Tips To Help Prepare You For An Initial Consultation With An Interior Designer

8 November 2019
 Categories: , Blog

Share

You've been living in your home for some time now and you've yet to finish decorating some or many of the rooms. If it's been a while, you may be considering hiring a home interior design firm to help you finish your home. Here, you'll find a few tips to help you prepare for the consultation so that you can get the most out of the time spent with the designer.

Consultation Fee

Some firms do charge a consultation fee for in-home consultations. The prices for their service will vary from firm to firm. Some may charge a flat rate; others charge an hourly rate. Another thing to be aware of is that some will charge a cancellation fee if you don't cancel the appointment so many hours before the designer is scheduled to be at your home.

Knowing what fees you'll face up-front will help you pick and choose the design firm to work with.

Get Inspired

Do you have any idea of what you want in the style of your home? If not, it's time to try to get inspired before the consultation. The designer will ask you what your tastes are – if you don't have an answer, he or she won't have much to work with.

Inspiration can be found in many ways – looking through websites online, flipping through magazines, touring open houses, and window shopping through boutiques and home improvement stores. When you find something that you love, even if it is just a color, take a picture and file it in a folder on your phone or computer. Then, when it's time to consult, you'll be able to provide the designer with your phone, and the pictures will easily represent what you like.

Budget

Before you get your hopes too high about any design, make sure that you know how much of a budget you have to work with. Tell the designer exactly what you have to spend so that he or she can choose products and materials that will remain within the budget. If you wait until after the ideas are presented, you'll not only get your hopes up for something that you can't afford, but you'll be wasting the designer's time when something more affordable could have been in the works.

Hopefully these tips will help you prepare for a productive and fun consultation with the design firm near you. In the end, your home will look great and you'll finally be done decorating.