San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyle 02/11

Rita Orland, ASID
ICA&CA, IFDA, NKBA, SITE
President, Wings, Inc. Design Group
Specializing in interior design and design lifestyle tours (ArchiTours).

The Value of a Design Consultation

If you want to manage your home-interior design/renovation project yourself without an interior designer, consider this: Set up a consulting session with a professional interior designer for just a couple of hours. This upfront investment is highly beneficial. A valuable consultation briefing can get you started in the right direction.

The idea that designers are expensive and just want to up-charge and spend your money is a myth. A design professional is there to help you enhance your style and take it to a new level while staying within your budget. Designers find innovative solutions to existing challenges, specific construction problems and your lifestyle requirements.

An experienced designer can assist you with:

• Making the most of what you already have
• Setting priorities for your budget and schedule
• Saving time and money by avoiding costly mistakes and bad purchases
• Connections to a wider range of choices (professional designers have exclusive access to an extensive array of products beyond the chain retail stores)
• Editing the options
• Learning about design, which will give you the confidence to try something new
• Mapping out plans for future phases of your design project, stretching your budget over time
• Allocating your design dollars by knowing the best place to invest your money now
• Blending the finished and unfinished spaces into a coherent design during different phases in a renovation project

If your self-managed design project becomes overwhelming after you’ve gotten into it, you can always set up another design consultation. You also can hire an interior designer to work with you to complete the project.