Anonymous wrote:I'm an interior designer and I would suggest doing a one time consultation. They can come in and make suggestions and follow up with some floor plans, furniture concepts and paint colors. You might be able to get a set fee with that kind of service.

Ditto this. The other option for saving money if you have a general sense of what you want is to get the room about 80% done, and then bring them in to help with the finishing touches (e.g., placement of wall decorations, rearranging furniture, etc.). Of course, if you go the latter route, you're stuck with what you've already done in case you realize it doesn't work after they come in. So it depends on your strengths -- are you good with general decorating concepts but have trouble pulling it all together with the finishing touches, or do you need help with the big intial decisions and then can fill in the details yourself?

Belfort has a large selection of furniture, upholstery and fabric options. If a person doesn't want to restrict themselves to one brand (i.e. Ethan Allen) then Belfort is the way to go. I've never used their design services but two of my friends have and were really pleased. We used Ethan Allen's free service. We bought around half of what their designer recommended and searched for alternatives for the other half. We had gone to several furniture stores before and thus had an understanding of what was reasonably priced at Ethan Allen and what was not. For example, we felt like their dining room chairs were overpriced for the quality and went for similar chairs at the Chair Store in Alexandria.

Anonymous wrote:You could always use an interior designer from a furniture store. Belfort has the best selection.

Belfort has the best selection of what?? furniture or interior designers?? I can see neither of those being good selections from Belfort

I was going to hire an interior designer. But after walking around Ikea, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn & looking through catalogues, magazines, I figured I could do it myself. You need to first think about how you live in your space - what's working, what isn't. Then look at ideas. You'll probably find you can do it yourself.

What if you can't afford to or don't want to buy any products. Do they just do a consultation?

You could always use an interior designer from a furniture store. Belfort has the best selection.

I'm an interior designer and I would suggest doing a one time consultation. They can come in and make suggestions and follow up with some floor plans, furniture concepts and paint colors. You might be able to get a set fee with that kind of service.

Love Melissa at Spendalla Home.

Just remember, you get what you pay for. A good one is not cheap. A cheap one is not good.

For various reasons, I'm stuck in my current home. I've come to terms with this but I'd like to maximize its livability since I'm there for the long-haul. I don't have a huge budget for renovations or improvements but was thinking that an interior designer might be able to make suggestions about how to use the rooms and arrange my existing furniture. Do interior designers do this? Any recs?