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Decide on a reputable and establishedfurniture store you prefer to work with - the styles and prices fit your style preferences and budget. Make an appointment with one of their decorators. Take the pictures (and measurements)of the room you want to focus on and let the decorator help you choose a few pieces - be willing to communicate your likes/dislikes etc. Start there. You can add accent pieces from other places later as you get a feel for the room and how you are living in it. If it goes well, move on to other rooms with the same decorator - or, having been through it, you might feel confident enough to do it yourself.
I agree with this. Many mid-high end furniture stores offer free design service. If OP felt capable of choosing furniture, he wouldn't be writing.
OP, tell the designer what you told us. She will offer you options, and you can choose a piece at a time, or a whole room. She will understand proportions and traffic flow, etc.
sounds like it would do you good to talk to a local interior designer. personally i wouldn't go through a furniture store's designer. i would consider focusing less on the furniture and more on the envelope of the space. based on the pics, it looks slightly awkward. i'm not saying you have to make structural changes, but good design and decorating can go a long way to conceal bad architecture. creating a complete environment you want to be in will be better in the long run. what good is it if you have only fabulous furniture?
Nice curtains! They go with the piano and the chandelier. I see you have a lot of framed 'art'. I'd mass it on one or two walls (since it's all very small stuff).
The La-Z-Boy does not belong in a Middle Class living room - particularly one belonging to a Professor. "Motion Furniture" is Lower Middle Class or Lower Class, in that context. It belongs in a den or bedroom.
Three thousand Dollars is basically no budget at all. But, if you can find a struggling/fledgling/retired Interior Designer, who'll work for $60.00 an hour, then allocate $600.00 for him/her to shop with you at Goodwill, or wherever the used furniture bargains are in your community, and for help hanging the 'art'.
The piano is nice. The curtains are nice. The carpet and wall colors are fine. Honestly, I'm thinking along the very traditional lines of camelback sofa, Chippendale secretary, wingback chairs... with an emphasis on high Georgian design. Lamps should be converted Chinese vases. It will fit what you've already got started, and give people the impression that you're a person of substance. And, right now, you can pick up things like that, at ridiculously low prices - even though they're of high quality.
I have a friend, east of the Mississippi River, who's moving to the desert, to live near his son. He knows that desert homes are not appropriate for his current home furnishings. He's from a socially ambitious and rather wealthy family, who bought nothing but the finest Georgian reproductions. His son (who has greasy hair, and lives an a city full of people like that) turned his nose up at all that Baker Georgian. So, my friend started listing those pieces (chosen by his city's top Interior Designer) in the paper, or on Craigslist, or somewhere. He asked eight hundred for a Rice-carved bed, and two YOUNG attorneys (who were NOT social outsiders, and who were FFV - 'First Families of Virginia') rushed over, with the cash. And they snapped-up every other Georgian piece with which they could persuade him to part.
Then, curious as to why the young attorneys were so eager (when this stuff was supposedly "out of style"), he looked up his (now gone) bed, and was shocked to see that it was still being made, and selling, new, for twenty or thirty thou. Basically, a lot of Millennials are downwardly-mobile, and not interested in their parents/grandparents Georgian pieces. This represents an opportunity for people on the way UP, to snap-up those pieces for a song. Take advantage of the current Midcentury Modern fad, and snap-up the pieces which ARE NOT screamingly 'Midcentury'.
You'll be the smart cookie in the house that looks like the University President's house.
Here's a great auction site, if you don't have a good local source. I was eyeing those marquetry tables for our Aspen house, but forgot, and somebody else got those Neo-Jacobean beauties for $168. https://www.ebth.com/items/6438324-e...ry-side-tables
As for the television, do as the current crop of Rothschilds do, and put it on a library table (https://cdn0.rubylane.com/shops/1529...6_05.2L.jpg?96), or, if it's HUGE, then put it on a refectory table (https://cdn1.pamono.com/p/z/1/7/1785...ry-table-4.jpg) with chinese porcelain massed around it. They have precious museum-grade ceramics, of course. But you can pick up pieces every bit as attractive, at TJ Max, or at Goodwill.
A struggling interior designer makes 60 an hour!? I think I need to quit my job at Boeing...getting peanuts here.
Yes, but for every hour they bill, they tend to spend THREE on prep-work. And then there's the OVERHEAD. And then, there's the fact that the struggling ones may only bill ten or twenty hours a MONTH.
Plus, I have NO idea what those designers make, since MY Decorator bills-out at a vastly higher rate, and the lowest members on his teams, he bills out at $60.00 (more, for projects in expensive locations like Manhattan and San Francisco). Presumably, those interns get $20.00 or less - and they're ALL highly-trained.
My Decorator is a whiz at Structures, and his first degree is in Economics (at our little podunk first university, there weren't a lot of degree options). He manages several teams, and mostly works on commercial projects - frequently in conjunction with my Integrated Marketing Services Man (who has his own large agency). Still, his 'break' came, only because he's an original member of our little 'pod' of friends, and worked on our first homes/apartment buildings for free, when we were all young and struggling. Now, he's an integral component of our success strategy. As we grew, he grew. And, he's been an insider in active investment/venture capital schemes.
That is NOT how it usually works. Normally, a Decorator lives off family money, finds a husband/rich wife to live off of, or just withers away in poverty and obscurity, making Minimum Wage, in a paint store. Mostly, it's the latter.
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And, to respond to the poster below, I assumed that everyone knew that it's not uncommon for Architects and Interior Designers - the ones who work on residential interiors - to call themselves "Decorators" - particularly if that's what they're doing. They consider it less prissy. They assume their clients will look-up their actual credentials.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 07-24-2017 at 01:27 PM..
People need to stop using interior designers and interior decorators interchangeably. If you need some background information, there is a wealth of information on the internet about interior decorators, interior designers, and residential architects. While there is always some degree of overlap in what these professionals do, they are not one and the same.
The OP has said he is not interested in changing structural elements or re-designing the space in his home. An interior decorator will suit his needs.
People need to stop using interior designers and interior decorators interchangeably. If you need some background information, there is a wealth of information on the internet about interior decorators, interior designers, and residential architects. While there is always some degree of overlap in what these professionals do, they are not one and the same.
The OP has said he is not interested in changing structural elements or re-designing the space in his home. An interior decorator will suit his needs.
I will continue to use "interior designer" and "interior decorator" interchangeably until the day I die. In many states, you can legally call yourself an interior designer regardless of education. You are still "designing" whether it involves structural elements or not. If someone designs a dress, they're called a designer. If you design a room, you are designing a room.
An interior decorator can still do the same work by hiring someone qualified to draw up the structural plans and pull a permit. An architect or draftsman comes to mind. BTW, architects are not happy that the ASID has pushed interior designers into the structural side, because it encroaches into their area. In practice, few interior designers handle structural work.
The ASID seeks to eliminate competition via heavy regulations that contribute nothing of value. There are lots of top designers without design degrees because it's an art.
Last edited by Shooting Stars; 07-31-2017 at 01:03 PM..
I will continue to use "interior designer" and "interior decorator" interchangeably until the day I die. In many states, you can legally call yourself an interior designer regardless of education. You are still "designing" whether it involves structural elements or not. If someone designs a dress, they're called a designer. If you design a room, you are designing a room.
Regardless your thoughts on the politics of licensure, designing and decorating are substantively different processes. To reiterate, while interior designers and interior decorators may have overlap in their professions, they are not one and the same.
Your analogy of a clothing designer is lacking. First, clothing design and interior design differ materially and substantively as design professions. As a corollary, there isn't a niche in fashion that functions exactly like an interior decorator. That isn't to say a comparison isn't possible. A better analogy to the relationship between an interior designer and an interior decorator would be that of a clothing designer and a fashion stylist in the fashion world.
Regardless your thoughts on the politics of licensure, designing and decorating are substantively different processes. To reiterate, while interior designers and interior decorators may have overlap in their professions, they are not one and the same.
They are not one and the same? That's ONLY according to the ASID and whatever states the ASID has managed to strong arm to enact regulations to bar competition.
Seriously, there no literally no one but the ASID making that distinction.
In the several states where anyone can legally call themselves an interior designer regardless of formal education, they are legally called "designer" regardless of what the ASID thinks.
How about an interior "decorator" who is self-taught and draws plans that are double-checked and overseen by an architect, yet the plans don't need to be corrected by the architect? They would be doing the exact same thing as the "designer" for all practical purposes.
It's all pure b.s. The only "designers" who make a big deal of it are the ones who are afraid and resentful of people with talent. None of the early famous designers who created the profession would be able to practice today according to the ASID.
As the article said, some of the leadership of the ASID was grandfathered in and call themselves "designers", yet they don't even have the "credentials" themselves!
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