Interior Design

[Chris]

Well since I am going to be receiving my severance and some other $, and I have secured another position, it's going to be time to put some $ into the house. Aside from painting, some minor interior changes (kitchen backsplash, knobs, possibly new carpet in the bedrooms, etc), and some furniture, I need to put a shed in the backyard, sod the lawn, and work on my front porch.

I can do all of the work myself, BUT - I am at a loss when it comes to the interior color choices, etc.... I put a couple posts up before with pics, but never really got any solid advice. Have any of you ever hired an interior designer? Can you get them to work out colors, ideas, etc and then do the work yourself?

I'm a cheap bastard :p :lol:

[...mikey]

most of them will take pictures of everything, then just give you their opinion of what the good colors would be..

we thought they'd actually print new pictures with the walls colored, etc.. but no. they just wrote where to paint what on each picture. i think it was around $250. I forget.

the choices were alright. we changed them up anyway and just used the colors they told us to use

what was really annoying was all of their choices were the $90-120 cans of paint. we didnt even think about that until we went out to actually buy the paints and get them special ordered.

[Aharon]

I went through a couple different interior designers. They all sucked, and were a joke. They all went to the same stores I do, and picked out items I would have chosen myself. And I suck at interior design.

[TNathe]

there is a program at lowes that allows you to load photos into it. you can then select colors for walls, trim, etc to get a preview. its like 10 bucks. worth it IMO.

[Chris]

Maybe Aharon & Steph should be my interior designers, lol....

[Joe]

My wife and I did it ourselves and it came out good....

The stores you should get to know are:

Home Depot - Behr Paint pwnz Olympic (lowes)
Old Time Pottery - Awsome store for accent stuff
Pottery Barn
Pier 1
Bed Bath and Beyond

[Kristin]

I've seen the commercial for Rooms To Go that has free in-home design assistance. You could have then help you pick out furniture, accesories and colors all at once. :dunno:

[Hillary]

Dude, go to Barnes and Nobles, get a whole bunch of magazines, books, etc. Sit down, drink some coffee and get to looking! :) Trust me, you don't need an interior designer. I really love that book by Nate Berkus. (The guy who is always on Oprah.) He gives great suggestions in his book.

[Maite]

I'll help you, and you can pay me in sushi. I will drag my Kiki along, so you have to buy her food of her choice as well. Deal?

[Kristin]

haha, you called me Kiki. :lol:


I'll help. I <3 Lowes! I'm finishing up a few things at my house before it goes on the market. After that I'll need a new victim!

[Chris]

might be all about it if you too will decorate nekkid ;P