interior help

Is this any good from American Home Furninshings?

http://www.amazon.com/Unique-LEANING-LADDER-MAGAZINE-Finish/dp/B000KK7Y3Q

Sorry if its pants!

Ikea do them, not sure about size though.

Could you not find a joiner and get them to make ones to your exact specification? Easier all round, and probably cheaper.

Either of these what you want?

http://www.habitat.co.uk/fcp/product/browse/Upright/966736

https://www.heals.com/ although this is 10cm short

Not sure if I can paste an image - heres the link

http://www.tc-studio.com/tcweb/Web/Client/omexey/Ladder_shelvingunits.html

What about having one made, I know someone who does bespoke wood and metal goods in Lancaster, if that's any good,

Actually hec that *might* be ok. erics is steel tube so a no go sadly, but its on the right lines. and lady f s - not really th right kind of thing, but thanks all.

TB - yes please, would like to pursue that.

I'll email you his details, he was Steve's best mate and has made us a fair bit of bespoke stuff over the years although looking at the pic it would be easy enough for any cabinet maker to do, Steve made ours for the kids room from some weird oak and they're quite dark. Maybe call a couple of local guys in, with all this credit crunch stuff they seem really grateful for the work and the prices are good. I think 15 years with Steve and my job has taught me hand made all the way,

Yes i hear you. problem is last time i went down that road for some fitted wardrobes the price was incredibly high and it put me off a little. i m about to make a table from really big oak beams which should be quiet cool - plus i know how to do it and have done it before so really theres no reason why i couodnt do it myself, or at least have a go, though i d have to learn how to do the correct style of joins for it. if you send me the details anyway, i ll have a look. if he has a website, even better

I feel your pain regarding the wardrobes. I have emailed you the cabinet makers details.

Steve has just made us a 6ft table out of reclaimed oak from a cottage they were pulling down, it's beautifully marked, I just need him to turn the legs for it, he is quick enough to wood turn for everyone else or make stuff if he gets an interesting piece of wood.

NickJ, when you say interior designer... is this for a domestic or commercial property?

What kind of things do interior designers offer? I've always thought they were much along the lines of "paint that wall blue, that one green" etc. I'm guessing I'm waaaaay out of touch here.

H and I are currently doing up a property and although I know what kinds of things I like, putting them together from stratch is something else altogether... ?

Do they come in and give you advice on just decorating or is it more than that?

Its for our house minx. and yes, youre waaaay out of touch ?

I know thaaaaaat ?. Wanna help out with answers?

You could always have a look here http://www.thestorescotland.co.uk I love some of the furniture and shelving units etc they have here, although not sure if it would be like something that you're looking for.

You could always have a look here http://www.thestorescotland.co.uk I love some of the furniture and shelving units etc they have here, although not sure if it would be like something that you're looking for.

Thanks CR - not really my thing though.

minx, well, have a google, i cant be arsed to explain ?

Nice ?.

Anyone other than NickJ care to offer some insight? I'm genuinely interested. And please don't say google... I'm after a personal experience here please.

Just to add... I'd like personal experience advice really... did they do anything you couldn't?

Why did you feel the need to use an interior designer? Was it a time issue (didn't have spare time to research prices, styles etc), or a lack of confidence with own taste?

As I said before, H and I are doing up a property at the moment and I'm genuinely curious as to see if this is a service which could benefit us or not.

Do you think you could have achieved the same result by yourself, simply by putting the time/research in? Or is the end result a far better look than you could have achieved?

Hi MS.

I haven't had any experiences of my own, but my friend uses an interior designer frequently.

Recently, they moved house and because of the climate she and her husband decided to skip on the designer and do most of the choosing/matching etc themselves.

She said that although they have saved a huge amount of money, the worry was that she was spending money on things and not sure if they would all blend together!

As luck would have it, her house is very beautiful and it all turned out fine.

Given a choice, she still says that she would prefer to have the deisgner in and advising.

Hope this helps!

WTBS

We use this company: http://www.beverleypine.co.uk/oak/oak.htm. Their price and customer service is excellent.

Don't be put off by the 'pine' bit, I think it's a name of old ? They do all sorts of wood and will pretty much make anything bespoke. There is some shabby chic stuff, but I'm guessing this isn't your style Nick (?) but there are all sorts of other styles; don't be put off.

I am a stylist/food stylist and part of my training was interior design, I still do a bit now and again for a couple of designers and shops. I still work with mood boards, I get clients to get lots of mags and I nomally grab them loads of sample books for material and wallpaper etc and I get them to make a board of a collection of things they like. It then helps me find what they want within their budget and I get a feel for their tastes. I am no expert but I enjoy keeping my hand in, I also do some work with a kitchen design company but most of the planning within that is computer aided, Hope that helps,

Minx, we've recently used and interior designer for the first time and I've been really pleased. I normally have quite a good idea of what I want to do but this one room just wasn't working - couldn't come up with a furniture layout, colour scheme, anything; nothing seemed to work and we were wasting more and more money trying to sort it.

The interior designer came round and I was very up front about the fact that we wouldn't be using them to project manage the whole thing and wanted the ideas and would then go away and try and find cheaper ways of doing it as we are on a tight budget. She measured the room, went through with me how we wanted to use the space, what kind of a feel we wanted. A couple of weeks later we went to their showroom and she showed us 5 colour schemes, from that we narrowed it down to 2 and then tweaked them a bit (changed curtain fabrics etc). The cost for this was £200.

In the end we did use them to supply the wallpaper and their used their recommended decorator. We haven't used them for the furniture as it was much more expensive than we wanted to spend and we've been able to find very similar sofas at a much smaller price. We are about to go back to the showroom to get curtains / blinds as we've been looking around and can't find anything suitable. Although they are going to be expensive they will also come and fit them and means that they will be the exact size etc so we've decided it's worth it.

I've been really, really impressed and if we move house again we will probably get them in right at the beginning.

TB, jellybaby... thanks for those replies.

I think that's exactly what I'd need them for really. I have all these ideas and images floating about in my head, but acn never really get them to materalise IYKWIM?

I always go to other people's houses and think "Wow that looks amazing, I'd never have put that with that....". And think I'll be a little bolder next time I come to decorate. But when it comes to it ... I'm living in a house of magnolia walls and IKEA canvases ?. I just can't seem to find anything that I like and I'm living in such a boring and predictable space, that I could really do with some help I think.

jellybaby... if it's as little as £200 I think I may well go for it.

I didn't realise you could just get them for their ideas and then search the items out yourself. I thought you would have to go with whatever they choose for you, once you'd commited.

I normally rec a few things but I don't know many that tie you to their suppliers.

Try making a mood board at home of things you like and go from that, not what you thinks safe. It is often that what you like and end up with is completely different. If I went with what I liked, everyones houses would look like knocking shops so my husband says?

Minx, in light of your other post, i ll give you my pov.

we have a room of which one side comprises floor to ceiling glass. it also has some stonework in it, and regular curtains etc wont work. so, it really stemmed from a lack of ideas of what to do with it. also, the room is an odd shape, and whilst i d normally get on and do the interior myself, i was just baffled by the room, didnt like the way light fell in it in the morning or evening, and had no idea of how to make the whole thing work.

i spoke to several designers, and had two take a look. the first was hopeless. the kind of woman who was doing it for something to do in her spare time - ie not a "proper" int desinger. the 2nd is, and has a long established business. she measured the whole room, i mean every aperture, window position, where the fire sits, everything. took ages. i told her what kind of colours we like, and the effect we were going for in the room, so i gave her a comprehensive brief of the FEEL we wanted. we also have some chinese furniture and some other bits and pieces including some abstract paintings which i like, and i wanted to incorporate all those.

so, off she went and came back about 10 days later with fabric samples, paint colours, ideas for bits of furniture, and lots of ideas of how to handle the awkward glass wall. she had some amazing ideas for that actually, including japanese panels and a few other things. we went through what she d brought, which included magazine tear sheets, colour pallettes etc, and made some general choices about texture and tone. she then went off to look at a particualr firm who builds bespoke furniture and reported back on that. in terms of charging, she offered 2 services. the first was do go through this process for a fixed cost. the 2nd was to do this, and project manage suppliers and work, since we needed a carpenter, an electrician, plastere, plumber etc. i went for the first option, as i knew i could handle the rest myself. the 2 methods are pretty standard amongst interior designers. anyway, i had an email from her saying that she d placed her company into administration, and that she would drop off the mood boards she d done et c etc. so everything is in place apart from a couple of things which i now have enough confidnece with the room to do myself.

Nickj... so you had several pieces (be it artwork or furniture) that you knew you wanted to incorporate, and she worked her design around that? see, i don't have really have a 'base' to begin with as such. would that be a problem do you think?

the difficult thing is, i'm one of those "I don't really know what i like until i see it" type of people. which makes answering the question "what's the general style/feel you're going for?" near on impossible ?.

it sounds from your description, that you didn't need the whole room doing as such, you just needed someone to get you started, and get it to a place where you could carry on on your own. i think this could be the route id like to take i think.

like i said a few posts back, i think im waaay out of touch with what interior designers actually do now. i was thinking along the lines of 'changing rooms' and id come back one afternoon to a house of animal print and be horrified ?

thanks everyone for your replies. the more i think about it, the more im really really keen on getting someone in to help with the inside of the house. thanks x

No not so much around them, just with them. you dont need a base, but you do need to be able to articulate the kinds of things you like in terms of colour and style. so if you like art deco (or whatever) say so. you will also know the feel - if you think about what the room (or rooms) is used for - eg isnt a "night" room, for use only in the evenings? or is it more of a daytime room? you want lots of light, or moody light, or really funky light. light is a massive issue in terms of giving a room a mood. and whilst people talk about using paint to make rooms look bigger/smaller/whatever, its actually easier, cheaper, and more moveable to do it with light.

to start them off, you could buy a load of interior mags, and tear out pages you like. doesnt matter if its about the colour on a page, or the overall mood, or the sofas or whatever.

cheers nick, appreciate it x

Ours was a complete blank canvas - new build house, cream carpet, cream walls and we had no furniture for the room.

I had been buying interior design mags for a few months and markin anything I saw that I liked. Also, when I was out and about and saw items that I liked I would take a picture of it so was able to show her all those too.

When you say interior design mags, do you mean ones such as Good Homes, Living... that kind of thing? Or are there more specialist mags that I'm not aware of?