redfox-you can bring them in at any point and time where you want input? Ours even helped with shingles and porch ceiling materials and that's pretty early. Then it was 'quiet' for a while until I wanted help with paint and flooring in the master bath. We chose the wood floor for the main living area on our own so then I needed help with coordination or pulling it all together. She also helped with where to stop and start and heights of certain design elements like wainscoting and how to layout the built ins based upon the pictures we showed her and things of that nature. She has seen and done so much she had great and creative ideas that I am simply just not capable of. Once it was complete, she also gave a lot of advise on how much is too much as far as finishing touches and was a great help with budget and where to find certain decor after it was finished. As for control - since it's your house you should be on the same page. If you aren't I'd think they are designing someone else's house. We picked paint together but there was one color for the bathroom that dh did NOT like so in the end we went with something else. No problems there - she was there to help us with a house that felt like us. She listened to both of us and then would make suggestions on how to merge our two styles together so we'd both be happy. Easily one of the best decisions we made and well worth the cost. She helped as much or as little as we wanted.

Unless you have a great deal of money to spend, you are better off doing a lot of the hard work yourself and then hiring someone to help finish things off with panache. Good interior designers cost a fortune- six figures for a living room, for a modest start. Mediocre interior designers cost money too- I have no idea of how much though- but my feeling is that any money spent on a mediocre designer is money that could have been spent on better furniture and finishes. Lay out your wish list. Consult some books and bring the problems here to work out together with this very talented crew. There is not a day that goes by that I am not amazed at how the people on this board work together to create beautiful spaces. Try with one room and see how it goes. People have reported good things from distance consultations with Maria Killam, whose specialty is colors. Google her blog and check out posts about her here on GW. She may be able to give you a good color scheme. Laurel Bern's blog is one of my favorites and she sells color schemes as well. I know it can seem overwhelming, but if money is a concern at all, it seems unproductive to waste it on meh interior designers.

Thanks, all for the insight. Based on past experience I don't have a problem with the markup - with past designers the items I've gotten have been below retail even with the markup, and when they weren't I purchased them independent from the designer. I'm not fond of paying the markup AND and hourly rate - I would expect one or the other to be lower when working on items for which the designers gets a markup (v. specing items for the builder to order). That said, we strongly prefer this design firm and are going ahead with them, as they bring tremendous value that others with whom we've chatted just can't provide (prime among them being excellent communication and follow through, and use of CAD in the design process both to help us visualize options and to ensure the desired end result is clear to installers). Mostly, the contract terms just make it such that we're unlikely to buy furniture or window coverings through the designer, but, honestly, we don't really want new furniture, and I can handle window coverings.

I love your room and think you’re on the right track. It just needs some color. I do like the chunky wood mantels but that’s the only significant change I’d make. Your black and white pics might work as a grouping and then put something larger and more colourful on the other side. I’d not do another pic over the mantel. Instead consider a chunky colourful vase or sculptural piece. Maybe some smaller leaning art. And something alive—a plant or flowers. Then some color on your sofa via pillows and a throw. Lots of accent colours would work with your neutral palette. Red, orange, purple or turquoise. What do you like? You could do new drapes incorporating your accent color.