Tips from an Interior Designer on getting started with your design project:

Stop, Look, and Clip! You need to think visually, so get a decorating notebook! Before you start to schedule an interior designer for an interview, start compiling a notebook. Your notebook will be a great tool you can use to increase your awareness of items in the furniture industry that appeal to you and speak to your personal style!  Go to your favorite bookstore, or stores if that be the case, and buy a couple of really good interior design magazines. Then, spend the weekend with the family cutting out, or making copies of, things you all like. Your notebook will be your personal record of these pictures. You should note the colors you like, or maybe the selection of fabrics, specialized carpet styles, tile, lighting fixtures, and designer furniture pieces. Don’t be shy, cut out, or copy, any thing that strikes your fancy! Mark the special design elements you see in those pictures so they could be incorporated into your rooms. !! Remember a designer can change the fabric, or the shape and size of the furniture with custom manufacturing!! Walk around your house and select the things you dislike and have a garage sale or give it to a friend who might love it. This will give you space for a new piece of furniture that will really update your room. Remember a professional designer can quiz you and learn all this from you but why don’t you save some time and effort and start your interior designer off with your visual representation. Then, depending on your verbal description, you could save yourselves an entire hour or more that would otherwise be spent trying to figure out what it is you want for your home. With just the notebook and a short conversation, you could be ready for the designer to start the process of planning your space using your ideas that were shared in your first meeting with your designer. There is such a rich source of design ideas at your disposal that are used by: professional interior designers, building designers, and architects alike. Things such as Hollywood Films, landscapes, clothing designs, cars, artwork, and pictorial architecture books inspire them all. Today, we have fascinating sources of visual stimulation, along with the computer and the vast web of information than can be found at your fingertips thanks to search engines. You can try looking at some websites on design for inspiration if you need to. If you are starting a new construction project, you should choose your interior designer when you select your architect, or building designer, along with a landscape architect. An educated and skilled interior designer can collaborate with everyone on matters such as a plan layout, which includes: kitchen and bath design, door locations, electrical outlets, window layout, and so much more. An experienced interior designer can preplan the furniture and tell your architect or building designer the appropriate size to make your rooms on their blueprints. This is helpful in accommodating for all of your existing items and any new purchases you may make for your home. In new construction, try to make your floor plan and furniture choices simultaneously. This is helpful in avoiding many common design and architecture mistakes, such as traffic corridors running through your formal living room instead of around it. Add a section to the idea notebook you’re making that should be used to inspire the architecture and building plans. An interior designer has years of education and formal experience. They have been trained to walk into a room and know exactly what it will take to achieve its potential and perfect ambiance. An interior designer can use the perfect scale, balance, rhythm, and harmony in any room. You can achieve all of the things you want in a room if you use these techniques. Happy Planning!

© DEH Interiors