You promised yourself that this was the year that you would redesign your bedroom or your 12-year-old family room. Oh, wait, then something called the Corona Virus hit and you have been locked inside your house for the last 30 days.
You realized more than ever that your worn-out furniture is no longer serving you well. Your kids are teenagers or maybe they moved out. You promised yourself when the time was right, you would get that grown-up room that you have been waiting for. You recognize that you need help but not sure what kind of help you need.
You call a Long Island Interior Designer or Long Island Decorator but before you do, maybe you need to do a little homework yourself. You want to be prepared, somewhat knowledgable, and REASONABLE in your expectations. This isn’t HGTV. and your room isn’t going to come together in a week or two. It’s simply not realistic.
I can’t talk for other home interior decorators but everything I source for my clients comes from quality manufacturers and that takes time. I also do not source inferior furniture for clients that I myself would not buy. OK, more of that later.
So how do you get started? First, make a list of everything going into your room. Do not leave anything out. For instance, your family room could read like this: sectional, cocktail table, 2 chairs, rug, side tables, window treatments, art, wallpaper, lamps, ottomans, accessories.
Just because you don’t write it down, doesn’t mean you don’t need it. That shortcut’s not going to work but hey good try. If you try to skip the artwork, lamps, and accessories, your room will never look finished. So by writing everything down and trying to think about how much you would pay for things makes it easier in helping you determine your budget- cough, cough.
Maybe $25,000-$30,000 sounds like a lot of money to you but when you actually see how many items are going into the space, then maybe it’s not as bad as you think. Now make an excel spreadsheet of those items and start with a resource like Pottery Barn for good quality and Williams Sonoma for better quality.
If you start to assign prices to the items that you need in a good and better scenario, it will help you develop a budget for your room. OK, so now that you have a preliminary budget, what’s next for your project.
I always tell clients that they need to start collecting pictures of spaces they love and make notes about what they love about it. You can start to collect pictures on Pinterest, Houzz, or from magazines but you need to have something to show your designer.
Clients that won’t take the time to do that signal to me that they might not be fully invested in their project. When I work with clients, I need to get into their heads. Anything they can show me is so helpful.
