Free Interior Design Consultations to Try Before You Buy
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In today’s crowded home furnishings marketplace, planning a living room or even picking out bedside lamps can feel like a choose-your-own-adventure tale—there are seemingly endless possibilities. For those times when you want a little bit of professional advice but not a full-blown interior designer, look to your favorite home brands. Shoppers can now get a wealth of expert advice for free through many retailers.
Customers are often skeptical of these interior design consultations because they are worried about hidden fees, but the opportunities listed below are all completely complimentary with no obligation to make purchases afterward. It’s in the retailers’ interest to help customers make good decisions. When there are so many options, an expert’s advice can ensure happy customers—and fewer returns. Here’s how to make the most of these no-cost interior design resources.
Courtesy of Crate & Barrel
Furniture Planning
Most major furniture retailers offer free in-house design assistance. You can and should take advantage of these services as part of your planning phase—even if you’re not starting over with your decor. (Brands say they’re happy to work around the furniture you want to keep and consult on something as small as a pillowscape for your sofa.)
Once you’ve chosen the brand that most aligns with your goals, you’ll need to prepare for your consultation. Crate & Barrel’s Design Desk, for example, offers a choice of an in-store, video, or in-home meeting with their designers; you’ll provide them with photos of your space and inspiration images. After the meeting, they’ll create a mood board, floor plan, and photorealistic renderings for your design, all of which you can keep. You don’t have to buy anything right away—nor do you have to buy everything the designer proposes—but their suggestions can act as a game plan for you to decorate from. You’ll also be able to communicate directly with your designer and ask for revisions.
Alicia Waters, brand president, Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids
“Oftentimes customers are shocked (in the best way possible) that they’re not obligated to buy anything and can incorporate what they already have too.”
— Alicia Waters, brand president, Crate & Barrel and Crate & Kids
Other brands’ design services work in similar ways, including Pottery Barn’s and its sister brands (Williams Sonoma Home, Rejuvenation, and more). If your style leans more bohemian, try AnthroLiving, the home division of Anthropologie; and if your vibe’s more modern, CB2 or West Elm can help you out. More coastal? You might want to check out Serena & Lily’s in-house designers.
Professional measuring services, which can be useful if you have tricky turns or stairs that may preclude large pieces from getting in, also are often free to customers within a certain radius of a store. Pottery Barn’s Design Crew also has a free digital room-planning tool that you can use with furniture from all of its related home brands.
Carson Downing
Color Consultations
Picking a wall color can immobilize even a confident DIYer, especially when you’re choosing between a dozen shades of a single subtle hue. Luckily, several paint brands offer personalized color advice for free. Sherwin-Williams, for example, offers 30-minute virtual consults with their in-house color experts. You send them photos in advance of the call, meet with a pro one-on-one, and walk away with a list of paint color recommendations. Valspar offers a similar service: You complete a form online, and one of their color consultants will curate a palette that’s sent to your inbox. Be sure to ask your favorite brand. Even if they don’t have one-on-one help, they probably have helpful digital tools.
Annie Schlechter / Interior Design: Summer Thornton
Bed Styling
If a layered bed worthy of a catalog photo shoot has you stumped, there’s help for this too. Boll & Branch, a brand known for luxe organic sheets, offers styling help in stores, in person (if you’re near one of their locations), or virtually. They’ll even send you fabric swatches. You can also tap the experts from the big home brands to help you choose and coordinate a full bedding look based on their signature styles.
Dane Tashima
Window Treatment Design
If you’re having trouble choosing the right window coverings for your home, almost all the major window-treatment companies offer some level of design assistance. Blinds To Go, for example, has a network of pros who will come to your home for a consultation during which they can help you navigate the options to find the ideal shades, curtains, or shutters. They also measure when they visit, ensuring that everything fits perfectly if and when you decide to order. Budget Blinds, The Shade Store, Hunter Douglas, and 3 Day Blinds (which now includes Smith + Noble) also offer in-home design help, so if one brand isn’t in your area, another is likely to be.
David A. Land / Interior Design: Ursula Carmona
Closet & Pantry Design
Who doesn’t need help figuring out the best way to maximize their storage? The Container Store offers free design consultations for custom closets, pantries, garages, craft rooms—anywhere you want to get organized. If you’re within 50 miles of the store, you have the option of an in-home meeting, which includes measuring. If not, a designer can speak with you over video conference. The design doesn’t end with the floor plan and rendering you’ll receive: The organizing pro can recommend bins and other containers to outfit the space—or you can use their plans to shop for ones that match your own aesthetic.
If you’re measuring by yourself, consider investing in a laser measuring tool. You can get results within 1 /8 inch—no fiddly tape measure needed. Give these to your designer and you’ll be one step closer to a precise room plan.
Robert Peterson / Interior Design: Cloth & Kind
Kitchen & Bath Design
If you’re looking to DIY a kitchen or bathroom, it never hurts to get a little professional advice. In addition to their excellent online planning tools, IKEA offers free design help with their team online or in store. Even if you have a clear vision, IKEA’s “check my design” service can turn up a piece of trim you need or an extra accessory you don’t. Home Depot offers free initial design consultations for kitchen and bath remodels, in which a designer will show you the cabinetry and counter options and talk through your needs and budget.
However, if you want to skip the DIY route and use their full design service, you’ll need to spend a couple hundred dollars for measuring, which will be credited toward installation (this ensures any custom cabinetry will be accurately made).
Emily Followill / Interior Design: Jessica Davis
Art Curation and Placement
Art can make a room, but choosing the right scale or arrangement for a given spot is important (and sometimes hard to get right). Through either video conference or email, Minted’s experts can help you figure out what suits your style and space. They can even provide renderings and design a full gallery wall, pulling from the thousands of prints and original works on its site, including paintings, drawings, textile art, and even sculpture.
Artfully Walls, a site that sells prints from over 900 artists, offers a digital gallery-wall builder that helps you create a blueprint for your salon-style arrangement—the tool lets you choose a wall color and even upload a wallpaper pattern. If you’re designing with existing pieces, you can use similar sizes in the tool as placeholders.
Courtesy of Minted
Augmented Reality
Many brands mentioned in this story, plus online retailers like Joss & Main and even the vintage marketplace Chairish, now offer “see it in your space” tools. For most, you’ll need to download the brand’s app to use the surprisingly effective visualization tool. You’ll be prompted to use your smartphone’s camera to scan your space. Then, through the magic of augmented reality (AR), the app will virtually place one of its items into your room—as Minted’s does with their artwork, pictured above. The Houzz app works with products from many of the brands on their platform (but not all). You can paint with tech too. Paint brands, including Behr, Benjamin Moore, and Sherwin-Williams, offer AR tools that digitally change the color of your walls to help you decide between hues.
Kimberly, Minted customer
“[Minted art stylist] Rachel helped me do a few iterations of my wall. She did a great job meeting my requests and personal style. I can’t believe this service is free! I’ve told everyone I know!”
— Kimberly, Minted customer
Photography Tips for Virtual Consultations
Whether you are meeting with a designer via Zoom or using a brand’s digital tools, good photographs are key to making the most of free virtual services. Keep these tips in mind:
- Tidy up and remove personal clutter before taking photos.
- Shoot the room during peak daylight hours.
- Turn off all the lights and open all the blinds to capture the natural light.
- Shoot the room from multiple angles.
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