Hiring an Interior Designer: Luxury or Necessity?

Last week a plumber handed my friend a bill for $85 for cleaning up a clogged pipe - a job that lasted for 40 minutes. When she was telling me the story, I got to thinking: why is it that home owners have no problem paying for labor of an electrician, a painter, a carpenter or a plumber, but hiring an interior designer (even for a one-hour consultation ) in order to pull all the elements in a home together, falls into the category of luxury?

I have to admit that once I was guilty of the same attitude. About 10 years ago, when we renovated our house, the contractor suggested that I had a consultation with an interior designer before they started painting the walls and installing light fixtures, floors, etc. My first thought was: "Interior designer? It will probably cost a fortune!" I had already collected my little portfolio of rooms that I liked and had some sort of a vision in my head about what I wanted. So hiring an interior designer and spending (read: wasting) money on somebody's opinion seemed absolutely unnecessary.

However, my contractor did not give up on me and explained that he was so used to repainting, reinstalling and redoing things because the clients did not know what they wanted and were disappointed with the results, that he would bring in an interior designer for almost every project to help his clients avoid the unpleasant surprises and save them money in the long run. So I thought: "Ok, a one-hour consultation will cost me $50, and to be honest, I have a few questions I could ask."

So in a couple of days I was having a consultaion with an interior designer (in case you are curious, it was Shelia Tapp - she lives in Conway, AR now). We walked through the new addition to my home and I was telling her what I had in mind and she was giving me her opinion. We had a wall of built-in book cases - she recommended to paint the back of the cabinets in a contrasting color. (Great idea! Why didn't I think of it myself?!) I wanted to paint the panels of one of the doors light green - she gently told me it would not look that good. ( I am glad I listened or I would have had the door repainted.) I loved the crown molding and the beams in my living room and wanted to leave them just as is. But Shelia said that they looked a bit dated and recommended a coat of white paint. I did not agree. In fact, I strongly disagreed. I would never ever paint that beauty!.. To make a long story short, after the ceiling and walls were painted, the cabinets installed - I almost cried because the crown molding and the beams looked absolutely awful: the color did not match, they did look dated...I had a sleepless night, being so ashamed of my stubborness. The next morning I apologized for not listening to the professional advice. The beams were painted white and the lesson learned.

Great spaces do not happen by accident. It seems so easy to put together a room, yet most people struggle with this and can not make it happen. Interior designers are trained to create a plan of a room, to use correctly scale and proportion, balance, rhythm and harmony. Besides, there are such elements as shape, texture, light, color and pattern. All these principles and aspects have to be considered and applied in order for a room to be functional, beautiful and comfortable.

Just think of all those times when you would bring a new chair home only to find out that the upholstery color was off, the size was wrong or the style did not work. You can consider yourself lucky when you can pin-point your mistake. But in most cases, people can not even figure out why a chair (or any other piece of furniture) does not work. It just seems off, and that's it! Yes, the chair can be returned, but it does not relieve the situation: what kind of chair to get is still a mystery.

A professional (in our case an interior designer) can make things go so much smoother and easier. Basically, all you want to know IF your ideas are right. And if they are not, you want to know WHY. That's exactly what a designer gives you: objective opinions based on your situation (your room, your needs), what's current, the products that are available, how to marry a new piece of furniture with the existing pieces, and so on.

If a home owner makes ONE bad purchase decision - that would have already paid for a designer. And if you are on a budget, you have no money to waste on mistakes.

Did you know that interior designers have large paint color samples (5' x 5' and larger) for clients to better see how paint will look on the walls?

Did you know that an interior designer will sift through dozens and dozens of websites and options before presenting you with the 3 best choices?

Did you know that interior designers give you access to products - furnishings, fabrics, accessories - that are "to the trade only"?

The house you live in is probably your biggest investment. If you love your home and want it to be functional, as well as beautiful, hiring an interior designer BEFORE you make all those costly mistakes (even if for a consultation) will help you figure it out for yourself whether it is a luxury or a necessity.

Happy exploring!