A sample e decorating concept board and drawing from Space Lift
I was recently perusing through one of my favorite magazines: Sunset’s Living in the West, when I happened upon an article on e-decorating. Think interior decorating experts from the comfort of your own couch (assuming they like your couch that is). I loved the article so much, that I lifted the ideas and thought I’d share with you – limited credit due my way though as the Sunset folks found the e-designers
e-Decorating: A Service where you can get professional design help at a fraction of the cost of a traditional decorator. Ideal for designing on a limited budget, need help getting started, or just need to freshen up your space with furniture ideas, a new furniture arrangement or paint colors.
Turquoise’s Vanessa de Vargas: Fresh from the hills of Venice, CA DeVargas has clients complete a style questionnaire and provide photos & measurements of the rooms to be decorated. 2-3 weeks later, you can expect an e-inspiration board with color palettes, fabric swatches, furniture picks, even artwork. Choosing how you want to implement the ideas is of course, on you. Vargas’ shabby chic mid-century modern and vintage style will help steer you away from costly mistakes. At $550/room if you’re worried that your own taste might be an issue, this could be a steal or a deal.
Space Lift & Lisa Wonsey Park: Similar to how Turquoise operates, Space lift, takes your photos and measurements and within 2 weeks comes back with a design plan. Lisa charges $350 for her services. A quick search through the design concept boards on Lisa’s site makes me think that this might be money well spent.
Sproost… now here’s a cool site! Complete a series of quizzes to determine your overall style. Once you know your style, the site directs you to furniture, lighting and accessories that compliment your style. Apparently new features are on the way that will allow you to search by color and material. Definitely one of my top 10 sites of the month and the cost – FREE!
Online room design is definitely a great concept that’s democraticizing the interior design industry as a whole. There are several excellent online design firms out there that you can find under a number of search terms. Try “online room design”, “virtual room design”, “e-Decorating”, “online interior design services”, “virtual interior designer” or “affordable interior design help”. That will get you started. Then, pay special attention to the depth of questions asked on the client questionnaire and the type of guarantee the designer offers. You want a questionnaire that will adequately suss out your desires and a guarantee that backs up their work if you don’t like the end result. You’ll also want to make sure the designer provides a space plan based on your measurements and photos so you don’t get stuck with furnishings that aren’t properly scaled (or worse, won’t fit) in your room. For more detailed into on how online design works, take a look at an article I wrote at http://www.squidoo.com/roomdesignonline
It truly is awesome to see alot of these different online interior decorating software packages become available. From planning out the rooms and seeing if certain things like sofas are going to fit into an area definitely makes it a nice thing to have when working online.
I think its good to see all kinds of interior decorating online.Its just great