Interior designers and decorators: a sales channel worth cultivating

01A prescriber who influences the purchase without buying

An interior designer does not simply recommend a gallery or artist: they guide their client's purchasing decision at every stage. They define the budget, suggest formats, validate colours and themes, and often participate in the final choice of work. Their influence is all the stronger because their client places near-total trust in their aesthetic judgement — it is precisely this expertise that the client hired them for.

For the dealer, this arrangement is both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity lies in volume and regularity: a designer working on five to ten projects per year can generate as many transactions. The challenge is that the designer is not the final payer and has their own selection criteria, often more functional than artistic. The work must integrate into an overall project, dialogue with furniture, materials and lighting, and meet the tastes of a final client the dealer may never have met.

Parisian galleries that have developed this relationship successfully — and many in the Marais and Saint-Germain districts have — report that this channel represents between twenty and forty per cent of their annual turnover. This is not a marginal supplement: it is a commercial pillar.

02How to approach interior designers

The approach must be professional and adapted to the codes of the profession. Interior designers do not systematically attend gallery openings and do not read press releases. They do, however, frequent design and decoration fairs such as Maison & Objet in Paris, the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Design Miami and PAD (Pavillon des Arts et du Design). Being present or at least visible within these circuits establishes a first point of contact.

A targeted invitation is more effective than a mass mailing. A personalised email addressed to a designer, presenting an artist whose work matches the style of their recent projects and including installation photographs in interior settings, is far more likely to be read than a generic opening card. Preliminary research into the designer's portfolio is essential: proposing minimalist abstract art to a maximalist decorator, or vice versa, immediately disqualifies the dealer.

The professional lunch remains an underestimated prospecting tool. Inviting a designer to lunch to present the gallery programme, understand their current projects and identify points of convergence creates a personal bond that email cannot replicate. Galerie Templon and Galerie Perrotin maintain ongoing relationships with prominent interior designers, founded on this relational proximity.

03Adapting the commercial proposition

The proposal made to an interior designer differs from one made to a collector. The professional needs high-resolution visuals, precise technical sheets (exact dimensions, weight, hanging constraints, frame depth), in-situ simulations and firm delivery dates. They work within a contractual framework with their client and must provide this information to validate the budget.

The trial loan is a particularly effective tool for this channel. Allowing the designer to install one or several works in their client's home for a forty-eight to seventy-two-hour trial — time for the client to live with the works and decide — considerably reduces purchase barriers. The logistical cost is modest compared to the potential transaction value, and the conversion rate after trial is very high: a work seen in its final context almost always sells.

Commercial terms deserve thought. Some galleries offer a professional discount to interior designers, typically in the range of ten to fifteen per cent, in return for a regular flow of referrals. Others prefer not to reduce the selling price but to offer complementary services: delivery, hanging, framing included. The formula depends on the gallery's positioning and the nature of the relationship.

04The risk of pure decoration

The principal risk of this channel is a drift toward decorative art at the expense of contemporary art. An interior designer primarily seeks works that integrate harmoniously into their project. This legitimate requirement can lead the dealer to offer only consensual, pleasant and decorative pieces, to the detriment of their artistic programme.

A gallery that manages this risk intelligently offers designers works that are both artistically strong and compatible with an interior design project. A painting by Pierre Soulages or Gerhard Richter is unquestionably major art, and it integrates admirably into a contemporary interior. A drawing by Cy Twombly or a photograph by Thomas Struth can inhabit a living space without losing its artistic charge.

A dealer who educates the interior designer — showing them that ambitious art works as well as, or better than, decorative art in a quality interior — elevates the level of the collaboration. Some designers become astute connoisseurs, capable of recommending demanding artists to their clients, precisely because a dealer took the time to guide them.

05Cross-referral

The relationship with interior designers works in both directions. A dealer who recommends a designer to a collector undertaking a renovation strengthens the bond of reciprocity. Equally, a dealer who welcomes a designer's clients with particular care — a private visit, a personalised presentation, after-sales follow-up — demonstrates that the partnership is valued and deserves to continue.

Events organised jointly reinforce this dynamic. An opening in partnership with an interior architecture firm, an exhibition in a décor showroom, a temporary installation in a renovation project open to the public: these cross-format events expand both partners' audiences and create sales opportunities that neither would have generated alone.

06Building a network of prescribers

A dealer wishing to develop this channel systematically must assemble a qualified file of interior designers, noting their specialities (residential, hospitality, commercial), geographic area and price range. This file should be maintained like a dedicated CRM, with a history of exchanges, referenced projects and artistic preferences.

Regularity of contact is essential. Sending designers a monthly email presenting newly available works, with quality visuals and complete technical sheets, keeps the gallery on their radar. Galerie Kamel Mennour and Galerie Almine Rech send newsletters specific to professional prescribers, distinct from those aimed at collectors, with information tailored to their needs.

For galleries present on Artedusa, the platform offers additional visibility among interior designers and decorators searching for works for their projects, with search tools by format, technique and price range that facilitate selection.