Picking out furniture for your home sounds like fun. And it is. There’s nothing like walking a showroom floor and dreaming about what each piece you see might look like in your home.
But when you’re furnishing an entire home from square one, you’ll realize quickly that there’s a lot more to it than furniture selection and the pleasure of shopping. There are so many decisions to make, spatial planning, and a lot of costs to consider besides the price tags on your furniture.
Which furniture pieces does each room need? How do you properly measure each room to know just what size each piece should be? What fabrics to select? What sort of wood grain and finishes to include? What role will artwork and accents play throughout the house?
There’s also an overarching concern to keep in mind: You need to make sure everything you choose works together. Not only should each room have a great look, but your entire home should also have a unifying flow that makes all your choices work together as you travel from room to room.
And then there are the logistics involved in luxury home furnishing. You need to locate reliable vendors to sell you quality pieces, who offer a range of selection, and will deliver on time. Then you need to coordinate delivery, unpacking, and placement of each piece.
All of the above represents just some of the many factors involved in furnishing a new home, or an older home that’s new to you.
Being faced with so many tasks tends to result in two questions: 1) How can I get all this done? 2) What is all of this going to cost?
Answering major questions about full-service home furnishing
How am I going to get all of this done?
There are two ways to accomplish the monumental task of furnishing an entire house.
The first is to go full DIY and wear several hats: interior designer, vendor and merchandise coordinator, and onsite design execution manager are the three basic roles, and each one of those people carries a clipboard with a long list of subtasks to accomplish.
With so much very specialized work to do, the delightful idea of furnishing your home can quickly become overwhelming.
The most efficient thing you can do is to work with a top provider of Ponte Vedra furnishing services like Jessica Woodward at Welcome Home Styling. She has worn each of those hats many times and can switch from one to another in a heartbeat.
Now, before we move on to question two about cost, let’s make sure you understand exactly what full-service home furnishing involves.
Defining “Full-Service Home Furnishing”
What is furnishing in the world of interior design? When you hire a full-service home furnishing professional, you’re not just hiring someone to advise you on furniture selection. You’re hiring someone who knows how to juggle all of the clipboards mentioned above to help you achieve the home of your dreams.
Let’s list some details based on the hats we talked about:
Interior Designer
- Initial consultation and project planning
- Measuring and documenting rooms
- Developing a design concept
- Creating furniture layouts
- Selecting furniture
- Choosing rugs and window treatments
- Selecting lighting
- Choosing artwork and accessories
- Coordinating fabrics and finishes
- Preparing design presentations
Vendor and Merchandise Coordinator
- Obtaining furniture and product quotes
- Ordering furnishings, fixtures, and accents
- Tracking orders from a range of sources
- Coordinating delivery dates and times
Onsite Design Execution Manager
- Accepting deliveries as they arrive
- Inspecting delivered merchandise
- Organizing returns and replacements for damaged or incorrect items
- Overseeing placement and installation
- Ensuring the detailed execution of the established design
Jessica Woodward has made all of the above happen many, many times. With her, all of those hats, clipboards, and subtasks are consolidated into a single seamless project plan that gives you the luxury of relaxing instead of navigating every twist and turn in your furnishing adventure on your own.
Okay. Now we have enough information to talk about cost.
How much does full-service home furnishing cost?
You could research costs for days and come away very confused. So, we’re not going to list a bunch of online averages that don’t really mean anything. They very likely lump experienced professional designers in with people who once got a compliment on their living room and decided to start a business.
What we’ll do in this blog is give you an overview of what you might invest when working with Jessica and Welcome Home Styling. Price transparency is part of their overall approach to top-tier customer service.
What are you paying for?
The cost of full-service home furnishing is essentially broken into two categories: The designer’s fee and the costs related to the products purchased for your home.
At Welcome Home Styling, your project begins with a consultation appointment. And it’s not just a meet-and-greet. It’s an opportunity for you and Jessica to explore what you want for your home.
If you feel that you have enough information after the consultation that you’re confident about moving forward on your own, that’s entirely up to you.
Should you move forward, depending on the extent of your project, you can expect Jessica’s design fee to be somewhere between $10 and $18 per square foot.
Living Room
We can’t envision exactly what you’re dreaming of for your living room, so let’s look at some basics you may consider: 1 sofa, 2 accent pillows, 2 side chairs, 1 coffee table, 2 floor lamps, 1 area rug, various accessories and art.
Here’s what that grouping might cost:
Good = $12,800 Better = $23,400 Best = $36,000
What finally arrives in your living room will be determined by the room’s dimensions, what sort of flow you need for people to move around, any natural light in the room, and, of course, your personal tastes and the role your living room plays in everyday life. Excellent interior design isn’t all about looks. It’s about helping you live your life.
Dining Room
Dining rooms can be tricky because a lot of homes no longer have formal dining rooms but rather a dining area that needs to be defined. For instance, if you’re furnishing a new home, that means you may need counter stools to help transition from your kitchen to the dining area.
In our example dining room, let’s select 3 stools at counter/bar height, 1 dining table, 8 dining chairs, 1 sideboard. Now, let’s run those numbers.
Good = $7,800 Better = $16,900 Best = $30,000
Again, we’re just giving you an idea of basic cost. If you have a formal dining room, you don’t have to worry about transition between areas, so you’ll get to define the room with very specific accents, rugs, etc.
Bedroom
Bedrooms are highly personalized spaces that differ greatly even within a single home.
For the purposes of our example, let’s focus on some basics for a primary bedroom: 1 king bed, 1 mattress, 2 nightstands, 2 table lamps, 1 floor mirror, accessories & art.
Good = $7200 Better = $12,950 Best = $22,300
This primary bedroom is going to be a lot different from that of a teenage girl or boy, so expect those costs to differ widely based on the kid’s interests.
Home Office
What is furnishing all about in a less complex space like a home office?
The home office was once considered a luxury item, but with so many people working remotely in contemporary life, luxury home furnishing for home offices has become a priority.
Let’s give our basic office 1 desk, 1 desk chair, 2 book cases, 1 task lamp, and 1 table lamp.
Good = $6,750 Better = $14,250 Best = $22,100
One more thing about a home office. If you’re converting a bedroom, consider changing the paint, as well. Colors that suit the relaxation of a bedroom may not create the atmosphere for the kind of concentration you need in an office (btw, painting tends to start at $1,000 per room).
Additional costs
We’ve focused on essential furniture and accessories in this blog, but there are other items that are very likely to come up during a full home furnishing project. Here’s the Good/Better/Best range on just a few:
- Custom Curtains (per panel) $750/$1,500/$2,500+
- Ready-made Curtains (per panel) $250/$450/$750+
- Drapery Hardware (per window) $200/$450/$700+
- Wood Blinds (per window) $500/$750/$1,200+
Non-product costs
In addition to your purchase price for each item, there are additional costs for getting them to your house and into the rooms for which each piece is intended. Keep these in mind for when you see them included as line items in your invoice:
- Receiving and Storage Fees=18% of the retail cost of an item (average)
- Furniture Assembly/Handyman=$75 – $150/hr+
Wrap-up
We hope this gives you a working knowledge of what full-service home furnishing can cost. As you can see, whether you’re furnishing a new home or an older home, such a project is complicated, with a lot of moving parts.
Working with Jessica and Welcome Home Styling, everything mentioned here and many other details are taken off your hands and executed as part of a seamless project plan that shows you exactly what will happen and when, while also providing exact layouts and renderings of what your finished rooms will look like.
Jessica and team take the concept of “full-service” very seriously. During your initial consultation, Jessica will go over every aspect of the project in detail so there will be no surprises.
Don’t sign a contract with any designer who says they can’t give you details. If they don’t have details, they are either wildly inexperienced or unconcerned about you as a customer.
Is full-service home furnishing right for you?
Only you can answer that question. If you’re someone with a great eye, who also loves the challenge of organizing a complex project and has the time to do it, going the DIY route may be perfect for you.
Based on experience, Jessica and her team can tell you that most people find themselves out of their depth once they get into the weeds of a home furnishing project. Not only is finding time for everything inconvenient, understanding what is and isn’t fair can be difficult. There are people out there who thrive on taking advantage of homeowners.
While hiring a top-tier interior designer is certainly the more convenient option for Ponte Vedra furnishing services, or services anywhere in Greater Jacksonville, it’s also the safest for you as a consumer.
The team at Welcome Home Styling works with only trusted vendors who value integrity as much as they do.
And when it comes to cost, they’ll show you exactly where your money is going.
