Interior Designers - have you used them and how much does it cost?

[joe90]

2 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Like choosing the colour of a car. Black or silver. Can't really go wrong.

 

I love silver and hate black fir a car, silver is the colour of dust and black just never looks clean . (I have had both)

[SteamyTea]

3 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I love silver and hate black fir a car, silver is the colour of dust and black just never looks clean . (I have had both)

I very really clean car, so never bothered by the dust and grime.

Tiled floors show the dirt. 

[ProDave]

If you are planning to keep a car a long time, a sort of rust coloured brown is good.

[Bramco]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Tiled floors show the dirt. 

 

Not a mottled grey - we have porcelain mottled grey polished porcelain tiles bought really cheaply from B&Q and they've been great.  Don't show any dirt.

 

Found some similar ones for the new build.

 

Simon

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, Bramco said:

Don't show any dirt.

On my way to B&Q now 

[saveasteading]

15 hours ago, joe90 said:

I painted everywhere magnolia

It sells much better with a different name. desert sand, cautious camel, ..can't think of any more.

[TonyT]

10 hours ago, saveasteading said:

It sells much better with a different name. desert sand, cautious camel, ..can't think of any more.

Stone…

[Indy]

So quite a range of opinions.

 

We will be taking some, but maybe not all of our current furniture along with us as I want to start fresh in the new place. What I don't want is to take all of our existing stuff along which means the house becomes a hotch potch of styles.

 

I'm still considering going for the design only service, and not actually asking the interior designers to do any purchase or sourcing. That way, I have a list to work from, as funds allow in the future. 

 

Also taking a lot of notes and inspiration from all the different sites, actual houses, showrooms, magazines, TV shows etc and will have a pretty clear idea of what we like and don't like. Quite a lot of the rooms will end up being designed in the house anyway - bathrooms, kitchen, utility and by extension the dining/living areas. Its mainly the bedrooms and studies in the house that we would consider getting advice on. 

[Seren161]

Indy,

An interior designer is a brilliant idea, the deal is finding one that does not break the bank and you and your other half having a good idea of what you like and don’t like and communicating all that. 

I had interiors designed and 3D renders of key spaces ( living room, master suite, entrance hallway, external elevations etc) and subsequently a separate lighting design  before I obtained builders’ quotes even. All done remotely by professionals. For a 360sq m property.. it cost me about £1600 in total for both sets of professionals … What did I get for this….

Brilliant 3D renders of the designed spaces including kitchen and utility rooms which have been invaluable for communication with builder, much easier to visualise and change stuff if I want.. Detailed floor plan including furniture dimensions and circulation spaces all measured so that I can do my own furniture shopping working to the dimensions and knowing it will all fit…Items we are keeping all got measured and designed in. Bathrooms and kitchen all laid out. 

We are now at first fix and having those renders and designed spaces has been invaluable, makes tweaking things a lot easier, decided to change our original planned cladding, it has made all the myriad of choices a lot easier to visualise and also helps when you need to make the budget based compromises.
Interior design was through a website called Upwork… sort of like Bark... Done by an architect and interior designer duo in South America.. very competitively priced and you negotiate what you want with your chosen professional, all that was required was our planning drawings and a back and forth consultation via email about spaces, as well as images of what we liked from magazines, telly etc . Of course there is some variability in expertise but you are able to view portfolios etc. I can forward the details of the team I used. 

Lighting designer.. London based so more pricey but all done remotely, fixed price, my existing renders made job a lot more straightforward and again having the detailed lighting plan has been super useful for communicating with electrician, far less guesswork etc.
My other half.. typical bloke … what do you need this for….changed his mind definitely..

 

[Haylingbilly]

I used an interior designer and she was brilliant. She charged £60 for an hour visit and 2 hours follow up. I gave her the brief of Neptune look with Dunelm price, with some pieces from eBay. She was happy to review items I spotted on eBay and Facebook and use them if they fitted in. I got 4 beds and 2 sofas on eBay, she used mainly existing furniture with only a few new pieces then  Dunelm curtain,  lightshades and blinds apart from in the sitting room where she recommended bespoke curtains.

The house was already decorated with kitchen in when she got involved.

[CharlieKLP]

I’ve since seen an interior designer at work and wow, such a skill. I changed my mind entirely.

 

They themed each room to a specific stately home, it was so beautiful. Usually they designed boutique hotels but they made the styles work to a house and it blew my mind. Loved it. Also they knew how to get fancy stuff at cheaper prices, so I suppose they are some sort of value for money if you can afford it!

[bassanclan]

I can't make any reccomendations of it, but John Lewis offer a free interior design service. Its not obligation, but obviously the idea is that you buy some of their furniture etc.

It might be a case of pay peanuts get monkeys or just give you a little nudge that you needed.