Interior Designer?

cuffie

Has anyone used an interior designer to revamp a room? Not very money-saving initially, but could well be the way to avoid an expensive mistake! I am in the fortunate position of having a complete blank canvas for my lounge (no sofa, carpet, curtains to match in). I have looked through loads of Ideal Home magazines and know what I like and what I don't like, but its bringing it all together that is causing me a problem. Are they very expensive? If it was a lot of money, I wouldnt bother, and take the risk, but if someone else has found it useful, I'd like to know. Could you just take their ideas and go off and source materials yourself, or were they quite pushy with "helping" you do it.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. x

Nicki

Depends on the terms and conditions of the Interior Designer. We used one a few years ago who charged about £650 to do the design, then an hourly rate for any time on site, and a percentage of the cost of any materials she sourced. Some shops offer the service for free however (for their products only of course) eg John Lewis - so you could perhaps try there first and if you like the design try to recreate with your own independently sourced products

across

I had a Laura Ashley interior designer visit my home and she was great! i won £1000 and and free design service for upto three rooms back in 1998! i went with what she came up with and have never been disappointed it still looks good now! i would definately recommend Laura Ashley as a possible choice, she wasnt pushy because if i'd done it her way all the money would have been spent on the making up of blinds and curtains to dress the windows then i would have had to buy extra (over the £1000 prize of course) but my way i was able to buy the material to make two roman blinds and three sets of curtains and so there was enough for wallpaper for two rooms,bedding,2sets of towels a gorgeous brass lamp for lounge, two bedroom lamps, two throws and square pillow cases, even shower curtain too all within the £1000! no pressure i was allowed to have the last say! good luck!

taba

Laura Ashley are good for the design service but their after sales service is dreadful, with hindsight I would have used only the design service but would have arranged the purchases myself - examples goods I had ordered via their designer never arriving, items I had not ordered arriving, certain fabrics chosen to co-ordinate with other items for the room then being withdrawn after the room was painted this is still unresolved!



Good luck

across

taba wrote:

Laura Ashley are good for the design service but their after sales service is dreadful, with hindsight I would have used only the design service but would have arranged the purchases myself - examples goods I had ordered via their designer never arriving, items I had not ordered arriving, certain fabrics chosen to co-ordinate with other items for the room then being withdrawn after the room was painted this is still unresolved!



Good luck

oh dear that sounds awful i didnt take the designer up on anything after she'd gone i just waited for the boards she was making up and then went to shop myself and spent the £1000 in one go in about ten minutes for a laugh it was great! so i never experienced and delivery service but i'll bear that in mind in future cos i love Laura Ashley stuff!