Do You Need to Hire an Interior Decorator for Your Custom Home? 6 Things to Consider…
December 19, 2017
At Dunbar Builders, we’ve discovered during our many years in home construction that some homeowners love interior design and decorating. They have colossal amounts of tear-outs from design magazines they can’t wait to show us. They have created interior design boards all over their Pinterest and Houzz accounts. These homeowners know what they want in a home, and what they don’t. Dunbar Builders has built homes for these design-lovers. They feel confident about selecting finishes from hardwood flooring to tile, and everything in between. They simply don’t want or need the guidance and direction a decorator provides. Give them a decorating challenge, and they will to fly with it! They don’t need to hire an interior decorator.
But what if the design process overwhelms you? What if you walk into a design showroom and develop “design paralysis?” The endless options in the design world make you want to turn around in a flooring, tile, furniture, or any design store, and walk right back out. If this describes you, you are just the kind of homeowner who would benefit from hiring a decorator.
6 Reasons you may want to hire an interior decorator for your custom home
1 – You’ve got limited time
Let’s face it: we are only given so many hours in a day, and pulling a home together takes time; executing your style takes time. Hiring a decorator to handle the design details of your home actually saves you just that – time. A decorator knows where to best source what you need for your home, and has a wide availability of resources. This saves you time on researching, pricing, and shopping.
2 – Save money
Yes, it seems counterintuitive that spending money on a decorator saves you money, but hiring one can do just that. Hiring a decorator can save you from making costly mistakes. When you enlist the services of a design professional, you actually increase the value of your home. Dunbar Builders has seen that homeowners who hired a decorator set their homes above competition in the market when it comes time to sell. Less time on the market means more money in your pocket. And when your home is aesthetically pleasing, you’re going to increase the number of buyers who come through your door.
3 – Stay on a budget
A good decorator will help keep you on a budget since, as we all know, furnishing and decorating your home can get pricey. A good decorator will be up front about hourly rates, and provide estimates for your review before starting the project. And a great decorator knows how to be resourceful and creative when you’re edging near the budget.
4 – Have a liaison
This one is huge! Decorators serve as liaisons between the homeowner and the contractor. A decorator has the ability to foresee mistakes before they are made because they are trained to! A decorator should serve as a strong bridge between the contractor and you. Understanding how the homeowner will live in the home once it’s finished enables the decorator to help the homeowner avoid design misses. If furniture will float within the floor plan, a decorator can spec the need for an electrical outlet to go in the middle of the room where the sofa will float. If large-scaled pendants have been selected for over the kitchen island, the decorator knows where the openings in the ceiling should be correctly placed to drop them above the island. Traffic flow, a paint schematic for the entire home, paint finishes, light fixtures, hardware selections, and cabinet styles are just several of the many ways an interior decorator comes in and serves as a bridge for want the homeowner wants, and how the contractor can best integrate these design elements into the home.
5 – A trained eye
Decorators just have that knack for knowing when something is right or wrong within a space. They can tell you what to use, keep, repurpose, and what to edit from the room. This is simply the result of years of experience (which trains their eye), plus it’s their passion. Even if you simply need someone to act as a sounding board before making a decision, an interior decorator is exactly who can help!
6 – Wow factor
Last, but not least (and it just so happens to be our favorite at Dunbar Builders), a decorator sets homes apart from others by giving your home that wow factor. It is said that “God is in the details,” and decorators are schooled in executing all the details in order to achieve an overall beautiful aesthetic. They not only help your home look finished, they help it look unique!
During the construction process, Dunbar Builders has worked with homeowners who have enlisted the help of a professional decorator, and those who haven’t. We’ve had plenty of success with both sets of clients. The bottom line is if you feel confident in making the many design selections throughout your home, and you have the time to do it, then go for it; we can offer input and suggestions along the way. Yet seldom have we built a home where the homeowner has not benefited from hiring a decorator. A decorator handles the design details of your home, and makes it beautiful by giving it a pulled together, cohesive, finished, warm and inviting look. A decorator gives you the gift of a beautiful home, and by taking on all the design details of the home, the gift of time. And what better gifts to receive!?
Contact us to get started on your new home.
