Interior designers

[Dalooah]

Has anyone used them? Any ideas of cost?

I'm looking for someone who can help with colours/layout and to implement ourselves- is this a good idea?

Anyone used any online interior designers that they can recommend?
Not too sure about the style we like, but practical/contemporary with some colour I think.

There are a few companies offering this kind of service I think - have a look on Houzz. You should be able to get quotes for what you want to do, I'd expect you'd pay in the region of £250-500 depending on the extent of advice you want.

That's off the top of my head though! Worth it, IMO, to avoid expensive mistakes. A good designer will get an idea of your taste and budget when they take your brief.

I have used a few as part of my relocation package with my employer.

They have all been a bit useless, and the worst was a House & Garden big name who couldn’t draw or use AutoCAD yet had the nerve to say I was indecisive when I struggled to understand her recommendations.

I had help with furniture packages and project management but anything beyond that, especially if it’s your own house, take it slowly and use Pinterest and magazines to choose how you want everything to look.

We paid around £1k a room for ours. Beautiful rooms but painful process as he was used to absent house owners who have him a large cheque.

Our approach of 'couldn't we buy the identical cushion at Zara Home for a 10th of the price' threw him off balance for a while.

The result is amazing however, still our style but more out together, pieces we wouldn't have looked at which really work in the space. Us, but better IYSWIM

OP I think you want one of the companies who do online packages rather than "big names" as such. There are definitely people offering mood board/ shopping list type services for us mortals and that sounds like it would be helpful for you.

It's definitely a good idea to use Pinterest to collect the sort of images you like though, again that would be really helpful for a designer

I know this is not quite what you asked.

But….. having talked to a number of interior designers, I realised that none were going to result in a home that was ‘my taste’

So, I decided to take this online course www.createacademy.com/rita-konig/

The result was I ended up with a great deal more confidence about the choices I was making. All for £110.

I appreciate that Rita’s style may not be to your taste, but there is another Interior Design course on the Create Academy website which is more contemporary.

I commissioned one recently as I followed them on Instagram and really liked their style. It is cheaper than I expected.

I used two interior designers' e-design packages during lockdown, where you send them photos & videos of the room and any inspiration photos / Pinterest boards, have a couple of hours video call, and they send you a mood board and links to options of items that would fit into your scheme, all within budget. You then do the actual buying and installation etc, sort joiners, decorators, electricians etc.

I found them both on Instagram as I'd been following them for ages and had a good sense of their style. Really happy with all the recommendations they made, although going down the e-design route takes a lot of time and energy compared to the fully outsourced option.

There's a whole article about e-design services in today's Telegraph if you have a login https://www.telegraph.co.uk/interiors/home/bite-sized-makeovers-booming/

Saying this as I have almost completed my interior design diploma from the interior design institute, there are many students/just qualified that are looking to build up their portfolio at cheaper prices that you could follow on insta and if you like what you see message directly. Most will offer space planning, mood boards, sample boards etc.

shameless plug for a friend who started own business over the pandemic who could help howsondesigninteriors.co.uk/

The type of designers who offer a £200 online package are likely to be people who’ve done an online course and trying to make a few quid. So not professional designers and not very good. The professionals who have degrees and masters in interior design and architecture will charge a lot more and typically would supply the furniture, paint, accessories etc because it allows them to take a cut of the profit from the purchase price.

I have a wonderful designer who is also a decorator. She comes round and we agree exactly what we want, one of us purchases the different pieces, then her team also do the wallpapering/painting/tiling/putting things up on walls/ripping out old stuff etc.

@BigPyjamas

We paid around £1k a room for ours. Beautiful rooms but painful process as he was used to absent house owners who have him a large cheque.

Our approach of 'couldn't we buy the identical cushion at Zara Home for a 10th of the price' threw him off balance for a while.

The result is amazing however, still our style but more out together, pieces we wouldn't have looked at which really work in the space. Us, but better IYSWIM

I think I might go for it, this is exactly what I'm wanting. Our taste/style but better.