4 Things to Know BEFORE You Begin an Interior Design Project

Hi, there, in my last post, “Is Your Design Budget Too Small?” I told the story of a couple who ran into problems with their budget when designing their kitchen. Below are the most important takeaways from that story: Set aside enough budget to hire your designer so you can let them do you their…

Is Your Design Budget Too Small?

This is the story of a most lovely young couple who hired a designer to design their family room as well as give their kitchen a “small facelift.” Though their budget was pressed from the start given their total job scope, the couple continually increased the size of their project as new thoughts struck on…

The Perils of Furnishing a New Home

New homeowners are generally stunned by the real costs involved in furnishing and filling that new home. Why shouldn’t they be? How many rooms does the average, “normal person” (aka a non-designer) actually have experience furnishing and designing? 5? Maybe 9? To put that into perspective and by contrast, as a quick count on my…

Finding an Organized Interior Designer

By and large, interior designers absolutely love what they do. In a recent survey conducted by Design Success University, a whopping 93.2% of practicing designers reported loving what they do. Now that’s somebody you want to hire and have working for you, right?!!?? Hold on a sec. Not so fast. Three out of four of…

COM Fabrics – Why Are They So Expensive?

COM. Customer’s Own Material. At the best-made upholstery end, it’s commonplace to put a preferred fabric onto a selected sofa frame – even if it means the fabric comes from a different manufacturer altogether. Customer’s Own Material is the ultimate flexibility in the custom world. The world where you can have whatever you want. COM is…

Kitchen Trend Alert: Modern Cabinets & Exotic Woods

Kitchen renovations are among the most stressful for any design client. Here at The Interior Design Advocate™, we teach people how to find and hire the team members, how to fire the wrong team members and how to negotiate the waters of design as wise design consumers in total. So here’s a look at the…

The High Cost of Window Treatments For a Large Home

Big beautiful homes are – well – big and beautiful. The cost to do the window treatments for those big homes will be beautifully big as well. Or not so beautiful, depending on how you look at it. Here’s a quick primer on window treatments for large luxury homes so you can be a wise…

The High Cost of Buying Furniture For a Large Home

Be a smart consumer and know what you’re facing when you are shopping for those big beautiful homes and you’ll be just fine. Big square footage and lots of windows means bigger dollars to furnish and fill that house. Not to mention to heat it, cool it, clean it, paint it and maintain it. On…

The High Price of Indecision in Interior Design

If you’re indecisive and considering hiring a designer, read on. The dollars I’m about to save will be yours. Sure, design is one of Life’s great pleasures. Done wisely, the well-designed home is a dreamboat of an experience both “before, during and after.” But Design requires more than a budget and a good designer. It…

Can a DIYer Hire an Interior Designer?

Here in the backroom at TIDA, we feel responsible to watch your back. You are all different, so we have different kinds of backs to watch! Today’s post is about the costly mistakes DIYers make when working with a designer, specifically when hiring a designer if you feel the budget won’t comfortably support it. Doing…

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