Anyone ever use an interior designer?

How does it work? Do they just tell you what to buy and you do it yourself? Do you pay by the job or the hour?

Anyone ever use one that they were happy with?

Re: Anyone ever use an interior designer?

I would love this info too. I cannot for the life of me, do window treatments!!!

Re: Anyone ever use an interior designer?

there are several ways you can do it, it really depends on your needs

you can hire a designer for a specific job. start to finish they bring it all, do it all. you set a budget for the work, and they tell you a final price. all time is included, unless you make tons of changes.

you can hire them for just specific things, and depending on what it is, you would pay the hour, or a flat price + materials.

Some do a retainer, where you pay them say 15k (if you were planning on doing several higher end rooms) and when they get through three quarters of the money you give them another retainer. with this, you usually sit down for an initial meeting, and go over all your needs. you then come back a week or 2 later and they present you with a bunch of proposals, samples, renderings etc. for you to review. they also let you know price and lead times on items. You go over what you want to order, or change out for something different/less expensive etc. and they get to ordering everything. with this, its usually a flat charge for the service to do these rooms which will be discussed at the 2nd meeting.

Usually they charge for a consultation (first meeting) and if you choose to go with them and give a retainer, you get the fee back. *sometimes*

FM if you have any questions I have a ton of info

Re: Anyone ever use an interior designer?

there are also a ton of services out there online based, like YHL that you can send them pictures and for $200 they provide you with an inspiration board for your room. you take the info and buy everything and install it all based on what they tell you to do. Its a great thing if you don't have the money for a designer and are handy. But if not you could also hire someone to do the install on your own.

The only issue I see with this, specifically with YHL, they sort of stick to one style. I haven't seen them do many other styles, so I don't know if they are capable of doing it. But they are not designers, they are just a couple with a good eye for design. In the design business, and I think with anything creative, as long as you have a good eye, and can pull it all together, you can do well without being a designer. But you can't always get the big $$$ that the designers do. but as a consumer, you may benefit from it

Re: Anyone ever use an interior designer?

We have a designer helping us. We are having her help us with our living room, dining room, kitchen and family room. She came to our house, got a feel for our style and we told her our budget. She came back about a week later with several different photos and fabrics. We then went to the showrooms to see some sample stuff. Once we finalized everything the furniture/fabric/drapes was ordered. You can see my living room in my photo album. We are still waiting for a new rug.

She is pricey though, on each item that she gets for us we have to pay a commission. For me it was worth it, she has helped me out a lot.

Re: Anyone ever use an interior designer?

I've bought most of my furniture from Ethan Allen and they have designers who will come to your house with paint, carpet, and fabric samples. They will measure your rooms and help you plan a furniture layout. It's a free service and so far I've been very happy with how everything has turned out.