Use What You Have Interiors

What a fantastic experience with Allyson Paris, a «Use What You Have» Interior Decorator. Allyson came to my home in late August. Immediately, I was comfortable with her and she gave me honest, constructive feedback with emphasis on the positive. So far, I have taken her suggestions and repainted my home, ordered new window treatments, rearranged my existing furniture, and feel re-​energized about my home. Allyson/​Use What You Have gave me a gift– before I felt like my home was schulmpy and uninspired. The process helped me to realize it just needed some minor tweaks with lighting, color and a new perspective! Also need to mention that booking a designer was painless. I went to the website, sent a message and someone contacted me the next day. They were clear and concise when describing the services and offered me a choice of «tiers» of designers. I guess the tiers are based on experience.

I wasn’t happy with how my space was working so I hired Use What You Have Interiors to help figure out a better plan. I really don’t have extra $ lying around but was willing to scrounge up $ 350 to redesign my studio apartment. In the 8 years I’ve lived in it, I always thought it was 19′ long. Well, when Tracy came over, and after telling me that she was not a junior designer but was giving me a junior designer price (which I guess I was supposed to be grateful for even though I asked for a junior designer), she took out her measuring tape and informed me that my room was 20′ (the price changes from 19′ to 20′). Having barely had the $ 350 to pay the 19′ price, I really couldn’t pay the 20′ price (especially because it was 1 measly foot I was paying an additional $ 125 for). But instead of discussing only 19′ of the 20′ apartment, she told me she’d talk about half the apartment for $ 350 or the whole apt for $ 475. You can imagine how my stomach dropped. But I didn’t want a ”done” living space and not sleeping space or vice versa, so I agreed to it (I mean who really needs to eat for the month, right?). So, we chatted for 2 hours, she wrote out a plan of all the things I should do, gave me the number of her lighting guy (who quoted me $ 2,000 for what she wanted me to do), and after pricing out the furniture changes she wanted me to make, I’d have spent close to $ 5,000 to do everything recommended. While she was clearly very knowledgable and had some great ideas, the whole ”use what you have” concept doesn’t really apply. It’s actually an interior design consultation that I payed $ 517 for (cause there was tax) to get a written plan of everything I should do. No shopping, no follow up, no 3D design software, just a written plan of what YOU go do yourself. And after the appointment was done, I realized we never even spoke about one of the two major walls in the apt. But I wasn’t about to call her back cause I’m sure it would have been several hundred $ to come back and finish what I paid $ 500+ for. So, if you’ have $ to burn and are looking to brainstorm with someone who knows what they’re doing, by all means.

Fan-​tastic.
I kinda felt weird about hiring a designer for my space, but I’m glad I did. Use What You Have basically helps you rearrange what you have into a better layout, then offers options for further customization on your own. They’ll help you move furniture, go through catalogs, look online, and just be really collaborative in the design process.
I pretty much hated all of my furniture, so we didn’t do too much rearranging (besides for placeholding purposes), but we spent a ton of time going over purchasing options. In the end, we put together a full design plan for each area of the space, with specific pieces to model against or just buy right out.
I worked with Tracy, one of their senior designers, but they only charged me the junior designer rate, which was nice. She was great to work with, and even dealt with my large, overly-​nosy pit bull like a champ. And she bought me lunch.
Price-​wise, expect $ 350 for a standard sized room, $ 700 for a «double» room. I did almost my entire loft for about $ 1200 including travel fees to Brooklyn. I was hoping to get lucky and do the whole thing for $ 350, but they do measure, and they stick to their fee schedule pretty closely. Whatever though, it was well worth it for what I wanted.