*Your home is your sanctuary. It is also a large investment. For most of us it is our largest investment.  Every dollar spent on your home should be thought out wisely and spent so that you get the best bang out of the dollar spent.  You might want to think of it as making an investment decision and that you want to make sure that you have someone that has the experience and knowledge of how your dollar will better impact the investment.  It is suggested that to maintain one’s investment in a home one should invest approximately $7,000 to $10,000 per year on the maintenace and updating on a home.  Costly mistakes by choosing blindly add up over the lifetime of a home and had that money been budgeted towards decisions that would impact your investment positively or your enjoyment level would have immeasurably bettered your life and ultimately your investment.

I have always said I would not let my handyman pull my teeth or work on my automobile.  Same is true when it comes to remodeling or re decorating a space.  Spend a little money with the professional and and reap the rewards of their knowledge and end up with a room that makes your heart smile when you enter.  Remember all of the failed projects when you strike out on your own?  Getting to the point that you are desparate to paint or tear off the old wallpaper will only lead to frustration and impulse spending to make it look alright till you have the time and money to hire someone to fix it.  Stop right there, make a priority list of items that are really getting to you and make that call to a professional to help you.

*Every project is as unique as the homeowner. I charge a flat $500 fee to get started with a client.  The reason I do that is to have a level of committment from the homeowner.  Unfortunately HGTV has misled alot of homeowners that designers work for free until you decide you like their ideas.  We would have a lot of very hungry designers.  I make my living as a professional decorator and before I can interpret what my client is asking for and deriving what their likes and dislikes and idiosyncracies are I must spend time questioning their needs, their desires, their dreams. That $500 technically buys a minimum of 5 hours of design time.  Plenty of time for me to get a grasp on the project, and offer my client a direction to move forward and begin to make decisions based on the budget they have to work with.

Some projects are too massive to figure out in 5 hours.  That is when I will charge a percentage of $ spent by the homeowner on their project.  This applies to remodeling a kitchen, bathroom or an addition.

*Why not take advantage of discounts? Most manufacturers love to work with interior designers because they know it is not just a one time sale…a designer will bring many customers to the table.  So take advantage of wholesale pricing or trade pricing…it can cover your cost of using an interior designer thereby getting expert assistance for FREE!!!!

During the concept phrase. A consultation to establish some idea of budget, feasability, project length and sequence of events will go a long way in having a successful outcome.