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You’re probably spending a fair bit of time right now perusing Instagram and scrolling through Pinterest, saving batches of inspired living room, bedroom, and kitchen ideas to their respective boards. After all, giving your home a little design refresh is a great project to take on. But how do you go from inspiration to action without having to leave your home to make your vision board a reality?
Here’s some good news: There are a handful of design-focused brands offering up valuable, on demand decorating advice at no cost to you. Yep, you read that right—free advice from the pros! The best part? No need to go to a design store or have an interior designer come to your house—all of these resources can be accessed virtually right now. Here are the best online places to snag free, professional decorating tips that can help make your home just a little bit happier right now.
Need helping sourcing a specific type of decorative accessory, paint color, or art? Decorist’s free Design Bar is there to help you navigate through all your decorating woes. Simply select one of five available prompts, write out your question, and upload an image of your space for context. Next, choose from a series of options that best describe your aesthetic, your budget, and submit your query. Once you’ve matched with a designer, they will assess the project and get back to you with their suggestions. And it doesn’t get easier than that.
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Revival Rugs’ Design Support
Buying a rug is no easy feat, never mind having to do it online. What may look great styled out in a photo can feel entirely different once it’s in your home. Enter Revival Rugs’ newly launched Design Consultation service, which offers a team of pros at the ready to tackle all of your rug buying uncertainties. Start out by submitting a brief prompt that covers the dimensions of the room in question, your style preferences, inspiration boards (if you have them), actual photos of your space, and the sort of piece you’re looking to purchase. The team will get back to you with three to five rug suggestions, along with mock-ups and sketches that will allow you to better visualize them in your room. Responses take about two business days.
Picking the perfect paint color for a space without having to leave the house is pretty hard to rival. The designer-curated paint brand, Clare, manages to do just that with a “Color Genius” tool that offers tonal suggestions based on a brief questionnaire that takes into consideration the size of a room, the colors of its furnishings, as well as the amount and direction of natural light it receives. The platform immediately analyzes your preferences, along with how adventurous you’re willing to get, and provides up to three viable hues. You may then directly order a swatch or an entire gallon of the paint and try it out IRL.
The retailer that made mid-century modern chic again now offers a free design consultation service you can take advantage of virtually or via a chat. Select the type of room you’re looking to redecorate, pinpoint your aesthetic of choice, and categorize the type of help you’re seeking—be it organization, installing mirrors or art, sourcing all new furniture, and more. Once matched with a designer, they’ll be able to provide customized advice for the toughest or simplest of questions.
Fellow retailers, such as Serena & Lily, Pottery Barn, and Crate & Barrel, also offer similar one-on-one design services and consultations, all free of cost. If your aesthetic skews heavily towards one brand or the other, consider starting your search there.
One Kings Lane Introductory Consultation
If you have a design project on the horizon but are not quite sure where to turn to, this e-retailer offers a free 30-minute consultation service with a designer to help you get started. Begin by selecting the types of spaces or rooms you’re looking to revamp, along with the sort of design styles that inspire you, and lastly, pick a date and time for your digital meet-up. One Kings Lane’s designers will even provide you with a curated shopping list following your virtual chat.
Finally getting around to putting up art on your walls? Gallery arrangements aren’t always as easy as they look, but Minted can make the process of art styling easier—for free! Text a photo of your wall to 415-993-WALL (9255), answer a few quick questions, and a Minted stylist will text you back art recommendations that work with your existing set up. Be sure to include as much of your sofa or other furnishings (including other art work) as you can, so the stylist can see the scale of your space and take your color scheme into account when choosing pieces, frames, and the configuration that’s best for your wall. You can also send a screenshot or two of some of your favorite Minted artists to your stylist, which will help give them a sense of the kind of art you like.
Could your windows use a little love? If you answered yes, then know custom drapery service, Everhem, is offering free, no-strings-attached virtual consultations to anyone who wants one right now. Pros at the company can advise on window treatment design choices and show you how to measure your windows properly for drapes and shades. Reach out to [email protected] for more information or chat live on everhem.com to begin your virtual consultation.
We can’t resist a shameless act of self-promotion. From home tours to designer-approved tips and tricks, we’ve written about it all. So chances are, we probably have a story on that persistent design dilemma you just can’t seem to shake. And if all else fails, write in, and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction. You can also join our Facebook Group, The Apartment Therapist, and post queries there. We are here to help!
