Retail shops are having a sale almost every week of the year at the moment, and it's tempting to think "why wouldn't I just buy it myself?"
It's a fair question, so we thought we’d explain how an Interior Designer can help, and why furniture selection for your home is rarely about the sale price of a single item.
It's not about the individual piece, it's about the whole room
Anyone can buy a beautiful sofa. But will it fit? Will it sit at the right height next to your existing armchair? Will the fabric withstand two kids and a dog (or cat)? Or will it look slightly wrong once it's home and you can't quite explain why?
This is where the complexity in interior design really lives. Choosing furniture in isolation is easy. Choosing furniture that works together, with your floorplan, your light, your lifestyle and everything else in the room, is a completely different skill. It's one we've spent over a decade building, and it's the reason a "cheaper" piece bought on sale can end up being the more expensive mistake.
We see things you might not
We walk into a room and we're not just looking at what's there, we're looking at what's possible for your and your home. Better use of space, a layout that finally makes the room work for how you actually live, a colour palette that ties everything together and feels great.
Fresh eyes, and years of experience looking at hundreds of homes, mean we can spot solutions that aren't obvious when you're standing in your own lounge room trying to picture it all in your head.
Access you simply don't have on your own
A big part of what we bring is trusted suppliers. We work with trade suppliers, makers and joiners that we trust based on long standing relationships and which are worth the investment. We're not shopping the same stores as everyone else searching for a bargain, we want you to have a home that is truly your own. Often the piece that makes a room feel considered and complete is something you won't stumble across scrolling online at 11pm.
We bring the expertise so you don’t make expensive mistakes
Wrong scale. Wrong finish. An order that doesn't arrive for four months and then doesn't suit the space when it does. A "bargain" that ends up sitting in a garage or spare room because it never quite worked. These are the mistakes we see all the time that make a bargain furniture search expensive in ways that don't show up on the price tag. Part of what you're paying for when you engage an Interior Designer is simply not making mistakes.
It saves you the hours you don't have
Sourcing furnishings properly takes time, more time than most people realise until they're three weekends deep into browsing and still haven't found "the one". We do this work every day. We know where to look, and when to stop. That's hours of your life back.
A home that's actually, properly yours
Our design philosophy has always been simple: your home should reflect who you are, and make your life better.
That's a much bigger job than filling a room with items that happened to be on sale. We want you to have a considered room you’ll still love in five years, not just a room that looked fine today based on what was on sale.
So next time you're tempted to go it alone chasing a retail sale, ask yourself what you're really looking for.
If you'd like to chat about making your home really feel like yours, we'd love to hear from you!
Furniture selection and room design and decoration, with the assistance of an experienced interior designer like Melbourne based Meredith Lee, can save you time and money, and provide you with a home you love well into the future. It’s a worthwhile investment.