makes it easier to identify those items, our "look" is not mainstream, which meakes it more time consuming. I hope that helps. Teresa

girl wonder, some books I've found useful and enjoyed: Interior Design Master Class: 100 Lessons from America's Finest Designers on the Art of Decoration by Carl Dellatore: "Creating a library-worthy resource on design, the volume’s editor, Carl Dellatore, recruited one hundred top American interior designers to contribute essays on a particular aspect of design, interspersed with examples of their work. Useful for both aficionados and professionals, the volume reveals the meticulous and often heady process that goes into creating great interiors." There's a very good good write-up and interview with the author at the design blog Quintessence. Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating by decorator Lauren Liess (who is basically self-taught, which is why she calls herself a decorator rather than an interior designer), who has a great blog (not updated much anymore) where she has explained her choices and decisions. Mary Gilliatt's Interior Design Course by Mary Gilliatt Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy by Deborah Needleman The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate and Live Well by Deborah Needleman A few of the interior design books I've picked up in the past few years, which gave me a greater sense of appreciation for what interior designers and decorators do: The Interior Design Reference & Specification Book: Everything Interior Designers Need to Know Every Dayby Linda O'Shea, Chris Grimley, Mimi Love Interior Design Course: Principles, Practices, and Techniques for the Aspiring Designer by Tomris Tangaz Some earlier helpful threads in the GardenWeb Home Decorating forum: Where to go for "Home Decorating 101"? What's your favorite Interior Design Book?

UT Austin has a good Interior Design department, and it has improved since I was there in the late 1980s. One graduate (Trisha Wilson) who graduated from there just before I started has become world famous. When I was at UT, Interior Design was part of the Homemaking Department, which was in Natural Sciences, but they have since moved it to the Architecture Department, which makes more sense. Because it was in Natural Sciences when I was there, I had to take two biological sciences classes (I chose Botany for one of them) plus Chemistry, but I took an advanced placement class and did not have to take Chemistry. The architecture department at UT Austin is one of the best in the country (I think it ranks in the top five), and I did take architecture classes while there. UT is big on business classes, and so they require you to learn about business while getting an Interior Design degree, which is in real life a huge part of it. The art department at UT is good also. Life Drawing was required for both ID and Architecture students when I was there, and I found it very helpful. I took a lot of other art classes as well. The one drawback is that it is a state school (instead of private) and therefore extremely bureaucratic. I already had a B.A. from Rice in German/English and would have preferred to get a Master's, but that was not an option. Also, it was difficult to get my undergraduate classes transferred to UT for my second undergraduate degree, which was a B.S. since ID was considered part of Natural Sciences. As an elective, I got permission from the architecture department to take the graduate class in History of Architecture, but then the university said that I would not use that for an undergraduate degree because it was too advanced! I then had to get the professor of the class to downgrade the class for me and certify that it qualified as an undergraduate class in order for it to count. UT also required a certain number of classes to be "writing component" classes even though I already had a degree in English from Rice and had been published. Furthermore, they did not consider Larry McMurtry's Creative Writing class that I took to be a "writing component" class because it was not certified by UT itself. Rice was not like that at all, and being a private university was much more flexible and logical in its requirements. So, if you can deal with the bureaucracy, it should be a good place for you. It's gotten a lot more expensive to live in Austin since I was there, but it's still a lot cheaper than where I live now. By the way, the ID Department at UT is quite large - I think over 100 people got ID degrees the same year I did. This makes it easier for scheduling classes and design studios. UT also has a very good architecture library. I checked out a lot of books there in Italian and German that almost no one else ever checked out, as I had to write book reports for my History of Architecture class. I recommend learning Italian if you are interested in design, as there are many good magazines and books in Italian that are not translated into English.

Thank you all so much for your responses I really appreciate it! This is really helpful insight and makes sense to me. Art is such a personal thing that I agree it would be difficult to try and pick it out for a client rather then provide recommendations and let them figure out what exactly they desire. I was just curious because I know many interior designers do advertise art placement as a service and I was wondering what exactly this service entailed? Perhaps It is more about recommending "decor" rather then "art" like Ocotillo said. Or working together with your client by recommending galleries and such. If anyone has had experience using art placement services from an interior designer I'd love to hear about that experience. I am hoping to find out if interior designers provide links to websites like ours as a way to inspire clients. I'm hoping to understand interior designers process more so we can increase our connections with them and learn from their experiences as well. Let me know what you all think and thank you again for your input!