Why Hire An Interior Designer? DIY Blunders Add Up To Big $$$

Thanks to the onslaught of free decorating advice available online and in books, magazines and stores, everyone thinks they can be their own interior designer. How easy it’s become to complete a dream residence on your own, and dodge the interior design fees.

Not so fast. Remember the adage “you get what you pay for?" That’s usually the case when you turn the interior design of your home into a do-it-yourself project (DIY), especially at the luxury level. High-end upholstery, fixtures and finishes—especially if bespoke or antique—are costly, and mistakes can be more expensive than interior design fees, as we noted in our most recent Huffington Post piece.

What’s more, the do-it-yourself approach takes time; online items can be very different “in the flesh;” and many decorating services don't handhold, execute, install and solve problems. That’s why it’s critical to work with an interior designer, especially for luxury projects. Ultimately, homeowners will save time, avoid errors, eliminate hassles and save dollars—by making wise, long-lasting choices and not having to have work redone.

Here are our top reasons why it’s critical to use an interior designer for luxury projects:

We prioritize your budget. Everybody has their limits, even those willing to spend $500 per yard on fabric and $100,000 on custom cabinetry. We respect budgets—and know how to maximize them to meet homeowners’ needs now and in the future. That starts with putting money to work on what’s most important in the near-term, be it a high-efficiency kitchen or stylish family-friendly spaces to accommodate multiple generations, and planning for big-ticket items for the long-term, such as a master suite with a spa-quality bathroom.

We access experts that protect your investment. No matter how thorough a luxury interior designer’s program is and how deep their expertise, we aren’t specialists in every field. And this matters when we’re dealing with the significant sums that art, collectibles and lighting command. So we depend on lighting experts to check that a gutted room has adequate outlets and wiring to bring in necessary illumination for the three layers that make a room’s furnishings and artwork come alive, permit desk work or cooking to be performed effortlessly and allow bulbs to be dimmed when necessary. We ask for this advice before walls are closed up and painted to avoid a costly redo, and know which experts offer the best counsel.

We offer invaluable guidance that maximizes ROI. It may seem simple to pick cabinets for a kitchen, bathroom or study, but we look way beyond style, finish and hardware to make sure we’re picking the product that best meets a homeowner’s needs. For instance, we also consider the fabrication, quality and durability of a system’s components (from interior boxes to hardware) and the flexibility of the shelves to accommodate different items. Details like this make the difference between cabinets lasting 10 or 20 years and maximize ROI. Repeat this process for every item in every room, and you can begin to understand the knowledge a luxury interior designer possesses thanks to their education.

We make your biggest problems our own. Hiring a luxury interior designer offers an invaluable safety net. Mistakes happen in every industry and we step in to correct them in ours, whether it’s floorboards that buckle after installation, furnishings imported from overseas that are damaged during transit or custom built-in cabinetry that doesn’t fit its space. Professional interior designers stand behind their work, especially if anything goes wrong long after a job is done.

We save you time, and time is money. Searching for the perfect sofa, buying it, waiting for its arrival and returning it if it doesn’t work in a space, then starting the hunt again takes time…lots of it. Add up the hours to finish each room, and that’s time you could have spent playing the piano or training to climb Mt. Everest! Time really is money, and interior designers are expedient and focused. It’s their best resource for what their clients want and need.

Bottom line, we believe good luxury design is priceless. Or, to channel another adage, you get what you pay for—which brings our own adage-worthy observation to mind: free advice can come with hefty hidden costs.