do i need an interior designer?

[salsah]

i have never used an interior designer but i need help! i can't figure out how to arrange the furniture in our living room. (and none of my friends can either) every wall has something going on (window, fireplace, doorway) that gets in the way of an ideal layout. not to mention that it is bit narrow and long. (and i'm not even going to get into wiring issues for the computer and tv). the room is just not working for us. because we rent, we can't make any major changes (and i don't want to invest a lot). so, i think i need professional help but i don't know if it worth getting an interior designer to just help with just the lay out of one room. will a designer be willing to help with just that one thing? how much can i expect the designer to charge?

any advice will be greatly appreciated!

[nov04]

How about someone who stages home being sold??? They work with what's there to make it more universal and liveable. Once they've done the hard work, you can put your own personal touches back on it.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Have you tried graphing the room and furniture and toy around with different layouts on paper? It might be something to try first.

Beth

[erosenst]

This site is great for playing with things. http://www.bhg.com/decorating/arrange-a-room/. I arranged all the furniture in our new house using it.

Another suggestion is to go to That Home Site (http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/), and post on the Home Decorating board. There are people there who are amazing at arranging furniture and accessories.

HTH-

Emily

[shilo]

yup, head over to gardenweb. i can't speak to the home decorating forum yet, but the kitchen and bathroom forums are amazing. they (some of the frequent posters who like to work on layouts) suggested possible layouts and basically re-designed my new kitchen/dining/pantry spaces with everything i was asking for in a weekend. something my architect hadn't managed to do in, oh, 11 MONTHS of working on our home design project.

it's a great community over there.

lori

[BeachBum]

I wouldn't. I would just play with the real furniture until I got something that felt right.
If you are considering getting new furniture, most nice furniture stores do have designers on staff. It might be worth it to make a scale drawing of your room and take it in. They will make a furniture layout for you and suggest their specific pieces to fill the slots.
Those services are usually free/part of the sales package. If they make a home visit they might charge $100 or so.

[salsah]

thanks for the advice. i have played around with the layout so much now that i am all out of ideas. i'll head over to the home decorating board to see if any one there has any ideas.