Ive used three different decorators.

None of them really nailed what I wanted.All of them play fast and loose with your money. They can all intimidate you if you arent careful.

Now I really only use them for access (to the trade stuff) and a sounding board.

IMHO, ive gotten just as good advice here. And more thoughtful and practical.

I hired a decorator about 10 years ago and had the best time. I just picked her out of the yellow pages and obviously lucked out.

We went shopping for fabric and accessories 3 or 4 times. She paid wholesale and charged me retail. She didn't make a lot of money from me but I think she appreciated my enthusiasm.

I did this year...paid her major$$$$ for her ideas - never used her again after she wanted to change my entire color pallette from walls to accessories. I stuck with my gut and my likes and am very happy with the outcome.

I hired a decorator and was unhappy. We had to change every color she picked out. Waste of money and time. Never again.

When we bought at newly built house, we used a designer and it was a big help to get started b/c we were overwhelmed. It was really good to get an overall plan so even if we did things as we went along, it wouln't be a mish-mash. However we didn't do everything by any means. For example she founds lovely toile fabric for our master bedroom but it was crazy expensive. I found one for a fraction of the cost that had some bedding already pre-made (didn't all have to be custom) and the fabric by the yard was waay cheaper.
Also, when I've tried to work with her since then, she seems to only want to offer me custom ordered items (from rugs to coffee tables to sofas) from her expensive catalogs. I would love to find someone that I could pay for their time to consult and perhaps point me in the direction on some pieces, but not have to buy their items that are way over my budget and what I think is really necessary to get the look.

I've worked with two. The first time, I don't think I realized what I had-- he was very good and honest about the money part.

Several years after that, I worked with one who was talented, but was paid hourly AND by me paying her retail for things she got wholesale. She seemed to use (to excess) a lot of materials that she could make money off of, like wallpaper everywhere (this was the eighties), expensive drapery, etc.

Hopefully a few interior designers will weigh in. I agree with the all the posts. Any time I have used a decorator, I have not been happy. I think if I were ever to use one again, it would be someone that I can can see their actual work in someone's home.
The more they sell, the more they make.
Years ago I did see an ad for a designer that came into your homw and helped you tweak what you already had. I don't know if there is anyone out there like that now.

I found a decorator on Houzz and have been really happy. If nothing else, you can see tons of different styles and check out their work before you hire them to make sure that you'll be a good match. Oh, and they're all over the country so you can find one in your neighborhood! I sound like a little endorsement, but I've been really happy with the site - have to spread the word!

Here is a link that might be useful: Professional Interior Designer portfolios

Well, not all decorators are alike. I am sure there must be others out there like me. I don't call myself an Interior Designer because I don't have the degree. I have a Certificate in Decorative Arts from a local reputable college. I work almost as a consultant, not a full-service designer, and my business is based on helping people save money. I don't buy for clients. I don't go to the design center where one price is shown to the client, but I pay another price. I will direct clients to local stores where I know the furniture is good quality and customer service is good. If they need me to, I will shop with them and help them wade through the 800 fabric samples to find the right one for their new chair or sofa. Or sometimes I'll just point them in the right direction and they'll shop themselves. It's a pretty broad range in terms of what people need me to do. Sometimes I just go in and recommend paint colors for a few rooms, or for the whole house. I'll help people choose tile for a kitchen, find a rug and bedding for a bedroom, draw floor plans... whatever. All for a straight hourly rate (which is lower than most decorators in our area charge because, again, I'm trying to help people decorate for less, so it would be counterintuitive to then charge them $100/hour). Almost all of my clients have called me back repeatedly, so I guess they must like what I'm doing. I am also very casual and approachable, which I think people appreciate.

You probably don't hear about people like me because I can't afford to advertise! All my business is word of mouth.

With some encouragement from DH, I hired an interior designer to help with our family room. The room is still a work in progress, but we had the same experience as many others have mentioned on this thread. We built our home 2 years ago without the help of a designer. Naturally, money was tight after the build, we had a much larger space to decorate and we were ready to replace some of our older pieces. We've decorated our home mainly with antique/ salvage, craigslist pieces with some crate and barrel, west elm, pottery barn and restoration hardware mixed in. We did pretty well for most of the house but DH and I couldn't agree on anything for the family room so we hired a designer as an arbitrator.

As stated by many others, our designer suggested many things that were expensive and out of designer catalogs. We were willing to pay a premium on a couple of statement pieces, but generally like to mix high and low. I also wanted to incorporate vintage pieces but unless you already own them, a designer can't really help you with that. She did give me a few great ideas and set me straight on a few things ie. don't buy 44" unlined west end panels for your 10' tall ceiling and big windows. it won't look good. And I never would have considered a wing chair in navy velvet without her suggestion.

Honestly, in the end I ended up making most of choices myself anyway. Overall, I'm happy we did most of our house without a designer. I did make a few mistakes along the way that may have been avoided if I had had a designer, but I also worry we would lost some of the uniqueness.

A designer is great if you don't have any idea what you want or if you happen to find one that totally clicks with you.

I use decorators like SueB20. They charge a straight hourly rate, they will shop with me or not, do as little or as much as I like. Almost all the ones I have used operate only by word of mouth, no advertising. Almost all of them have been wonderful about targeting my very slim budget. They don't hesitate to recommend accessories from Target or other inexpensive places, or use what I already have, because they know I can't splurge for expensive art work. It is way, way cheaper for me to get the decorator to recommend the right paint color first rather than go through 4 different colors that I picked myself that don't work.

I've hired a couple who I just didn't like at all and found to be a complete waste of time. They either had only one look they could do or they couldn't work with my preferences. The problem is that the ones I love to use have either moved due to their husbands' job transfers or their business has grown so much that they are difficult to schedule.

It's hard to find a really great decorator who works like SueB; they are worth their weight in gold. All the ones I've loved have been, as SueB said, approachable and casual. They could work with any style - modern, traditional, casual, country, whatever. Whenever I can use a decorator I really love, then I save so much money because I'm happy with the room for a very long time. Everything I decorate completely by myself I end up changing because I get bored with the look or never really liked the finished product.

I just thought I'd chime in as someone who has used a decorator and been very happy with the result. I did have to kiss a few toads before I found my princesses.

You need to look at their portfolio and see if what they do is compatible with what you want. My parents used three different ones over a period of almost 40 years that they were mostly very happy with. The first helped them furnish the entire house from scratch and actually saved them a lot of money. The second had some expensive ideas, but if it was out of budget they just said no. The third worked to help reupholster and refresh what was already in place and this was done piecemeal.

If they show you their own house, it may not be applicable to what you want at all. You need to see their work for clients. The last designer was partial to purple and foil wallpapers when she started with my parents, but she could work within Their context which was important. I saw her newly decorated LR/DR at the very end of her career and I didn't care for that either. But she did not try to impress her own look on her clients.

My feeling is that if you did not have a designer you were happy with maybe you didn't "interview" them well enough?

On the other hand, I would not have hired about 90% of the people who were in the program at the same time period I was (I took 5 years part time to do a 2 year program, so I saw a lot). Why? Most of them did not have the greatest taste, imo. Some of them were only capable of doing exactly what they liked and every project, "18th century" to "modern loft" looked almost the same. And some of them just weren't very bright. One of my classmates who I really liked, but whose taste I was not thrilled with, however, was working for an established designer on a project with a $5M budget, so who knows?

Since I had been asked to teach in the program, which I did not end up doing, I did get into a number of philosophical discussions with instructors, one of whom told me that one of the issues is that you can grade people on their technical abilities but it is hard to grade someone on their taste, but there IS, despite a lot of argument to the contrary, a fairly consistent notion of what good taste is. I know that this is getting kind of theoretical, and I am speaking as someone who has an interior design degree and rarely uses it, and as someone who has rigid and particular standards, but the flip side to people hiring a designer who is just not compatible, is that ....I just think there are pretty many out there that just aren't all that talented, and unlike a number of professions where technical skill may equal talent, and can be quantified in some way, this field isn't one of them. And some talented designers, like a couple of painters I know ( know a painter who supports himself as a janitor whose work equals that of his classmate whose pieces are now selling at the mid 6 figure mark)-- are not particularly successful in a financial or recognition sense,-- while some really Meh designers are raking it in and get a lot of work.

I could've written Sueb20's post. And, regrettfully, every negative thing said about designers is too often very true.

~Jeana

I have an established relationship with a designer who has done work for my mother, my SIL and me. We have three completely different styles---SIL is modern eclectic, mother is pre-revolution French (damn the proletariat, lol), and I am garden variety traditional. He is very good at looking at things you've already purchased and things you'd like to purchase and figuring out your style much better than you could ever articulatel it. He incorporates your existing stuff unless it is awful, and then he will tell you. When presenting sample boards for rooms he picks out more fabrics than he will use so there's opportunity for the client to make some choices. He will shop for vintage with or without you, will take you to the mart and/or the design center--- and he SHOWS you the wholesale price, and you know up front that he charges wholesale plus 35% plus adds la surcharge to all labor. You get access to better quality furniture, fabrics and workrooms, he is good with accessories from a variety of sources as long as it is good quality ---he'll refuse anything poorly made. He will not even look at a catalog like Restoration Jardware, Pottery Barn, etc, because he doesn't want the tiniest influence of that popular vibe in his own work and won't have anything to do with buying stuff from there (why use me for that? He asks rightly!)

I think my SIL hired him first, she met him at an artists gathering and they hit it off. He will do less expensive homes when he isn't working on a big project (like a $100k bathroom renovation in Los Angeles) Che moved from the Atlanta area to NYC, but still comes down here several times a year to work. SIL flew him down to work on her mountain home and even with that expense she saved a TON of money. They rented a trailer and drove to Highpoint and finished the LR and DR in one weekend... It was astounding. He is absolutely wonderful and expensive and worth EVERY PENNY!

I paid for a virtual consultation, it was a nice expensive chat that just confirmed several of the things I had already planned to do. I had unfortunately already made most of my choices before the consult so I did not get a lot of return on my investment. If I had done this before I had painted the same room 3 times and it would have paid off :)

Next time I move, she will be the first person I call.

We hired an interior decorator ten years ago when we built our home, and she helped us select paint colors, flooring, wall paper, and other essentials for a new construction. She was great, and we received many compliments on how our home looked.

Four years ago, we built again, in a new area and hired a different interior designer. It was a complete disaster. I wish I had listened to my intuition. I selected her because of her interior design certification, and I went to meet with her in her home. Her personal style preferences were very modern/contemporary, and I noticed a lot of shiny things, bright colors, geometric patterns, and columns everywhere in her home. Her style seemed to compete with the more traditional architecture of her home.

Anyway, I did share with her that my style preferences were more traditional/French country and that I liked warm colors and antique furniture pieces or at least antique-inspired pieces. She assured me that a good designer could work with any style.

Then . . . she accompanied us to our various appointments for tile, cabinetry, flooring, paint, and other selections. She always recommended things outside of my style preferences - impractical and over the top, usually. AND, worse, she insulted every one of the contractors who tried to share input in the process. She was completely rude and narcissistic. My husband couldn't stand her attitude, and after one day and $800, we never called her again. We returned to the contractors', changed our selections to our own preferences, and apologized for her awful behavior.

In the end, this "designer" even told me she never recommends "dented" furniture, referring to my appreciation for old pieces.

She was a terrible match for us in every way - style and personality.

After that experience, I doubt I'll ever hire another designer.

To be honest, I've received some really excellent FREE advice here that is much more practical and within my style zone. Also, I've had good luck with Ethan Allen's and Younkers services, free with furniture order.

If you're willing to take some time and consider your options, researching ideas and seeking advice from the great crowd here, you'll probably be just as pleased or more with the result than you would with a designer involved.

I know great decorators and designers are out there, but many times, it's hit and miss, I think.

That's my two cents.

I don't think anybody should use this thread to decide whether or not to hire an interior designer. There are good, bad and ugly designers, just like any profession.

I do think it's an excellent way to learn what to look out for, so you get a good outcome whether you decide to hire one or not. In fact, it probably makes sense to interview a few designers, and then decide whether you want to work with one of them, or do it completely on your own--rather than deciding in advance that you will or will not work with a designer.

The traditional designer model can cause you to spend more than you would otherwise. This may or may not save you money in the end, but the fact is, to-the-trade merchandise offers a much wider variety of choices at higher quality and more interesting design than you typically find in most stores. A lot of people tend to splurge more after they see what's out there, so save your pennies and quiet money, too, before you shop with a designer.

If you have a strong affinity for a certain style, you may not need someone ..... except, how do you get access to the myriad "to the trade" suppliers? That's a big gap.

I also find people are revisionist when they recall their experience. They may misremember what the designer contributed or mistakes they were steered away from.

However, you will definitely spend a great deal more if you hire one. Because they will show you things you never knew you wanted/needed.

I've hired a couple of designers in the past for consult/hourly advice and I'm glad I did. The first came after we had just bought our home. She made paint rec's for each room. She also mapped out the furniture placement for our FR and made suggestions of what would work in the room. Some of the suggestions I used and some I didn't, but it helped me get the ball rolling.

The second designer was a KIT/BATH specialist. We wanted to improve our KIT which ultimately was a complete remodel. Her suggestions of what we could accomplish in a Low/Med/High budget range were incredibly helpful.

I attempted to work with a local interior designer and that was a dud. He didn't have a webpage with a portfolio so I couldn't really see his work, but he did have a pretty large local store. The store was pretty much full of brand new furnishings that were not to my taste for the most part. That should have made me walk away but I thought I'd give it a try. He came out to my house for an initial consultation and I wanted a furniture / room layout done first. He was pretty unresponsive and the furniture layout he presented me was absolutely worthless. Like it had two squares and a
rectangle sketched on a piece of graph paper. So I paid him a small fee for the initial site visit and never called him back.
Flash forward a couple years and we bought a different house. I found an online decorator who had great examples of his work online. I priced out a furniture plan with him (emailed photos of my room with all dimensions, plus photos/dimensions of what i already had). He did a really great job of placing what I had and then suggesting new pieces to buy with dimensions etc. The goal was that he would give me a suggested style /size and then I would find and buy the actual pieces locally myself.

I think the critical bottom line is that the decorator you hire must have a portfolio of photos of rooms they have done for you to look at first. And you must love at least some of them! Otherwise why would you ever want any advice from them on how to style your room?

I'm working with someone now and it has been hit and miss. We are working primarily on window treatments but she is helping me accessorize my home. The good....she got me into an incredible trade warehouse. The bad....she makes very quick decisions. When looking at fabric or accessory choices she quickly skims through a book and picks a fabric or piece that will "go" with the room. While the fabric or pieces do "work" I don't always love the choices. When I dismiss her perfectly acceptable choice, she kind of shuts down on me. She will do what I want but doesn't really give a true opinion on the pieces I have selected on my own.