101: Use a Designer When You Can

For Christmas my husband gave me a huge flat screen television to mount in our den. I was tempted to give him a whopping bill for the amount of time I invested in getting estimates for custom cabinetry, painting and reorganization of 20 years of junk stuffed into the existing media center (if you could call it that). Instead, I remained duly grateful and actually saved him lots of aggravation and money (my aggravation, his money) by inviting over a good friend, and even better designer, for some advice. Over a cup of tea, she chose paint colors, completely rearranged my furniture, took down all my embarrassing little “keepsakes” and old photo frames and strongly advised me to ditch possibly the ugliest lamp ever given as a wedding present. (Sorry dad). Moral to the story: even when you think you can freshen up a room by yourself, speak with a designer if you can. They will always bring a fresh set of eyes to an old setting. (duh)