Back in the day, if you wanted to redesign your home, you’d enlist a professional interior designer. However, such experts often come with a high price tag. Luckily, there are more options for those looking to refresh their space without massively exceeding their budget. An online interior design service offering the expertise of professionals minus the cost and the time commitment is an excellent place to start!
You see, when you hire an interior designer, you’re often faced with an all-or-nothing situation because few experts will take on a quick room refresh or one-time consultation. That’s the great thing about these online design platforms, you can use them to redecorate your entire house or take the pressure off with a simple, one-hour consultation. To help you choose, ahead you'll find everything you need to know about some of the most popular online design services out there.
Havenly
Right for you if... You want something affordable no matter how big your project is.
Pricing: $79 for Havenly Mini (for updating a space or adding finishing touches), which includes multiple initial designs, a final design, a shopping list, and a one-on-one chat with your designer; and $129 for Havenly Full, for full-on room makeovers or designing a room from scratch—including all of the above along with a custom floor plan and layout visualizations.
How it works: Working with Havenly is pretty simple. You start out by taking a survey that will ask you questions about your personal style, then you'll upload photos of the room you want to be decorated. From there, you'll schedule a time to have a complimentary chat with your designer to discuss your likes, dislikes, ideas for the space, and what you need—or, you can fill out a design brief online, if you prefer. After five business days, you'll get two different design concepts for your space, which you'll then rate and provide feedback on for your designer.
Your designer will make revisions, and once you have the space of your dreams designed, you'll move forward to the shopping portion. Havenly will fill up your virtual shopping cart with all of the items from your designs (including alternates, just in case) and you can choose which items you actually want to buy—the accounts team will take it from there, ordering and setting up delivery for you.
Room Lift
Right for you if... You like to go through samples IRL, not on a computer.
Pricing: $250 for an accessories box; $895 for one Room Lift box featuring two different designs; $1,250 for a Room Lift box with two different designs and samples; $1,000 per Room Lift box if you buy three or more, which includes two designs and samples at 20 percent off. Each Room Lift box comes with two 15-minute phone or email consultations about your design.
How it works: Room Lift is more of a boutique mail-order service, started by designer Megan Hersch—if you choose Room Lift, you'll be working with Megan herself to create the room of your dreams. The first step is filling out the service's questionnaire about your style, needs, budget, and more—including uploading photos of your space. You'll also browse through a selection of Pinterest boards organized by style, and select the two that are closest to representing your own personal style. Within three to five days of payment, you'll receive a rough sketch of your floor plan that's not to scale, and you'll fill in the correct measurements in the labeled spaces. In about two weeks, you'll receive a physical Room Lift box, complete with a scaled floor plan, paint chips, fabric, and wallpaper samples, and of course, two (or three, depending on the package you choose) designs worth of physical paper cards with product images, prices, and info on where to buy them—and notes about styling—for you to go through.
You can then purchase any and all products independently—just head to the brands from Room Lift's resources page to shop. Unlike the other services on this list, Room Lift doesn't give you the option to purchase all of the items you want from one shopping cart, but the service does offer access to discounts, so you can still save as you purchase. Oh, and if you're worried about the use of paper, don't fret—Room Lift works with an organization called One Tree Planted and donates to ensure that a tree gets planted in a national park for every box sent.
Pottery Barn
Right for you if... You want a one-on-one experience at no cost.
Pricing: Pottery Barn offers completely free help from their expert designers for style advice, space planning, or total redesigns. For a small fee, they’ll even help with installation services—through the brand’s partnership with Porch—if you need help mounting a TV, hanging curtains, or painting a room.
How it works: To meet virtually with a Pottery Barn design pro, you need to request a free appointment. The form asks for basic info including which Pottery Barn store is near you and a few details about what you’re looking to get help with. If you need space planning assistance, their designers can create a custom floor plan and offer ideas tailored to your space. If you want advice on enhancing your space through finishing touches, you can get style tips and accent recommendations. For those who just moved or want to give their space a total redesign, a Pottery Barn design expert can help with the process from start to finish.
As far as product recommendations go, you’ll only get ones from the company. Luckily, that also includes its sister brands like Pottery Barn Kids and Teen, West Elm, Williams Sonoma, Mark & Graham, and Rejuvenation. Bonus: If you have a quick design question, you can discuss it instantly through an online chat with a design expert.
Spacejoy
Right for you if... You are looking for a dedicated service with a money-back guarantee.
Pricing: $99 for the Delight package, which includes one design concept for one room; $159 for the Bliss package which gets you two design concepts for one room plus paint recommendations; $239 for the Euphoria package, which involves two design concepts for one room plus paint recommendations and window treatment suggestions.
How it works: Similar to Modsy, Spacejoy offers interactive 3D renderings you can play with to determine what design you like the best. You start the process by giving the service details about the project you'd like to take on, including what type of room you want to design, your budget, and how long you want the process to take. Then you create an account and choose a package. If you're not sure what style you want, Spacejoy has a quiz you can take. You can design the space yourself, have an expert do it for you, or collaborate with the design team. No matter what package you choose, you have the option to get a one-on-one consultation and are allowed unlimited design revisions to ensure you end up with a look you love. You can reach out to the design team as frequently or infrequently as you'd like.
In the end, you get a customizable list of products that are completely shoppable directly through Spacejoy’s website from brands including Wayfair, West Elm, Anthropologie, Target, and more. The service’s team also hunts for deals, so you can get the best pricing. Note: If at any point you’re unsatisfied with the design process and want to stop, they’ll give you a refund!
The Expert
Right for you if... You don't have hours to spend on designing your home but won't settle for anything less than perfection.
Pricing: The price ranges and there is no flat fee since every designer's rates are different. That said, you can expect to pay between $100 to $200 per hour. However, you can set a price before chatting with your go-to designer, ensuring you'll never go over budget.
How it works: Basically, it's like online dating, but instead of forming relationships with potential romantic partners, you connect with the world's most talented interior designers, who can do everything from offer advice to help conceptualize specific spaces. That said, they won't do the work for you, they'll just help!
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