Should you go for a DIY or a professional home decorator?

From the moment they start their first job, a considerable percentage of people start dreaming of the future in which they can afford everything they want. 

They are constantly motivated by the thoughts of driving an exotic car, lunch at expensive restaurants, having an incredibly successful career, and coming home to a place of their own that is not only comfortable but also fantastically beautiful. Isn't the interior decorator of our dreams just wonderful? For most people, it is the last part of this place that matters the most.

This is because your home is not just the place where you come to sleep and eat. It is supposed to be a safe space. Your comfort zone. An area that will allow you to relax and unwind after a long day at work. It is the space that makes you feel like you belong there.

Your home should be the place you can always rely on to nurture and support you, and to recharge you for what is to come the next day. For this reason, it is essential that your home depicts who you are as a person, and provides a serene and tranquil atmosphere to calm the storms modern living raises inside of you. To make this possible is where interior décor comes in. Restoring or redecorating a home can not only make it more welcoming but can also add more value if you are thinking of reselling.

Interior designer and interior decorator – know the difference

There are many ways in which a person can modify his or her living space to make it more personal as well as more aesthetic. Home décor is a vast industry that is expected to bring in an astounding $664 billion in the coming year! But before we move onto the details, let us first clear a common misconception: an interior designer and an interior decorator is not the same thing.

While interior designers are qualified, certified professionals who will design a place by the owner’s style, personal preferences, as well as the purpose for space. They will often work with architects to create a space that is optimized for its intended purpose as well as personal to the owner.

Interior decorators, on the other hand, will adorn an already existing space to match the personality of the owner/user more closely. In short, though interior designers may decorate, interior decorators do not design. Either way, however, both of these professionals are working to give you a home that is more suited for you than before. 

When should you call a professional home decorator?

With the professional terms out of the way, let us come back to the original question – should you be getting professional help when redecorating your home, or will your skills suffice for the job of making your bedroom extra cozy? To answer this, you must first consider a list of factors that might vary with each case. If your looking to save money, doing some of the work like painting or putting up your own blinds can save you hundreds of dollars.

In the following paragraphs, we will discuss those determinants in more detail and also see why they are so important in influencing your decision. Let’s begin.

The budget you have set aside for your home décor project

This is perhaps the most important of all elements that you must consider to make a logical decision. Hiring professional help does not usually come cheap – whether it is an interior decorator or a personal injury lawyer. This is because the professionals are asking to be paid not only for their skills and expertise but also for taking a massive burden off of your shoulders.

Many homeowners will find professionals too expensive to hire and may decide to go for a DIY approach without giving thought to the other factors in the equation in attempts of cutting costs. However, what they fail to realize is that doing so may result in incurring more damages than what they would have to pay a professional.

If you are a homeowner who does not possess the ability to decorate and furnish your home the way you want it to look like yet still refuse to hire a professional, you are very likely to end up with mistakes. In such cases, you will be left with two choices – either to live in a space you hate and be affected by this negative emotion every day, or to cough up even more money in an attempt to fix where you went wrong. In either of the two ways, you would end up paying more than you anticipated – financially or otherwise.

The time you can spare from your busy schedule and the timeline by which you want to get done

Before you start a DIY home décor project, consider this: how long is it going to take you to finish the job, if ever? Can you manage to dispense enough time to see the project with completion without it messing with your regular life schedule? Will you get distracted or frustrated if the task is not completed in a limited amount of time?

When you are an amateur working alone, even the most straightforward jobs can take up more time than you would expect them to. On the other hand, hiring a professional comes with the added benefit of the task being completed within the timeline dictated, as they will have more practice than you and might be a team rather than a single individual. 

The expertise you have in the field

The next thing to consider is the expertise you have in the field. Have you partaken in similar projects before, or is this going to be your first rodeo? What do you know about home décor, besides your limited research on Pinterest? Are you an overall creative person?

Answering these questions about yourself can tell you a lot about if going at it yourself is a good idea. If you are likely to be making mistakes along the way that you will hate later, then splurging on a professional seems to be the better of the two options. At least this way you will not be risking paying even a more substantial sum of money to hide the things that went wrong during a DIY job!

The feasibility of a do it yourself approach

Even when you know what you want, a DIY job is not as simple as it may first seem. A sturdy step ladder, a roll of painters tape, and some good quality drywall anchors are not the only thing you will require to get started on your home décor project.

Often– according to the nature of work you want to be done – you will need professional equipment that may not be readily available in a hardware store or might be too expensive to buy for a one time use. In times like these, you may be better of getting professional help rather than doing it yourself. An interior decorator or designer that you may choose to hire will usually come with his equipment and for a price that is already included in the overall package.

The amount and nature of work you want to be done

The scale of your project should also be a deciding factor for whether you call skilled help or not. For example, if all the extent of your project requires changing your furniture, then it can be an easy DIY job – especially with the significant number of furniture stores in MA that have made inexpensive yet quality furniture accessible to everybody. However, if what you are looking for is repainting the entirety of your property, then you might be hitting up a professional decorator or a painter in your area.

The final word

Does your home not feel like yours? Are you tired of the same old theme that has been in place ever since your grandma personalized it when she first bought the house? If so, then your home might need a redecoration. But whether you decide to employ a home decorator or decide on a more DIY approach, make sure that it depicts your personality as much as possible.

Author Bio:
About Michelle Joe: Michelle Joe is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences, and express herself through her blogs. You can find her on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook