My experience with designers has not been great, and this forum is free and I've had so much great advice. There are decorators who have great taste, but the good ones usually have a commensurate price tag. Your needs are extensive and this could be a drawn-out process. I hope someone with a more positive view about decorators can give you better advice than my admittedly biased one.

Unless you have a great deal of money to spend, you are better off doing a lot of the hard work yourself and then hiring someone to help finish things off with panache. Good interior designers cost a fortune- six figures for a living room, for a modest start. Mediocre interior designers cost money too- I have no idea of how much though- but my feeling is that any money spent on a mediocre designer is money that could have been spent on better furniture and finishes.

Lay out your wish list. Consult some books and bring the problems here to work out together with this very talented crew. There is not a day that goes by that I am not amazed at how the people on this board work together to create beautiful spaces. Try with one room and see how it goes.

People have reported good things from distance consultations with Maria Killam, whose specialty is colors. Google her blog and check out posts about her here on GW. She may be able to give you a good color scheme. Laurel Bern's blog is one of my favorites and she sells color schemes as well.

I know it can seem overwhelming, but if money is a concern at all, it seems unproductive to waste it on meh interior designers.

I hired a local designer for 2 hours to help me with my remodeling project. It was $250/hour. I just asked her advice on all the things I was considering: mostly paint and cabinet colors, but also light fixtures, cabinet design, hardware, etc. I used pretty much all the colors she recommended and like them. I didn't agree with every bit of advice, but I don't think she was steering me in the wrong direction.

I bought Laurel Bern's Essential Paint Color collection and thought it complemented the advice from the interior designer.

Designers make their money selling you furniture/lamps/rugs soft furnishings. If all you want is consultation on colors, they will charge an hourly fee and it will be high - $250 @hr is pretty standard at the lower end. And you will have no idea if you like their suggestions until you have paid for it.

It's very useful to use a designer if trying to pull together a room using some furniture one already owns and using the designer to find the other things needed and advice on colors/fabrics etc.

But it's always a lot of fun to do this oneself! Do you already have furniture/rugs/curtains? Then choosing colors will not be that hard. If you're getting new, choose these things first and then your paint colors. Paint is far easier to match to fabric than fabric to paint!

All of the above is not necessarily true and somewhat depends on where you live. You don't need an interior designer for the work you're proposing -- look for an interior decorator, instead. I work as a decorator (I don't have the credentials of an interior designer, but I have a certificate in Decorative Arts as well as lots of experience from my own houses and construction projects) on an hourly basis, sort of like a consultant, and I do the sort of thing you're looking for all the time. Clients seem to like me (if I do say so...) because my hourly rate is much, much lower than a full service designer, and I'm not trying to sell anyone anything. There aren't a lot of decorators like me out there, but there are some! Try asking around -- friends and neighbors may know someone, because a lot of decorators get referred by word of mouth and don't advertise much.

Wow - I've worked with designers and found it to be a great experience. Yes, they charged their hourly rate, but I was well prepared with photographs, paint chips and items I wanted to use. Each of the 3 times I've worked with one, it's taken no more than 2 hours to get everything wrapped up. Anglo must be in a higher end area, because the fees I paid were around $125/hour. I'm sure fees vary depending on the designer and what the job is. I would urge you to not be in a rush. Pull photographs from the internet, magazines, etc. of "looks", color schemes, flooring, light fixtures, etc. that appeal to you. The more homework you can do, the easier it will be on your budget.

(sometimes I feel here like during SAT's or something..checking the d) all of the above))))

As a point of information:

I just hired an interior designer to help me put together my new house. I needed someone who could order the to-the-trade only things and someone to bounce ideas off of (I am pretty set in what I want, but two heads are better than one, and how often can you come to GW boring people about your house.) She is charging me a flat $150 per hour. I live on the SF Peninsula. I found her through the furniture store I thought carried a certain brand (they did not after all.) She will not charge me for time spent working with the brands her store does carry.