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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask your experience of home / interior designers and if it really is worth the money?!

33 replies

Claliscool · 04/06/2020 17:27

Is it? Are they? Ive been having a great time working with mine her ideas are amazing... I think it will come out at 2k for the kitchen and living room. Is that about that others have paid and have you been happy with it?
Obviously I know this is a massively first world dilemma!!

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raspberryk · 04/06/2020 17:30

I think if you're shit with envisaging how things will look or what goes where then sure. I can think of a lot better ways to spend 2k though.
In the past I've tried kitchen designers and they've been pretty useless that I've just done it myself.

MulberryPeony · 04/06/2020 17:51

We got one as part of a deal with a local furniture company where we’d get back the cost when we bought something and as we were going to get a new sofa anyway it was not lost money but it was just a basic consultation. They went through a lot of options for moving furniture around but ultimately there was nothing we hadn’t already considered. Ditto the mood board was very similar to something we would have picked anyway so it just confirmed to us that it was something we could do ourselves.

The kitchen and bathroom we had designed multiple times in specialist showrooms though before settling on the final version. Then us choosing the finishes and tweaking it. My kitchen has just been finished and it is strikingly similar time my initial mood boards that I didn’t have enough confidence in at first and needed that extra ‘help’. Maybe because these are usually the more permanent areas with a bigger cost?

I will say that I have done and interior course via distance learning a good few years back but I find a lot of inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram that wasn’t around back then. I also like 25 Beautiful Homes to see real homes with different styles.

jokolo · 04/06/2020 17:58

Some friends of ours who are very busy had their whole house done - literally the designer bought all the stuff and decorated etc. I think it was a smart move for them. They also saved a lot over what they would have spent because the designer had connections and sources for everything.

It looks like a set. It's very nice but also looks like a set.

stopgap · 04/06/2020 18:00

Yes. The designer discounts alone make it worth it. I love a certain look, but find it hard to pull together a whole room as I like colour and patterns, and it would have the potential to look insane if I did it. Our designer is a good friend of mine, and she did the whole house.

Original poster
Claliscool · 04/06/2020 18:05

Very interesting thank you.... She has come up with ideas for room space that would never have occurred to me which is good... But equally I have quite a strong minimalist aesthetic which I like as is uncluttered and she's all about bringing in texture and colour which I am massively unsure about...
Also no designer discounts that I've seen so far!
But it is exciting.
It's a lot of money though

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Original poster
Claliscool · 04/06/2020 18:06

How do you say if you don't like their big idea though?!

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Original poster
Claliscool · 04/06/2020 18:07

I can't even write it clearly! How do you say 'no' on a big idea - like she is very keen on a certain colour for the kitchen cabinets which is not what I envisaged as well as a long integrated shelving unit thingy which I know I will fill with crap that I just put down

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monkeyonthetable · 04/06/2020 18:11

I have zero design ability. I can't picture rooms. When `Kirsty says 'you'd just knock this wall down' and they all nod, I think, how can you picture that? An acquaintance of mine is an incredible interior designer and if I ever came into money I'd just get her to work out every room. She's perfect at seeing what proportions should be, at adding interest through texture, at putting colours together in an interesting but harmonious way, at getting a room to show the clients' character and history without it looking cluttered. She just knows how to do it. Well worth the money if you have it. (I don't, sadly Grin)

monkeyonthetable · 04/06/2020 18:12

@Claliscool - if she's any good she should be listening to you. If you don't like a colour or an idea, say so. It is your house.

GaspingGekko · 04/06/2020 18:12

We had much the same as mulberry. They came and gave suggestions for the whole house, we could pay the fee then shop elsewhere or have her fee as credit off furniture from that shop.
We had to buy furniture for practically the whole house so it made sense. She gave us great ideas and worked with us a lot to fine tune.
I would definitely do it again, but no way for the money you are talking about. I think the fee was a couple of hundred if you didn't buy any of their furniture. I'm failing to think what 2k would get you.

Original poster
Claliscool · 04/06/2020 18:26

Yeah I know I should say no... But she's got a whole mood board going on and the colours I wanted don't seem to fit into it! To be fair to her I only wanted white walls so I'm not very exciting...

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Original poster
Claliscool · 04/06/2020 18:27

I think the 2k gets the whole 'interior design' look but which furniture company is it and I'll take a look at what they offer, could be good for the upstairs?

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stopgap · 04/06/2020 18:33

@Claliscool, just be honest with her. I was a little reluctant to speak up at first, being that out designer was my friend first and foremost, but we are now in a good groove. We started way back with me sending her literally fifty pictures of rooms and furniture I loved. Then she got my aesthetic.

Oliversmumsarmy · 04/06/2020 18:34

I can do the design for kitchens and bathrooms and I did redesign our house to turn it from a 2bed 1 bathroom house into a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom place by redesigning the interior.(not allowed to extend)

I have a very set palatte I work with for floors and walls etc but when it comes to furniture and making a house look homely I haven’t a clue.

wehaveafloater · 04/06/2020 18:40

I only ever use karen from oneplan to plan my kitchens now. She does whole houses too. But £2k seems a bit pricey to me? Karen's not that much unless you are doing a whole house I'd imagine ?

sst1234 · 04/06/2020 18:58

It’s a bit like personal shoppers. I mean designing your home to your taste is the best part. So paying an interior designer is an absolute waste of money unless you have terrible taste. Even then, there’s Pinterest.

Noconceptofnormal · 04/06/2020 19:43

I would love this as part of a renovation project, we have a house that could be pretty impressive but neither of us agree on how spaces should be used, laid out etc so it continues to look a bit rubbish. Assuming that an expert could find a way of pleasing us both. If it was just me and I could make whatever decision I chose I think I'd be pretty decent at it.

Husband would never agree to anything like this though so it will just stay as it is.

GaspingGekko · 04/06/2020 20:11

@Claliscool Sorry, I'm not in the UK. The city I live is over 75% expats so practically every furniture shop here offers the designer service. I have no idea if there is similar in the UK. But definitely worth looking into.

MulberryPeony · 04/06/2020 20:15

@Claliscool it was a branch of Barker & Stonehouse and a interior designer who was next door to them but B&S’s direction seems to have changed dramatically since then so I’m not sure they do it anymore.

Wishingstarr · 04/06/2020 20:15

When we built a house I just paid someone to help me choose paint colours. I knew the look and effect I wanted but was overwhelmed with choice and also the colour on a wall was often very different than in the tin.

We were delighted with the results and she definitely saved me a ton of time, stress and guesswork and probably money in the long run.

GaspingGekko · 04/06/2020 20:16

@Noconceptofnormal DH and I have completely different tastes, we had the same issue as you in our previous home, we could never agree so we did nothing.
What we have now is definitely slightly more to DHs taste, but we both really like it. And she made some really interesting suggestions for odd spaces in the house that we would never have come up with.

MulberryPeony · 04/06/2020 20:17

@Claliscool they still do a design service but only from certain branches www.barkerandstonehouse.co.uk/interior-design-service/

Wallywobbles · 05/06/2020 06:34

I'd second Karen too. She did my kitchen and was amazing and lovely too. She did me a shopping list for my suppliers to save extras creeping in.

Original poster
Claliscool · 05/06/2020 07:27

OK that's really helpful to know... I feel like our designer hadn't taken account of the colours that are here of the things I've chosen already ie whites greys and blues. The living room palette can't really incorporate my very new and expensive sofa at all!

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Original poster
Claliscool · 05/06/2020 07:39

I looked at Karen from one plan that is a super slick site I was impressed - out designer has done exactly the same tbh but perhaps not listened to me as much as I would like... But then my house looks shit and she gets paid 2k to deign so maybe I need to listen to her Grin

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