Can I get an interior design but do the sourcing and work myself?

[HillyMillylunchmunch]

I'm finally in a position to be able to decorate my lovely but very bland and tired home. Bought it two years ago, its completely bla, and I have a bit of money to start doing things to it now.

The problem is I want bold colourful interiors but I'm not very good at designing them. I could buy hundreds of interiors magazines, but they'll all be Christmas themed now, and what if after buying all those mags and flicking through them I don't find anything which inspires me?

What I'd really like is a person who knows colour and style to talk with me and recommend colours for walls, wallpaper, rugs, arrangement of furniture, what sort of accent colours might make a room pop, what sort of accessories to buy, where to place shelves and whether to make a feature of them or make them blend in etc etc.

I think I want an interior design service but I don't want to pay someone to source the items and buy them and arrange them. I just want to pay someone to come up with room plans.

Does this sort of thing exist? I was hoping I could gey designs for eg 5 rooms for £1000, so £200 a room, ie 10 hours at £20ph. That feels sensible to me but am I way off?

John Lewis does it for free I think
www.johnlewis.com/our-services/home-design-service

Something to remember, though, is that the interior designers often get things cheaper as they are in the business. I found one that charged by the hour for advice and really, really helped me. She then sourced stuff cheaper than I would have got it too.

Following as I want something similar

Go on Pinterest and copy the ideas. So much more to see than buying a mag.

The problem with pinterest is it's showing different rooms, not my room. They have different sized windows, or a different shaped room, or the room is huge. I don't have the imagination to translate the idea into my room. This is what I want to pay someone to do!

And re the designer sourcing stuff cheap, maybe but I'm not convinced it's what I want. I want them to say ' a teal would really work with the morning light, and if you swapped your two seater for two chairs and out them here you could zone the room. Then arrange your paintings on this wall and it'll nicely set off the fireplace ' or whatever. I don't need them to choose the perfect furry oversized cushion then buy it for me, I want them to give me ideas a level back from that.

John lewis could be worth a shout, but I worry they'd be too keen to flog me their stuff rather than advise me on how to change the room.

I'm going to have to go on changing rooms aren't I?!

Farrow and Ball do a colour consultation appointment, which might work for you. I suspect that smaller design places might too - Pickwick Papers in Greenwich used to, for example.

Don’t resort to Changing Rooms! 😂

I’ve PMed you.

Yes I'm an interior designer and that's a perfectly reasonable ask. A good designer will always remember that it's YOUR home and YOUR decision. We offer advice and guidance but it's great when a client takes part in the process of creating their own living space and making it their own.