i will save your day

My friend Mary asked me a question a couple of weeks ago about hiring a decorator. It's a question that I often get so I thought I would answer it here. Here is her question,

...maybe you could point me in the right direction... you see I am saving up money to redo parts of my condo/future house when I get one. I am on a budget and have quite a bit saved and hope to get quite a bit more before the year is over and than shop!! The only thing is I lack that special eye for coordination and am willing to hire someone for help... I am pretty frugal and don't know how much interior designer people are,etc. Do you have any insights on this and how whole hiring people and costs works?

Hiring a decorator/designer is always a good idea. It allow someone elses' eyes to come in and access the situations that you might have in your home. It also gives you more resources that normal people can not get, such as buying at wholesale prices. Another reason why it is a good idea is because for some people it is stressful when you think about decorating a whole house. You want your home to flow and cordinate and feel welcoming and cosy. A decorator can come in and help you accomplish these goals.

First the differences between a decorator and a designer. Here is a good article that explains the differences and similarities of designers and decorators. Pretty much the biggest difference is licensing. In the state of Arizona though you do not need a license to call yourself an Interior Designer. Most people are just looking for a decorator since they are usually not planning on changing the interior of the house and are really just looking for someone to help them pick out materials. If you are looking to do some major construction, make sure you find a Interior Designer that has the NCIDQ (National Council for Interior Design Qualification is the licensing exam).

After you decided what it is that you need, I would start looking at your local universities. Students are always looking for a way to build their portfolio. When I was in school, I was always begging for someone to let me help them. Most of the requests that I got where just simply to walk around a persons house with them and give any suggestions that I had. I would also get a lot a requests for helping with paint colors. Anyways most univesities or colleges have a job book or board where you can request someone to help you out. Explain what you are looking for, whether it be just a certain room or a whole house. If you don't want to go the student route, I would just start asking around. We have all been in beautifully decorated houses, maybe for a baby shower or a church party or just our friends house. Ask the owner who helped them decorate or if they did it themselves ask them if they are willing to help you.



Next I would start going through decorating magazines and collecting ideas that you like. This will help you define your style, whether it be Modern, Traditional, or Mormon Chic :). I have many accordian folders full of pictures from magazines that inspire me in some way. I organized them by room so when I am trying to think of something to do for my bathroom I can go through that part of the binder. If you don't like magazines, there are so many interior design websites and blogs. I have a folder in the computer that is full of pictures of rooms or vignettes that I copied from blogs. My favorite design blogs are on my sidebar. I love looking at those daily for inspiration.

Once you have a collection of pictures, that will help move decorator in the right direction of your style. They will always ask you and whoever else lives in your house a bunch of questions. Like if you are redoing your bedroom, they could ask you questions like:

Do you like to read in your bed?
Will the bedroom be used for studying?
Is an area for seating needed?
Are you use to watching TV in your bedroom?
What kind of storage are you use to?

Most of the time this is called programming. They are accessing the situation and thinking of solutions.

It matters what exactly you are looking for a decorator to do to tell you how much it will cost. The initial first meeting will probably be a flat fee and then they will probably charge by hour. If you are hiring a student, I would tell them the price you are willing to pay them and then they can tell you how much they are willing to do for that price. If you are looking for someone to do it all, like find the furniture, order it, make sure it gets shipped right, then you will probably pay hourly. If you are looking for someone to just put together a binder of ideas, swatches, paint chips, then that is most likly a flat fee.

Here are two more articles that I liked that talk about hiring a decorator. This one is from my favorite magazine Domino and this one is from one of my favorite design bloggers Oh Happy Day who recently just hired a student decorator. So hopefully this has helped you out.



UPDATE: One of the major reasons I got into Interior Design is that I love helping people make there houses, homes. Right now I work full time for a Commercial Architecture firm just drafting, so anyway I can get my creative juices flowing makes me happy. The only reason that I didn't offer my services initially, is that I do work full time so my services would only be available at night and on Saturdays. If that works for you contact me through my email beka.lowe@gmail.com and we can work something out.