“Designer At Home” Online Interior Design Service: A Review

Is it worth the price tag?

From time to time I design room makeovers for readers. Send me your photos, room measurements, tell me your design problems and I’ll create the interior design of your dreams. My Design Dilemmas are free in exchange for posting them.

I take pride in all my design work, so I spend a bit of time on them. That’s why I was interested so see what Designer At Home could design for my living room at the unbelievable price of $299 per room. Read More…

Help Me Style My Kitchen Island

One of the problems we designers have is we’re so busy working on everyone else’s homes that we don’t have time to fix up our own. Now I’m working on Apartment Therapy’s Kitchen Cure. One of our assignments in week 2 was to do something special for our kitchens, like buy a painting, etc. Something that’s been on my list of things to do is to style the island in my kitchen.

I thought I’d open it up to my readers.¬† Think of it as a Design Dilemma in reverse. I’d like to keep the 24″ lazy susan and create a line of baskets to hold fruit, a cake plate with a cover for cookies, and other cooking things.

Do you have any ideas? Are there any products that you really love that you think would work here? By the way, that’s a candle on the lazy susan. It can go. And that’s a bottle of olive oil.

Can you help me out? I find that my readers have tons of great ideas and I’m open to any and all suggestions. To make it even more fun, let’s forget the budget. Price is no object (at least for now – gulp!). So let it rip!

Decorating On The Cheap

Today’s New York Times ran a brilliant and funny article about a $1,000 redecorating project gone wrong, then right. I thought you would, too. You’ll also enjoy seeing the room designed by HGTV’s Ron Marvin.

Ron is the host of Small Space, Big Style. He agreed to redecorate a woman’s living and dining room for free with a budget of only $1,000. Did she appreciate getting saving a $6,000 design fee? Not.

To read the article and see more images, follow this link. But first, here are some of my favorite bits from the story.

Mr. Marvin offered solutions for nearly all of her design problems, all for $1,000. Ms. Sperling, however, seemed upset. “I don’t want to totally say no,” she began, before pessimistically questioning nearly all of his recommendations. When told the dark sideboard would be repainted white, she asked “what kind of white?” When Mr. Marvin said the top of the dining table would be replaced with glass, she asked, “Isn’t glass expensive?” And as for the coffee and end tables from Ikea, Ms. Sperling wanted to know, “Is it made well at Ikea?”

later…

He was also perturbed that Ms. Sperling suggested spending more money. “She was being so detailed and picky about the whole budget,” he wrote in an e-mail message to this reporter, and now she is “adding more things!”

still later…

The next day, Ms. Sperling e-mailed back a lengthy explanation for why she wouldn’t be able to make it to Ikea for another week, how she didn’t like any of the three rug options Mr. Marvin sent, and why, according to her calculations, the mirror or a lamp would have to be cut.

Jeez! Thankfully, she liked “99%” of the finished room. I’ve been so lucky to have had great clients. But, there was this one lady….

Join the Discussion on my Facebook Fan Page

What are your decorating challenges? We all have them. For me, it’s arranging things on a table. If I have tons of things to choose from it’s not a problem. I can play with it until I get it right. But it’s harder for me to view the perfect placement of things in my mind’s eye. I guess that makes me a player.

Let’s get the discussion going! Join my Fan Page by following this link and let’s help each other out. See you there!

Design Dilemma: Rachel’s Dining Room

My friend, Rachel Perls is a color expert and writer of Hue. She wrote to me about a month ago asking for help with her dining room decoration. She’s got the color down solid – a nice complimentary scheme of orange and blue The walls are orange and she covered the chairs with a nice blend of blues. She’s planning on painting the trim a dark brown.

So, we’ve got our color scheme. Rachel needed some help with furniture placement, a buffet and some finishing touches. So here we go.

The table needs to be placed with the short end facing the entrance. As you can see, it makes a better traffic flow into the kitchen and around the table. That’s simple! The next place to go is the area rug.

The walls, table and floor have orange tones, which can look monotone. The large window and the wide doorway on the other side cut down on the saturation. Still. I felt it would be a good idea to go with a neutral carpet to cut back on the orange without clashing with the blue patterns on the chairs. The 5′ x 8′ sisal carpet ($158) is from Pottery Barn). It has a bound edge and fits nicely under both the table and chairs. Next, we need a buffet.

I’d like to see Rachel and her husband some pieces they’ll keep forever. I love this Chinese Butcher’s Table from Wisteria ($1,499). The age on the antique buffet gives the room tons of character. Plus, it can serve as a buffet table – terrific for entertaining. Since Rachel is lucky enough to live in San Fransisco, she can shop the antiques in her wonderful city for just the right thing and keep this in mind while she shops. Lucky girl!

We need some simple accessorising. Rachel already owns this tiled mirror. The color ties in perfectly with the blue chairs. I’d hang this over the buffet. She’s going to need some artwork on the other wall as well. I suggest starting an art wall with a variety of photos, art work and other elements. To see how to create this look, read my earlier post on the topic.

I’ve added a hand-painted Talavera plate from Novica as a centerpiece on the table. Two would be even better.And that’s it! A simple plan for a beautiful, colorful room.

Jennifer’s Tips

• Always start with the item that has the fewest options. Here, I would have started with the rug and then chosen fabrics for the chairs afterward.
• Neutral goes with everything! Duh. The beige sisal cuts back on the orange and creates a nice extra layer of decoration.
• Don’t freak about matchy-matchy. Please! This room will look really great with a mix of styles. The only important element is the scale. Keep all the pieces the same scale. Say no to a giant chair with a tiny table.

Okay, let’s hear your tips. How would you decorate Rachel’s dining room?