help with interiors!

[justkeepgoing]

We are starting the long waited-for renovation of our house in Brighton and I need help with interior design. DH thinks this is mad since we have next to no money left for the nice bits after all the bricks, mortar and steel, and we appear to have financed a holiday in the carribean for the plumber and electrician.

But my theory that someone who is clever with design and colour will make all the inexpensive kitchens/floors/lighting/shelves storage that are now in our budget look fab and so save money overall. Anyone any experience with this? Given that George Clark is probably unavailable anyone know anyone Brighton area?

I would save the money for some nicer bits and start doing research online and with magazines. Have a nosy at the pictures on rightmove too.

There is a regular who I believe lives in Brighton who is brilliant at this sort of thing - bumping in the hope that she comes along .

Think you need to find an interiors person who is sympathetic to a tight budget and that may be more difficult than you think. Buy the mags pour over them, Living Etc has some great recommendations for vintage shops in London where you can pick up really interesting furniture for a reasonable sum. After digesting some glossy stuff you'll soon figure oiut what you like and don't like - cut out pics you like and create a mood board to see how it all comes together.

Paint it all white and live in it - then you'll see what kind of light you get at different times of day, where you end up sitting etc. TBH when we moved into our house we spent the first year just figuring out what to do with half of it. (It's a big house!)

Had we gone in paintbrushes akimbo I know we'd have chosen the wrong colours and probably come away with something very bland or not to our taste simply to get it done.

we've just used a designer because we couldn't agree on anything. i would not use one again in a hurry. despite setting a reasonable budget we ended up going way over and some of the things she said would look bad actually look great.

if at all possible i would look in magazines, watch TV programmes visit some showhouses.

the main benefit we had was that she sourced some really good tradespeople. perhaps ask around at school etc for recommendations?