We shine brightest when these 3 things are at play.

1. Residential, 100% of the time. Our primary service area is Las Vegas, NV, but if you're willing to cover travel expenses, we're open to helping in other locations.

2. Full service decorating and design projects. We'll work with you to understand your wish list and priorities, and then we'll take the reins and come up with a plan, make sure you approve of it, and then make it happen. Including project management services allows you to focus on your normal life, without taking up your time with the ridiculous number of details and decisions needed to get your project across the finish line.

3. Projects with budgets of $15,000 or more for products, labor, and design fees. I promise it's not because we're snobs. Snobs are the worst. It's because we can't comfortably contribute enough value to a smaller project to make it worth the fee HDC would need to charge. If you aren't sure what your budget should be, schedule a consultation and we can help you calculate it with our proprietary budgeting tool.

Naturally, the timeline of a project depends on how extensive it is. If time is a concern, you’re probably better off NOT hiring a designer or decorator to help. The reason is that we have to work your project into our schedule and we have processes that keep us safe from delivering a poor result, like completing the design plan before starting sourcing or implementation. Our processes are essential for ensuring you have a good result, but they take more time than it takes a typical homeowner to shop for and select items.

So if you can spare the time, hiring us will be more efficient than doing it alone. (Huh? More efficient?? I thought you said slower…) By efficient, we mean that we have the experience to make smart selections and thoughtful design plans on the front end so we aren’t dealing with a lot of mid-project changes because the rug we bought doesn’t work with the artwork we bought.

Again, depending on how extensive your project is, we recommend planning for a minimum of 3 months, with a typical project requiring 6-9 months to complete. Before we get started, we’ll provide an estimated timeline based on your work scope.

Obviously, the answer here is “it depends.” Before I go further, you should know that we have a longer blog post on this if you’re in the mood to read. We also have a budget calculator and would be happy to help you calculate a budget for your project, no strings attached. Just reach out and ask.

In a nutshell: budgets are impacted by a lot of variables and until we have a sense of what you want to do, there’s no way to give useful numbers for a budget. However, we can confidently tell you that interior design projects are not low-cost. Your budget will need to cover the cost of products, shipping and handling, trade labor, installation, a contingency for unplanned changes, and design fees. The only part of the equation we can influence is the design fees, and unfortunately, the other costs are as unpredictable as ever.

With few exceptions, hiring us for a small project doesn’t make much sense, so the number we tend to suggest as a starting point for a project we would take on is $15,000. A lot of things can be done around a house for less than $15,000, but rarely will any of those projects benefit from our involvement unless you’re just looking for a paint consultation (If so, that’s great! We do those! Read more here.)

A final note about budgets: we try hard to give our clients accurate estimates at the start of their project and if at all possible, we keep our portion of the budget within the estimates we quoted in our project proposal. Hiring a design firm is a luxury choice, but we work very hard to maximize the impact of our clients’ investments. If you choose to hire us, you can rest assured that you’ll find it well worth the cost.

Form? Function? What's the priority? What's our style?

At HDC, we believe that the way your home functions and feels to you is more important than how it looks, so we focus on function first.

Functional problems can break your spirit in small (or big) ways every day. If you sleep on a mattress that hurts your back, if you're always dealing with toys cluttering the house, if you've bumped your hip on that console table too many times to count, then the function of your home is dragging you down. We want to help you create a home that supports your ideal life, rather than being a barrier to it. If it's painful, cumbersome, or just unpleasant to do the things you want and need to do in your home, we need to fix that ASAP!

Now, we also know that beautiful design makes a world of difference to how you feel in a space, so the aesthetic is not by any means an afterthought. We know how important your home environment is and how draining it can be to live in an empty shell of a house or a place that's just ugly or embarrassing. That's no way to live.

Houses are usually someone's single largest investment across their entire lifetime, and we don't take that lightly. We want you to love the way your home looks and be proud to show it off. Sadly, a lot of people are embarrassed by their homes and that impacts their social life because they don't feel good about hosting gatherings. If you're going to live your best life, being proud of where you live is necessary.

As for our design style, there's no assembly line package here. Everyone likes different things. We aren't living in your house; you are. Yes, you're coming to us for help, but that doesn't mean we need to make your house look the way we want our own houses to look. We aren't here to style a magazine-worthy home for some unidentified, boring, vanilla family. We want to style your home in the way you love, so you walk in the door and feel lucky to have such an amazing place to call home.

There's no assembly line here. Everyone likes different things. We aren't living in your house; you are. Yes, you're coming to us for help, but that doesn't mean we need to make your house look the way we want our own houses to look. We aren't here to style a magazine-worthy home for some unidentified, boring, vanilla family. We want to style your home in the way you love, so you walk in the door and feel lucky to have such an amazing place to call home.

Most people can see a space and know if they like the styling or not, but far fewer people are able to recreate that feeling for their own space. That's why we're here. We have the creativity and expertise to draw on inspirations that you love and create a truly unique home using the design aesthetic you prefer.

Our principal designer, Brittany, shares her top 3 skills:

1. Paint color selection. I have a really good eye for color. Like, exceptional. Clients have always loved the paint colors we've used for their projects, and continue to bring it up throughout the process and after their project has been finished. I'm great with selections and I've been known to impress the guy at the paint counter a time or two with my uncanny color matching skills. (Really. I've got stories.) I also know more than the average Jane about which base products to use for various applications, so we're sure the surface will last and perform the way you need it to.

2. Anything upholstery (sofas and the like). My background in upholstery design and marketing gives me a much deeper-than-average knowledge of upholstered furniture and I can confidently see a piece and tell you how well you can expect it to hold up. I have an especially well-trained eye for leather, which is uncommon among designers who haven't worked in manufacturing before. If you're going to invest in an expensive leather chair, wouldn't you want to be confident you're getting real leather? And know how it needs to be cared for before it's in your home? This is a category I know well.

3. Creating faux plant displays. I have been drawn to pottery since I was young. I think it's what got me into gardening. ("What a gorgeous pot! I guess I should put something in it...") Over the last few years, faux plants have made a roaring comeback and we happen to live in the best location for them! Succulents and cacti are native to desert climates, and are among the most convincing fake plants on the market, so they can really step up an interior space nicely without looking cheesy. I only use the best quality faux plants, and I work with a number of vendors who sell gorgeous pottery, which results in some amazing, high quality, faux plant arrangements for my clients.

I'm fancy, but I'm not royal, and I don't run around using the royal "we" all the time. "We" refers to me (Brittany, the designer) and my team.

My team includes my administrative assistant, Stacy; my favorite handy people, Hanoch and Diamonte; my extra on-site helper, Julie; the trades people we bring in for their unique expertise; the fantastic cleaning company we hire to clean up after us; and our vendors who are providing the products we use. There are also sales reps that help resolve issues, and a warehouse in town that receives and processes our orders and then delivers things to project locations for us.

So, there you have it! That's the "we." As they say, it takes a village!

We often use these terms interchangeably, but there is a difference.

Decorators work on the aesthetics of a room and never, or rarely, touch the elements in a room that are semi-permanent. Decorators might help clients choose flooring, but they aren't going to lead you in tearing out your kitchen and rebuilding it.

Designers go a little deeper and choose the more "permanent" products and materials for a space, like the flooring, the countertops, and the appliances. They can also (and usually do) finish out the space with the furnishings and decor, but the distinction here is that they are qualified to make knowledgeable decisions on the sorts of things you aren't loading into a truck when it's time to move.

Back in the early 2000s, I went to East Carolina University, studied a lot, and after 4 years, I came away with a bachelor's degree in Merchandising, with a focus on Interiors. I also completed a Business Admin Minor and a French Language Minor- (Oui, oui!).

My university also offered an accredited Interior Design program. We shared professors and some classes with the interior design students, but my coursework was a little different than theirs. It was aimed at teaching me what I would need to know to run a business selling home furnishings products.

I took coursework in textile technology (learning the properties of various fibers and weave structures of fabrics), the history of interiors (a year-long intensive course about the design of furniture and building design from prehistoric times to now), room planning (learning ideal spacing and placement for the things in a room), as well as courses on how to design store displays, how to price retail products and manage inventory, and how to balance offerings to match consumer interest. So, in the end, my degree is not the same as an interior design degree, but it does overlap a fair amount of coursework.

I’ve also taken a considerable amount of continuing education courses and seminars since starting my business, and I have completed two extensive business coaching programs specifically for interior designers.

One could say I know some things.

On most projects, my role is that of a decorator. I sometimes do projects that involve the degree of planning and materials choices that fall under the interior designer umbrella. I've worked on projects that get as in-depth as making the decisions on where to place electrical outlets and light switches, and how to appropriately manage the loads of the electrical current. I've also worked on projects that mostly involved creating faux greenery arrangements. Each project is has unique needs so my scope of work varies.

I am not a state licensed interior designer, but the business holds all of the licenses required to offer interior design services.

Wait, what? I know. It's confusing. But, this is a valid question that clients have ("Are you licensed?"), so here's the answer.

The bottom line: I am qualified for this work and legally approved to do it. Please read on.

I'm an Allied Member of ASID (the American Society of Interior Designers), which means I have completed a sufficient number of university courses in interior design, and I complete annual continuing education courses, but have not taken the qualifying professional licensing exam.

In this field, there is a nationally-recognized exam, called the NCIDQ. If a designer has passed the NCIDQ, and then registers with their state's licensing board, they are then a licensed interior designer.

The state of Nevada requires a professional license for interior designers working on commercial projects, but this is not required for residential work. Since I exclusively work on residential projects, it is not necessary to hold a professional license for the type of interior design work that I do.

House of a Different Color is, of course, a state and locally licensed business with all of the relevant licensing to perform residential interior design service