Reading Rooms - Reading People

Reading Rooms, Reading People is a focused studio intensive for early-career interior designers exploring the lived realities of practice. Drawing on 20 years of residential experience, the session examines how clients think, how decisions are formed, and how authority is established in real projects.

An structured and engaged afternoon exploring what truly sits beneath the surface of a creative practice.

We will look at:

• How to read clients beyond the brief
• Translating client narratives into spatial decisions
• Structuring fees and deposits with clarity
• Managing scope and boundaries
• Navigating difficult conversations
• Protecting your position professionally

This will not be a lecture. It will be a considered conversation, with space to bring real scenarios and questions into the room.

• Greater clarity about client behaviour and decision-making
• A stronger sense of professional authority
• Practical understanding of how to structure projects confidently
• Insight that typically develops only through years of direct experience
• A more grounded perspective on entering and sustaining practice

Final school year students with a serious interest in interior design, recent graduates and early-career designers seeking deeper understanding of the realities of professional interior design.

Katherine Richards is a residential interior designer with over 20 years’ experience running her own practice. With a background in theatre design and a reputation for narrative-led, psychologically informed interiors, her work is grounded in a deep understanding of how people inhabit space.

Her approach combines creative instinct with commercial clarity — navigating clients, contracts and complex projects with considered authority. Reading Rooms, Reading People draws directly from this lived experience of practice.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Katherine Richards Design