Whether to decorate your home yourself or hire a professional depends a great deal on how much you care and how confident you are in your own taste. A good designer has access to goods, services, and discounts that ordinary people don't. A good designer can make a room look even better than you dreamed it could.
On the other hand, it's possible for a home to scream "professionally decorated!" to visitors. You may not want your bedroom to be mistaken for a hotel room, for example. Remember that 50 percent of all professionals — doctors, lawyers, architects, decorators — graduated in the bottom half of their class!
The decisions that a professional can help you with are not rocket science. Look over this list of criteria and decide whether it's something you feel you can do yourself:
* What is the scope of the project you're thinking about? There's a big difference between buying a few throw pillows and completely emptying out a room and starting from scratch. If the thought of new paint AND a new carpet AND a new sofa AND all-new curtains and pictures fills you with dread, remember that you don't need a professional for the entire project. You can hire someone just for an hour or an afternoon, and then implement the pro's recommendations yourself. (BEFORE you hire the professional, have some very specific ideas on how the pro can help you, from furniture arrangement to color choices to "style." But that's another article!)
* What is the function of the room you're thinking about decorating? If it's the living room, don't just say "living room." "Frequent party zone" is different from "showplace"!
How often will the room be used? Who will use the room? When I was a child, the living room was for grown-up parties; we kids were only allowed there on special occasions. After about 1980 or so, the living room was used only once or twice a year. Today, my husband and I use OUR living room every day; it's more like a family room. A guest room that's used two or three times a year will have a completely different set of priorities from a master bedroom that's used every day.
What will the room be used FOR? Will you display your collection of Star Wars action figurines there? Will teenagers be allowed to party there? Will you go ballistic if someone spills his drink on your rug? Will Aunt Gertrude do a white-glove inspection every month?
* What colors are you thinking about using? Does the idea of color fill you with panic, so you always fall back on white? Even though you're bored bored bored with white? The psychology of colors has filled books, but a general rule of thumb is, reds stimulate, blues and greens soothe, and most people appear to prefer beiges, browns, and other neutrals. A bedroom filled with color and excitement might not help you sleep well, while fire-engine red in the dining room won't help anyone's digestion. (And from personal experience: Never use fire-engine red in the bathroom if there's a female in the house, a mistake I once made. Every time I used that potty, I was afraid I was having a menstrual accident!)
What's your favorite color? Always choose colors you'll enjoy looking at every day. If you don't know what your favorite color is, look at your favorite shirt or dress, the one that makes you feel as though you look great in it, and use THAT as your main color, and two or three complementary colors to accent it.
* How do you want the room to "feel"? Are you a very formal person, or does everyone always seem to end up laughing and chatting with you in the kitchen? Would you be happiest living in rooms that look like a William Powell-Myrna Loy movie, a John Wayne movie, a Spike Lee movie, "Gone With the Wind," or Monday night football?
Unless you live alone, remember to consult your nearest and dearest and take THEIR tastes into account. A man who prefers lumberjack shirts and combat boots might not enjoy ruffles and "Barbie pink," while a woman who prefers everything girlie and dainty might not enjoy heavy leather sofas and giant-plaid side chairs.
Suppose that you want to completely redo an entire room, and you want to do it yourself. Start with an overarching vision of the ideal outcome for YOU (including everyone who'll be living there): Country cozy? Urban chic? Retro? French provincial? Expensive hotel? 1950s split-level? Southwestern? Southern Florida? Cluttered or bare? Homey or expensive?
If you're like me, you won't be starting COMPLETELY from scratch. I have a Victorian love seat that used to belong to my grandmother's mother, plus three side chairs that go with it (gen-you-wine anty-queues!). When my husband and I redecorated our living room, we started by having a professional reupholster those four pieces. After we chose the new upholstery, the rest was easy. The main colors of the upholstery are brown, a sort of watermelon pink, and teal blue, so we have walls that same shade of pink and teal-blue curtains and accent colors. If we ever want to redecorate AGAIN, we might well go with a lighter shade of teal blue for the walls and watermelon-pink curtains and accent colors!
After they have an overall vision for the room, professional designers start with the elements that are most expensive and difficult to replace, and work their way "down." A ten-dollar plant is easier to replace than a thousand-dollar sofa, if you find you've made a mistake! In order, think about:
(1) Walls. Paint, wallpaper, or paneling? It's best to start with the walls, Just In Case. Spilling $10 worth of paint on a wall-to-wall carpet worth more than a hundred times that amount will NOT make your day!
(2) Floors. Rugs, carpets, tiles, specialized floor coverings? Like painting the walls, it's easier to lay down a new rug BEFORE you fill the room with furniture.
This is also the stage at which you'll build any built-ins you're planning — shelves and cupboards, for example.
(3) Big-ticket furniture, like sofas and beds. These are the pieces you're most likely not to want to replace if you don't have to. Keep in mind that slipcovers or reupholstery can transform a piece's whole look and add years to its life.
These are also the items you'll be starting out with when you're arranging furniture. The bigger and heavier it is, the less you're going to want to move it AGAIN, so start by keeping in mind traffic patterns and room functions. You're not going to want to block the easiest routes to the bathroom and kitchen, for example. If the fireplace is the biggest item of architectural interest in the room, most of the seating should be where the fireplace can be enjoyed. Don't position the bed so that it's hard to get to the bathroom or so someone lying in bed can't see the door.
(4) Smaller furniture, like side chairs or bedside tables. Don't position the bedside table before you position the bed!
(5) Lighting and window treatments. It's less of a hassle to replace your curtains than to repaint your walls, so don't choose these fabrics until almost last.
(6) Artwork.
(7) Plants and tchotchkes, "stuff" like vases, ashtrays, knickknacks, figurines and other small art, or decorative candles. This is not a case of "last but least," although these are the items that are easiest to replace. These are the icing on the cake, the little details that make your room uniquely your own and that you can cycle in and out of the room as the mood takes you.
Several months before you start, start keeping a "dream" folder, with photos of rooms or furniture you like, swatches of fabric and paint, notes, brochures, and other useful items. This will be invaluable to you once you're ready to begin shopping. Also in this folder should be a "map" of the room you want to redecorate, including all measurements. After you've bought 36-inch valances is NOT the time to discover your windows are 40 inches wide!
Watch "Trading Spaces" and any reruns you can find of "Changing Rooms," the British series on which "Trading Spaces" is based. Make notes for your "dream" folder of ideas you like or solutions to room problems (too small? funny angles? staircase in the way?) similar to yours.
Remember above all that YOU CAN DO IT. I'm proudest when I give a new friend the "grand tour," and my new friend thinks a professional did our decorating. With my husband's advice, I did it all myself. Do your homework, plan, plan, plan, and don't get discouraged, and you can too!