Affordable Online Design Assistance

photo c/o lanarappette

Traveling around to art fairs across the country, we've grown quite familiar with the decorating and art buying fears many of you experience as you define and re-design your home interiors. While some artists take exception to buying art to match a sofa or curtain pattern, we happen to enjoy the challenge of looking at digital pictures, paint swatches, and fabric samples and helping customers select a work to complement the interior. Just this past weekend at Art Fair on the Square, we chatted with 2 customers at length about their colors and furniture before making some artwork suggestions. It was all the sweeter, then, when the customers went home with their pieces and proudly texted us photos of the works hanging in their home with exclamations, "This does look good in this room, doesn't it!" Nothing makes us happier.

photo c/o marusica

Knowing how important this advice can be, we're excited to see an interesting trend in the interior design and art consulting realm: more budget-minded service for those of us who may never have considered hiring a consultant in the past. In Chicago, kelly+olive take a fresh, personal approach to interior design with a variety of virtual and in-person interior design services starting at only $200 . We discovered the duo when following along with the recently opened Orange Beautiful studio and shop and reading how kelly+olive were brought in to provide space planning assistance. The end result: this Daily Candy feature.

photo c/o Orange Beautiful Studio + Shop

Online, the daily decorator offers the virtual room make-over service called Room Service. Working from digital pictures of the room-in-question, Tracy provides a detailed concept board,a shopping list of items from online shops, as well as room layout suggestions.

photo c/o daily decorator Room Service

In the art realm, Art Hound blogger Kate Singleton has recently launched an approachable selection of art consulting services. Art Hound Consulting offers three options: Rapid Art Matching ($225), Art Matching ($450), and Hourly Consulting ($50/hr). All the while, clients can self-educate via Kate's wonderful blog column entitled Cheat-sheets or discover new talent via her Picks of the Week.

photo c/o Art Hound Consulting

And, finally, while not offering any formal design or consulting services, Making it Lovely's Making It Yours column is also a great online destination for inspiration and fabulous finds.