Why Hiring an Interior Designer is Worth the Investment

Written by: Jasmine Salem, Design Team

Oftentimes, hearing the word "Interior Designer" is intimidating. Our goal here is to educate our readers on how we will help you substantially speed up your renovation process and ensure everything gets done right the first time!

I'm sure you know someone who has either had a bad experience with a designer or knows someone who has and this can be quite discouraging. Have you heard or felt one of these below?

• "Hiring a designer is extremely expensive and/or I spent way more than I wanted to!"

• "I don't feel comfortable giving full control of my home over to someone" or "I fear not being able to do what I want."

• "The process of design is so long I'm on a strict timeframe"

Yes, many people have their opinions on why hiring a designer is not worth it, but consider why hiring a designer will really benefit you.

Consider four points that will mean a big deal for you:

1. You'll save a lot of money investing in quality furniture

2. You're paying for top-notch services to help save you A LOT of time and energy

3. We help you avoid costly mistakes

4. You increase your home's value

Let's break it down!

You'll Save A lot of Money Investing in Quality Furniture

Many years ago, furniture used to be made to last. Many people who have older parents or grandparents can attest to the fact that their furniture has withstood the test of time despite generations of kids. Fast forward to today - Many manufacturers have tried to cut costs by finding alternative materials to build furniture with. Unfortunately, the lifespan of the average sofa is significantly less than it was years ago.

If you don't know how furniture is constructed, it's going to be difficult to know if something will last or not. That's where the role of an Interior Designer comes in. We are educated on furniture construction and many of us have worked in furniture showrooms before and have gone through extensive training on what makes a piece of furniture a "quality piece." We also focus on the materials used on the furniture as this can make or break a beautiful frame. For example - If you use a Crypton fabric on a sofa it is inherently able to repel stains and is easy to clean, but choosing something with rayon or viscose is going to damage very easily from just a drop or sprinkle of water. Do you have pets? Microfiber is also inherently able to withstand threads being pulled out from the fabric due to its tighter weave. These are just a few small examples on why you need to know what you're doing if you're selecting furniture that you want to last for a while.

Additionally, you won't need to replace a quality piece after a few years. High-end quality furniture can withstand a beating if the right materials are used. A common trend today is many families will pay for furniture only to find that after several months or even a year or two the frame starts to bend or snap, and the fabric shows significant wear and tear causing frustration and time spent in finding a repairman or completely replacing the furniture. Investing in a quality piece of furniture from the beginning prevents all of these issues for you as well as giving you a long lifespan so you don't need to keep replacing furniture every few years which in turn, saves you money.

You're Paying for Top-Notch Services to Help Save You A LOT of Time and Energy

Little do many know how tedious and time-consuming it is to order, track, and manage furniture shipments especially with COVID-19!

Imagine you have ordered a whole room or two of furniture and you have to track and manage each piece from multiple furniture carriers. Item 1 is delayed, item 2 is back-ordered, and item 3 is lost and nobody can track it. (Talk about pulling your hair out!) Oh, and item 4 arrives damaged and you have to spend forever trying to go through the return process and waiting for a new item.

When you go to a furniture store, they can be pretty limited. Although they do offer white glove services, you are stuck ordering only from their stores. If you're lucky enough to find something online where white glove services are offered as an "add-on", you end up paying more for white-glove on individual shipments than if you were to purchase everything in one place at one time such as through a design company.

If you are the "Do-It-Yourself" type person, you can order things from Wayfair or other places online, but you'll notice that a lot of these items do not come assembled. (Say goodbye to your time and relaxing weekends!) Even more so, if an item is damaged, you now have to rebox it and send it back and wait for a new one - Again, wasting your time and energy.

When you purchase your furniture through a design company such as ours, we offer full white glove services. What this means is once a furniture piece arrives at our warehouse, we unbox, unwrap, and thoroughly inspect the item. If there is any damage, we repair it or replace it at our expense without you having to worry about it (and many times without you knowing). The item is then assembled in our warehouse and everything is delivered to you, ready to go, on the delivery day finished off with styling the room to look completed. You basically walk into your home and see everything as how it should be - Stunning! *If our clients choose to work with our third-party concierge team, they simply place their order, and the dedicated team will handle, track, and manage all of their items and schedule items to be sent directly to the clients door, or offer white glove delivery on the items selected at a good rate. If anything should arrive damage, they deal with the claims process of contacting the vendor and securing a replacement.

We Help you Avoid Costly Mistakes

Have you ever ordered something you thought was amazing but once it's in your home it just doesn't look right? Or perhaps you've purchased a paint color and find that once it's on the wall it looks darker?

True story: When I worked in a furniture store, I had a lady who came into the store absolutely furious because the sofa that was delivered to her was the wrong color. She brought in one of the cushions from her sofa and was convinced that her sofa delivered was blue, not the green one that was shown on the showroom floor. We both walked over to the showroom sofa sample and placed her cushion next to the showroom sofa, and it was exactly the same color. The lady was shocked! After explaining that light can completely alter the look of a color, we went out into the natural light of the parking lot where the same cushion truly looked blue. Afterward, she expressed that she was frustrated that she didn't ask for any professional advice before purchasing this sofa as it didn't coordinate with her room and she was stuck with it.

Moral of the story - This can all be avoided! As designers, we bring in fabric samples and look at it not only in your actual space but also under the lighting you have in the room. This can sometimes completely change the look of something and oftentimes helps our clients to better visualize something before they pull the trigger and purchase it.

Or what about sizing issues? There are minimum requirements in residential homes that help keep us and our families safe. For example, did you know there is a minimum amount of space recommended for walkways or that not every table lamp will be the correct size on a side table? What about the correct rug size? (If you choose the wrong one it can be a safety hazard). These are all things that you as the client don't need to worry about when you work with us.

In terms of color, we also look at the room as a whole and look at the undertones that each color has. It's possible that you can have an all-gray room but each gray has a different undertone. Some have warmer and some cooler undertones. Mixing warm and cools will make your room feel "off."

On the other hand, you can mix cool and warm colors in a space, but if it's not done correctly, it can again make the room feel off balance. Design is not only about putting things together to look nice, it's really a science that involves many elements such as psychology, color mixing, construction, and many others.

You Increase Your Home's Value

Today's housing market is just exploding and homes are selling higher than normal. Of course, we don't know how long this will continue but one thing is for certain: Homes that are nicely organized and furnished are proven to sell better than those that are not.

There is actually a whole career made out of this called Home Staging. Professionals will come in and stage your home just to sell it and it's proven to work and to sell your home faster and for higher value.

Your home is your guaranteed asset. Unlike the stock market or cryptocurrencies that are volatile and constantly changing and unstable, a home is something you can never go wrong with. Invest in your home and your furniture, and you won't only enjoy it to the full, you will make money out of it in the end when you go to sell it.

So let's jump back to the start of this article where we had some common objections:

• "Hiring a designer is extremely expensive and/or I spent way more than I wanted to!" - You can save a lot of money doing things correctly the first time. True, design is an investment but it's one worthwhile in terms of increasing your home's value and not having to keep replacing broken or damaged furniture over time.

• "I don't feel comfortable giving full control of my home over to someone" or "I fear not being able to do what I want." - You the client are the ruler here. You make the ultimate decisions but we guide you along the way. We will never tell you not to do something by force. Our whole design process revolves around your likes and dislikes and personal lifestyle, budget, and desires.

• "The process of design is so long I'm on a strict timeframe" - In today's market, you're going to have to wait a long time even if you purchase anything from any store (thank you COVID!). It's worth it to wait for the room of your dreams instead of compromising and not feeling 100% satisfied with your space or feeling that it's incomplete. Let us take this headache from you!

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