Interior designer/decorator for baby room in London

[SarahAnderson]

Hi everyone

I'd like to get someone to 'do' our baby room -- everything from design to project management. I've been quoted over £2000 for the design alone (! i.e. NOT including furniture or painters or project management or anything actually done to the room) and hoping I can find someone a bit cheaper than this.

Any recommendations? I've googled but it's really hard to find anyone at all who does this.

SA

My DP may be able to help you. Could you PM me with where you are and a timescale?

I think there's a few designers on MN ... Noddyholder and MrsFlorick - I don't know if they work in London though ?! I work remotely - ie design with CAD drawings - but I don't do site visits / project management anymore - it's all via email! If you are west London I might be able to put you in touch with a decorator... Pm me if you want some details on him ! He's a perfectionist !!

Yes please!

I'm finding it a nightmare trying to locate people who do this. I feel like I must be googling the wrong thing -- or are there seriously no interior designer/decorator freelancers in London who do small domestic projects? Any advice on websites I should be looking at? Google is full of irrelevant results no matter what I search. Have been looking for literally three hours and getting really tired of it...

Sarah

Why not go on Pinterest to pick up ideas? I find children's rooms easier to do as the furniture is fairly standard ie cot chest of drawers etc

Ideas are easy, there are millions of websites... but we want someone to actually do the work! I feel like this should be such an easy job but just can't figure out how to find the right person.

Cant you ask some local builders to do the work including all the decorating?
What needs doing?

If you're in London you would probably find someone easily on rated people

Interior Design is a seriously niche profession (as in 95% plus of the general population wouldn't employ an interior designer). But those who do outsource the design of their children's nurseries probably have an enormous budget. So that might explain the gap in the market that you can't find anyone to fill.

Maybe try a student ? www.klc.co.uk/Contact/Recruit/ or a local facebook/mumsnet etc board

Yes - I'm not from the UK and I think the issue is that this industry doesn't really exist in the UK!

I don't think builders would be able to do the design and wouldn't want to traipse around the shops buying cots... I'm really after ONE person who will do the whole job, project managing the painters, choosing the curtains, etc.

In my home country it is perfectly normal to get someone in to 'do' a whole room - including design, project management, decoration. My parents (who are both teachers in case you are imagining a country estate!) would always get an interior designer in before doing anything to the house, or a landscape designer for the garden. (Again, this is a modest garden like any normal English garden!)

ROughly whereabouts in London are you ?

My parents had exactly this problem when they were refurbishing a holiday house that they also rent out. They asked various interior designers to quote and all of them came back with schemes which would have taken a decade's rent to amortise!

The problem is that interior designers either charge for their time as a day rate, or they charge a percentage of the total spend. Neither of these methods is cost-effective for a small budget.

If you go to John Lewis, their in-house design services don't cost very much (I think their fees can be offset against purchases), and they will work out a decorative scheme and take charge of delivery and installation. Unfortunately and re-building or redecoration is still your responsibility, and you'll still need to project manage the job

Try Barker Bourne Design. I haven't used them but understand they're trying to make interior designers more 'accessible', which presumably means they take on smaller projects. Where in London are you?

£2k seems a lot just for plans. I recently paid £300 for a 4 hour 'surgery' for an architect who came to our house and drew up plans for remodelling our bedroom. However we are not in London. The plans she drew up were sufficient to hand to a carpenter/builder to work from. As well as moving walls, there was an element of design in the plans e.g storage solutions, lighting plan.

Maybe contact architects practices to see if they can offer a similar service?

Have PMed you with suggestion

These people might be able to help?

www.dragonsofwaltonstreet.com/9/Interior-Design-by-Dragons

Sarah. I've PM'd you.
Btw I'm in London.