Furniture store design people

[Anonymous]

Are they useful? I mean to buyers? Obviously they are to the stores as they work on commission and push sales.

[Anonymous]

It depends. How picky and opinionated are you, and are you willing to buy everything at one store?

I used one at Ethan Allen. She took all the detailed measurements for my living room and put it in the 3D room software and had me fill out an extensive questionnaire about style and existing furniture pieces etc. She made a very polished presentation but her design suggestions were awful. No storage whatsoever, and a white boucle couch. We have small children.

I used another at Furnitureland in NC. She came up with a few different designs and showed us a bunch of pieces in the warehouse that could work. They were good "textbook" ideas for layout but in the end didn't work for us. It's an awkward long and narrow living room with doorways in annoying places.

Conclusion: I think they are good for furnishing a rental or vacation home in one fell swoop. For your own space, you are best positioned to figure out the layout that works for you. From there, it's just a matter of knowing some design basics like don't get matching sets of couches and chairs, mix rectangle things with curved things and mix your materials, do a 60/30/10 color palette (starting with an inspiration item that contains multiple colors, like rug or art, and pull a few colors from there, use 60% of one color - typically wall color, 30% of 2nd color and 10% of third accent color) and voila, a put together room.

[Anonymous]

They're pretty useless. Anybody can download software to help with furniture placement.

If you want help that doesn't cost a lot, you could try one of the online designer services like Havenly (I think is the name). Or do what PP suggested.

[Anonymous]

Our Ethan Allen designer was excellent. She was attentive to our style preferences, sensitive to our budget, and made efforts to take advantage of furniture and decor we already owned to optimally integrate all of that into the design along with new pieces. When EA didn't have suitable items, she suggested alternative sources.

As always when services are highly individualized, it all depends on the person assisting you, as well as on your own communication skills and reasonableness.

[Anonymous]

A good friend does this for a living. She knows very little about design. Her job is to sell you as many pieces as possible. I certainly wouldn't use her.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s worth a try. I suspect the quality varies widely from one person to another. Even if you only come away with one new idea, that can be helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends. How picky and opinionated are you, and are you willing to buy everything at one store?

I used one at Ethan Allen. She took all the detailed measurements for my living room and put it in the 3D room software and had me fill out an extensive questionnaire about style and existing furniture pieces etc. She made a very polished presentation but her design suggestions were awful. No storage whatsoever, and a white boucle couch. We have small children.

I used another at Furnitureland in NC. She came up with a few different designs and showed us a bunch of pieces in the warehouse that could work. They were good "textbook" ideas for layout but in the end didn't work for us. It's an awkward long and narrow living room with doorways in annoying places.

Conclusion: I think they are good for furnishing a rental or vacation home in one fell swoop. For your own space, you are best positioned to figure out the layout that works for you. From there, it's just a matter of knowing some design basics like don't get matching sets of couches and chairs, mix rectangle things with curved things and mix your materials, do a 60/30/10 color palette (starting with an inspiration item that contains multiple colors, like rug or art, and pull a few colors from there, use 60% of one color - typically wall color, 30% of 2nd color and 10% of third accent color) and voila, a put together room.

There’s a 60/30/10 rule of thumb??