1) Can you afford NOT to?...
The very first question that comes up is that interior designers are for the Uber wealthy…and this is also firstly a super strong NO…
If you have any qualms about what you want for your interiors, or even what you THINK you want then employing the services of a designer should be your next step - we can SAVE you both time & money & therefore both - imagine not being totally sure of your ideas but ploughing ahead & doing them anyway…only to find you really hate them, they don’t work in reality; the paint colour doesn’t sit right with the natural light in the room, the furniture you’ve chosen online is from a disreputable company, is BEYOND awful & now has to be returned at a cost to you & you also forgot to take in to account all the positions of your sockets & switches so a retrospective fit out from an electrician is pending - but then so is another redecoration session…oh mannnn, the aggggggg of it all!
Hiring an interior designer means all of these things & WAY more will be considered as standard, making sure we get it right for you first time.
2) Overwhelming Options Made Easy...
The internet now provides the most incredible array of options for every given notion, item of furniture, wallpaper pattern or paint colour possible making it an incredibly timely exercise for someone with any other job or interest or responsibility other than being an interior designer to fully dedicate their time to. It becomes such an overwhelming task that can lead you down a rabbit hole of such proportions that even Alice would have given up & preferred to never have even shown up, let alone be late! This regularly leads to apathy & a general feeling of CBA; resulting in buying the first or second thing you see that you only “quite” like as it’s just all too much. Sensory & time overload.
Given that we, as designers, spend all our waking hours (and our dreams in fact as we’re obsessive like that) trawling through new products, trending shade palettes, innovative home design solutions & so on ad infinitum, it makes sense for you to save your time & sanity by employing us to do what we do best.
3) Better Resources & Contacts...
We do this for a living, we already know where to go for certain styles of furniture, where to go for the best vintage pieces, which manufacturers are offering the quickest lead times for delivery etc etc. And again, this comes down to saving you valuable time & money. Not only that, we can find that totally unique piece or that incredible pattern or colour combination that will give your home the design edge, it’s right at our finger tips! Additionally, we have access to trade discounts from suppliers that we can pass on to you, making our fee much more palatable!
Think of us also as a verifiable Check a trade in real life form…we work with ALL the trades involved in interiors; painters & decorators, electricians, plumbers, carpenters & bespoke joiners, listed building specialist contractors, plasterers, upholsterers, curtain makers, artists, mural designers, framers, tilers, kitchen fitters, the list is endless….& when we recommend someone, we do so wholeheartedly as it’s our reputation on the line - we’ve worked with them before so we can vouch for them - this is invaluable when it comes to choosing people to work within your home.
4) Expertise, Planning & Budgets...
Now for the slightly boring bit - planning & budgeting.
If you’ve never remodelled or renovated before, you can fall foul of making assumptions as to how long things will take & how much they will cost & usually in the way that makes things more stressful for you - they take way longer & cost way more! Us interior designers are here to bring you back to reality & soften the blow as we do so.
Without trying to scare you off making any changes, reality checks are key here & especially if you’ve never done this before, I’m afraid to say you need to hear this: THINGS TAKE TIME….AND MORE TIME…and probably even more time. This is why; the old adage, failing to plan is planning to fail & when it comes to interior shake ups, never a truer word spoke. Rushing in & going ahead with a paint colour without testing it on ALL walls in the room & waiting to see what it looks & feels like at different times of day & in both natural & artificial light for example can lead to costly mistakes.
Planning a schedule of works for all aspects of an interiors project is also essential. Trades need to be booked up well in advance & in the right order. Project management is an invaluable service for anyone embarking on an interior transformation journey & our experience as well as being able to totally dedicate all our time to your project ensures a smooth trip!
5) Pulling everything you love & want together to give the WOW factor finish!
This is one of the quandaries I’m asked to help with perhaps the most.
You know what you like, maybe you even already have quite a lot of what you like but you just can’t get it all to sit right together. We’re here to complete those final steps for you.
Positioning furniture for example, to not only showcase your favourite items but also to ensure the layout of the room works for you, your family & how you live on a daily basis is a key skill that we have in spades.
We can add or remove items, swap them around in different areas of your home where you’d never thought of having them before, create a theme that runs coherently throughout all areas & one that epitomises who you are & what you love so that everything suddenly just WORKS, well, this is what we do.
I spend a great deal of time getting to know my clients at the outset of every new project & my ultimate aim is that every room in your home makes you smile. One thing you can be completely assured of when hiring me is that I will always have your best interests & desires at heart - I may try to push your interior boundaries ever so slightly but only because I can see that perhaps that's where you’re really trying to go anyway & hey, if you didn’t need a little help, you wouldn’t have hired me anyway right?
The very best thing I ever hear from clients is, “I LOVE it, & I’d never thought of doing that, thank you”
Thanks for reading.
Kate x