Interior Design for the Girl on the Go

Havenly takes interior design and makes it accessible to the day-to-day consumer.

Being busy Career Girls means that we don’t always have time to take on a big project to deck out our homes with the latest trends, decor and furnishings. Being young Career Girls also means that we don’t always have the budget to go all-out on a fancy interior decorator. Havenly takes these two challenges and spins them into an easy, affordable process that you can execute completely virtually!

Here’s how it works:

  1. You take a survey about your design taste. Easy, peasy.
  2. A designer contacts you and asks for photos of your space, any links to things you own and want to keep or like, Pinterest inspiration boards, etc.
  3. You get two concepts to pick from and pay $185 to see them. Make any tweaks you want! You also get access to a shop where you can order items directly from the Havenly site, often at a discount. Here are the two concepts I received, one with my existing elements and one with all new elements. I share my space with someone else, so I have to keep their tastes in mind and we kept the main elements we have (couch, table, etc.)
  4. You get a full on room rendering (Warning: This is where you fall in madly in love)
  5. Finalize your design and order away – Havenly’s reps will order the pieces for you and get back with you to confirm tracking numbers and costs.
  6. Enjoy your new space!

 

Pros:

  • Completely virtual, easy to fit into your busy schedule
  • Designers are experienced in space-making, so if you’re not particularly interested in interior design, they can still help you out
  • Personal, friendly service
  • Can work around your existing pieces
  • Easy to envision what it will look like in your space with the room rendering feature
  • Relatively quick process
  • Affordable design fee ($185)

Cons:

  • Still need a rather large budget to do a full room revamp – $2000 is considered “on the cheap” for a living room revamp
  • For me, the process was a bit unclear after the room rendering – I had to follow up to make sure I knew what was going on. They communicate well when asked so don’t be afraid to send in a question.
  • Some imperfections in the design unless you can give full 360 degree views and dimensions
  • Even if you go into it wanting to spend modestly, you’ll come out wanting all new things! (First hand experience!)

 

Before photo

 

Here is the Final Rendered Design! 

 

Final updates to the room 

We decided to take inspiration from the Havenly rendering and added some small but key pieces that they suggested to update the room. In the rendering above, the mirror is actually going to be used in a different room since we can’t cover up the A/C and heat controls, and the table to the right of the entertainment cabinet wouldn’t actually fit in the space. So, we made it our own and this is what we ended up with:

 

Overall, Havenly was a positive experience and I will certainly be using them in the future if any redesign needs come up. If you’re ready to revamp your space, hustle on over to the Havenly website and get started!

Not quite ready? Keep up with design tips and inspiration on their Facebook page.

Amanda Kocefas

Amanda is a marketing professional with experience covering global communication, corporate branding, trade show events, advertising, web content management, and business development support. She has a Bachelor's degree in Advertising from Michigan State University and has internship experience in graphic design and non-profit event planning. She has also raised awareness and funds for several non-profit organizations including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Relay For Life, One World One Future, Ronald McDonald House, March of Dimes, Wright for Kids, Kalamazoo Community Advocates, and Kalamazoo Community in Schools. Through this column, she aims to help career girls everywhere master the tricky rules of communication in today's workplace.

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