What Is a Consultation With An Interior
Designer AND Do You Need One?

Ahhh interior design consultations! They’re my favorite!
I love walking a client’s home and giving out all of the ideas I can imagine!
But, what the heck is a Consultation/Design Work Session? They’re definitely not like a consult with a contractor. And there’s a reason that we call them Design Work Sessions. They’re really working sessions where we share tons of our design expertise and vision. They can be the beginning of our working relationship or they can be the boost and advice that you need to start your renovation project on your own.

As a designer in Western Massachusetts, when I am out and about, when I meet new people, they inevitably ask me for design advice as soon as they find out what I do for a living. So guess what, THAT is what a Consultation/Design Work Session is for. We call it a Design Work Session because it’s a working appointment full of ideas, tips, suggestions and advice.
It’s like a “pick your brain” session. There’s actually a lot in here. LOL

Consultations can be for a variety of reasons. Maybe it’s for the start of a big project that we’re going to be working on OR maybe it’s because you’re going to be doing a project on your own and you need to know what direction to go in. Maybe you’re moving and you need staging advice. Maybe you need some paint colors, OR maybe you just have no idea what you need or where to start! All of those are great reasons for a consultation.

One type of consultation that we regularly do is a PAINT consultation.
We’ll give you paint colors for every single room in your home, including trim and finish, whatever you need! The game changer? We have big giant painted boards that are easier to look at than those little, tiny paint swatches. And, they’re painted, not printed, so the color is more realistic.
TIP ALERT – for when you are picking paint colors. If you’re not hiring us for a consultation, you need to paint a big piece of paper or poster board with the actual paint. Then, hang it up in the room and look at it! Look at it next to white, not against your existing paint color. That is what we do! We bring over those big giant paint boards for paint consultations. We look at the colors with your furniture, etc. and we choose what works best for your home.
Psst…did you know that I’m actually a certified True Color Expert? Yup, I got my certification a few years ago through Maria Killam. I’ve never looked at color and undertones the same again!

Another type of consultation is a design consultation.
We go through your home with you! You wouldn’t believe the design dilemmas and floorplans that we have solved a consultation! We had a consultation a few weeks ago with someone who just moved into a house. They’re furnishing and decorating it all on their own. BUT she needed a plan to follow. So, she has all of the notes from our consultation so that she can move forward. She knows EXACTLY what to do next.

It could be a floor plan. It could be a furniture arrangement. It could be window treatment ideas. It could be paint colors. It could be an artwork consultation, or we could just be talking about decora and accessories. Whatever you need. That’s what we talk about at Consults. Any type of consultation falls under that umbrella of design consultation!

The next type of Consultation is a Staging Consult.
When you’re selling your home it’s really difficult to look at your house like a product sell instead of looking at it like your home. You really need to de-personalize your home and make it as attractive as possible to potential buyers. During our staging consults we come in with a fresh eye and give you our unfiltered advice with step-by-step instructions for what you need to do to get the most for your home sale.

SO… how do you know if a consultation is for you?
Take a look around. Is your home exactly how you want it to be? Do you walk in your front door and feel relaxed? Are your paint colors working? If the answer is no, then let’s fix that! Consultations/Design Work Sessions can be magical!

But, are they worth it?
Funny story, I ran into a couple that I had done a consultation for at breakfast one morning in Palmer. Side note – Angels in Palmer is AMAZING! Anyway, the husband, who is a quiet type who owns his own mechanic garage, not the decorating type. 😉 He was about to start their bedroom renovation. His wife had me over for a consultation to help her pick paint colors, choose a layout and choose some finishes for the renovation. When I ran into them, the husband said, “When we painted the kitchen a few years ago and my wife picked the paint colors, I painted that kitchen THREE TIMES! When you came over and did the consultation for us, I painted the bedroom ONE TIME! That’s it!” He said it was worth every penny, BIG praise from him!

Here’s my question for you. If you spend $1000 on the wrong draperies, you lose that $1000 and you could have saved it by having a consultation. If you spend $1000 on a sofa that falls apart in a year, you could have received better information at the consultation and saved that money. So, to me, yes it’s definitely worth it!

OK so how do they work!
This is what happens, I send you a link after we’ve had a phone call or you’ve expressed interest in a Consultation. This link brings you to my site, you put your payment through for the Consultation, and then you have access to my calendar. You can pick a date and a time that is convenient for you and then you fill out a questionnaire that tells me just a little bit about you and your project so that when we walk into that Consultation we can get right to work.

My assistant and I come in, we sit down at your table or in your living room, or wherever you choose, and we have a conversation about why you wanted us to come over, how you live in your home and what your needs are. I am there to give you all the expertise and all of the knowledge that I have. Meanwhile, my assistant will write everything that I say down and those notes get left with you at the end of the consultation. By the end of the Consult clients are usually glazing over and can’t take in anymore information. So we circle back to where we sat at the beginning of the Consult and talk about next steps.

If you want to move forward with us then we’ll talk about which one of our services works best for you. We wrap everything up and go through what the next step will be because Consultations can be overwhelming! Whether you hire us to get to work on your project or are doing the project on your own, we upload the notes onto your own personal page on the site, the one where you booked your Consult. They’re there forever, whether you work on your own or hire us to do your project.
If you decide that you’d like us to create your dream home then we go over the Agreement and take a deposit so that we can get to work. Either way you’re off to a great start!

If you still have questions about Consultation/Design Work Sessions, then give us a call!! We are always happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Or, you can go ahead and book your consultation.

We LOVE when you PIN our blog, that’s why we give you this cute little Pinterest pic!