Interior Design ,colour advice?

alri

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I am looking to paint a new house and my design skills are not great so I am considering hiring an interior designer for advice on colour schemes.Are they worth it? & can any body recommend one in south dublin or wicklow.
Thanks in advance.
 
Re: Interior Design ,colour advise?

Hi Pinkie123, why not share your insights here?
Leo
 
I personally think that you have to live in a house for a while before you can decide on a colour scheme. You need to decide what purpose each room has, what way the sun shines etc. to know what colours would suit. Your house should reflect your personality, colours are entirely personal. You could have a neutral enough palatte to start off with and just add colour in accessories and curtains. I find paint shops great for colour advice, it is their business afterall.
 
I think Daisybell has a very good point, and would add that I think it's a good idea to avoid very strong colours at the outset, until you've lived through probably a full year in the house and know what the light is like in different seasons. A room which has good light in summer could be surprisingly much darker in winter and a very strong or dark colour could drain what light there to the point that you can find it downright depressing!

It's worth giving a lot of consideration to what lighting you need in the house together with the colours - do you need just a pendant light, something bigger, or additional lamps, or wall lighting, and so on.

As an entirely personal rule of thumb I'd avoid strong or dark colours in rooms that don't either have direct unobstructed southerly aspect, or dual aspect. And bear in mind that if you decide a very strong colour isn't right *after* you've had it painted, you'll need more undercoating for any subsequent lighter colour, and that'll cost extra too...
 
if you have the time I'd personally get a few books out of the library, get a few housy magazines and visit a few show houses. You can get great ideas about what you like and don't like. It can seem a bit daunting at first but if you find something you really like it's not that hard to get the same look yourself. i'd imagine for an interior designer to do a look that you really like you would need to have an idea of what you want anyway. It definitely helps to live in a place for a while and see how you use the space and how the light falls etc.... I'd start with fairly neutral tones - maybe even just a white paint undercoat while you consider colours and neutral floors while you think about what style/look you fancy.
 
You need to decide what purpose each room has, what way the sun shines etc. to know what colours would suit. Your house should reflect your personality, colours are entirely personal. You could have a neutral enough palatte to start off with and just add colour in accessories and curtains.

I get the feeling from the initial post that she doesn't really know how to go about choosing any colours, an answer like this is fine if you are good at choosing colours in the first place but some people just aren't (you only have to look at some people's clothes choices to know not everyone can pick colours and patterns well) and for people like this interior designers are very useful and I would say it is definitely worth it.Although yes, colour is a personal choice, designers are brilliant for putting your own ideas into motion with their added knowledge, experience and ideas, and a good designer will not use their own personal taste at all when following a clients style and preferences. Even if you just start picking designers out of the phonebook and tell them what you want - a bit of colour advice - you'll soon find out how much it'll cost you and which one is right for you.
 
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