any experience with interior designer plus costs????

zoooooni

hi there we have just brought our first property after renting for years...iam really excited to start decorating but although i am a very creative person and have good aesthetic sense...but i dont think i have teh ability to put things togetrher without experimenting .....as my house is brand new i have a blank canvas to start with ......i woudl like to hire a interior designer to do teh job for me keeping my taste in mind....i hae had a look of showhomes in my area and was really impressed by teh company by the name of connections in design..i have had a look on internet but they are probably the only big company here in UK ..i have ALSO read a lot of guides on internet about hiring one...but i want to know about personal experiences of working with interior designer and how much they actually charge???? i dont mind paying little bit more but obviously i cant afford to pay too much over teh top.....i woudl also not mind anyoen recommending me someone they know....or any tips they might have...any help will be highly appreciated

thanks :cool::D

markie1980

I have no personal experience of hiring an interior designer, but the ones i have met/worked with through work have been a nightmare!
My advise is to have a look at show homes, magazines, furniture displays and decide what YOU like, rather than a designer who is using your house to experiment and try idea's that THEY may like.
You can then decide what look you want to go for and find the most ecconomical way of doing it.

Alan_M_2

A designer will charge either a flat fee or around 20% of the final contract price, depending which is more.

On that basis it's going to cost you a minimum of 20% more than if you did it all yourself.

Also they aren't likely to be wandering the isles of Ikea and B&Q, they are going be using Farrow and Ball and Fired Earth.....

Get the emulsion out, paint it all white, then start with a blank canvas yourself.

zoooooni

thanks a lot for ur replies.....soemoen suggested i should try local interior designer just to guide you thru the process rather than asking to do everything for you .....any ways i will contact around two or three just to take the quote.....and see if i can actually afford them....i do have heaps of magazine to take ideas from so may be i can think about doing myself....but i am still looking for more advice from people....thankss

Errata

For those on more modest budgets, John Lewis, Habitat, Oka, Multiyork, Laura Ashley and Lombok all offer design services and, unlike professional designers, they charge little or nothing; they bank on you buying what you need from them. John Lewis charges £200 (refunded against the cost of furniture) to visit a client’s home, come up with mood boards, furniture suggestions and window-dressing plans, then co-ordinate delivery and installation

£200 seems a fair price for anyone who is feeling a bit uncertain and apprehensive.

Doozergirl

All I need is the years worth of livingetc magazine that I've collected. I guess it depends on your style but I find all the other interiors magazines to be really samey. THey have a forum too, not very busy, but with people who are obvioulsy passionate about interiors and you can see where they've saved money in places too. You can get everything much, much cheaper if you spend the time looking.

take time and enjoy doing it yourself. It may take you some time to really get to know a room and the sorts of colours you want to use but if you start with something like a cushion or some wallpaper. If you want to paint feature walls, match those to accessories as you can get infinite paint colours. Build all your bases in neutrals - floors and walls - neutral doesn't mean cream, it can be greys, beiges, white and everything in betweeen. That way things like sofas don't need to be expensive colourful mistakes - you introduce colour through things that aren't too expensive to change.

It's too much fun to have someone do it for you and there is no way they would do it cheaper 'in the long run' - they won't be scouring TK Maxx every week for months to find silk cushions in the right colour for £10 each.

I had a conversation with an interiors lady in her shop last year and I was petrified but if you have an idea of what you want, it isn't hard to build it if you work solely towards a particular look and don't always buy things on a whim because you like them but consider first where they fit into the scheme. But do let go a bit, put some personality into it and mix up the colour pallet a bit - that's the secret. If you like purple, add some pink in for interest. If everything is the same colour, it lacks depth.

It's too much fun to give to someone else to do, let alone pay them.

HelenaDB

Hi Zoooooni

I'm an interior designer and I recently started my own consultancy. In general working with an interior designer can go both ways. It can save you a lot of money due to the trades discounts we get that can be passed on to client. In combination with expertise on technics, materials and suppliers a client can save themselves a lot of time, money, and headaches due to avoiding making mistakes.
If interior design was easy and everyone did a great job by themselves there wouldn't be dozends of degrees and jobs out there for them. An interior designer's main job is to come up with solutions, quality and aesthetics the client could never have come up with by themselves. For these reasons and more it is worth hiring a good professional. There are indeed many amateurs out there who just want to use someone else money to spend on what they like to see. There for it is important to make sure the interior designer is associated with one of the British Interior Design Associations (of which 1 will soon to become an official British Institute).
Prices for an interior designer will much depend on your location. In London an interior design will easly ask between £ 50 - 150 an hour.
My interior design consultancy isn't located in an affluent area and I charge only £ 20 per hour for a small residential project.
Each consultancy will have its own way of charging but most won't have a problem with charging by the hour or per room.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards,
Helena

Murdina

Maybe try using someone who does not describe themselves as an interior designer. I found someone who made curtains locally and she has proved to have a brilliant eye for colour etc. She gave me loads of ideas for fabrics then made up not just curtains but cushions and one or two other bits all very reasonable & was happy to chat about what colours might go with room etc. So what I paid was fabric cost plus making up costs but got her "interior design" eye in effect for free!

I had used the Laura Ashley service before that & found the results really disappointing. Only do it if you really love every single one of their fabrics. The "original" tweaks she gave things really did not come off.

sunshinetours

YEs check out local independent fabric/blind/interior shops as they amy offer a service suitable.

We used on where we paid her £30 or £50 for an initial meet up and for her to put some ideas down and suggest fabrics etc (that she sold of course) but no obligation and we used some of her ideas and did it ourself. No problem as we had paid her her rate for her time

I am not sure they are there to save you money but surely they are a paid for service for those who want someone else to do the creative part for them. There may be some trade discount on higher end materials but unlikely they will save you money surely?

wallbash

It's too much fun to give to someone else to do, let alone pay them.

I have a wife , she tells me what we ! like . Then I do it

andrew-b

wallbash wrote: »

I have a wife , she tells me what we ! like . Then I do it

Good answer! ...though in my experience the same question "which colour do you want" asked on different days can produce different results! :wall: