Designer: Melanie Whittington
Room Service! Doesn’t that phrase conjure great images – the neatly dressed waiter at the door, bringing the delightful goodies you’ve just ordered – the strawberries, the Champagne… (Oops, I digress.)
But I got those same warm and fuzzy feelings again when I heard about Arlington, VA, Designer Melanie Whittington’s new “Room Service” business, which is a clever twist on interior design for this economy.
“It’s for those people who maybe last year would have hired a professional designer but lost half their money in the market,” Whittington says matter-of-factly. Now, she says, “they don’t want to do the whole house and they don’t want to feel pressured from a designer.”
All photography by Thomas Arledge (except “before” shots)
Whittington charges a flat $500 rate to come to your house for an initial consultation, and then she will send you presentation boards, paint and fabric samples, and furniture suggestions about two weeks later. (There’s also a menu of lower rates for more informal room, color or window treatment consultations.)
Once the package arrives, the rest is up to you – you can either order the things she suggests through her, or you can do your own shopping – on your own schedule – with the Room Service kit as a guide.
In the case of the presentation boards pictured above, the client came back and asked Whittington to execute everything she suggested.
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Unreal, considering the before shots:
Under a typical contract with an established interior designer, a client can expect to pay thousands for a retainer fee, followed by hourly rates, and endless markups on products he or she purchases for you.
With Room Service, you pay $500, but Whittington doesn’t charge any more designer fees after that. If you want her to do everything she lists on the boards, you just pay the painter or electrician or whomever installs the products. If she orders trade-only furnishings, she says there is a small markup “but still less than retail.” Sounds fair.
Let’s check out some other rooms she’s done. This family room and home office are in the same house as the dining room above. The client had Whittington do a Room Service for each room – and because there were multiple rooms, they worked out an overall fee that was less than $500 per room. I love volume discounts.
The family room, after and before:
The office, after and before:
In many cases, Whittington can “shop” your house and find pieces that are in your living room, for example, but would look much better in the dining room. And unlike the stuff you find at all the usual-suspect home store chains, she has access to all the cool to-the-trade companies to give the room a unique look.
“We wanted to seem more approachable than a stuffy design firm,” Whittington says. “Nobody has $25,000 anymore on just redoing one room.”
Room Service is also a response to the endless complaints she hears from her friends: “I just don’t want to go to Pottery Barn anymore.” Now, she says, “You are ready to have a grown-up room.”
Room Service
A division of Whittington Design Studio
2499-LL9 N. Harrison St.
Arlington, VA 22207
703.533.3705
roomserviceinfo.com
Great post - the dining room is incredible. Their offices are in the same hallway as my daughter’s ballet school!
You should stop by, then – Melanie’s a doll!
Thanks for viewing our work! Please stop by and see us when you are at the center. We have just opened up the front of our studio for retail sales. Great pillows, area rugs, picture frames, and fun bags for your spring makeover! Tell your friends and come check us out!
Theres some nice interior design work shown here, and the “Room Service” concept works well.
Spacelift Staging & Interior (re)Design offers budget friendly design in another way. We have clients who want to use many of their own peices but give their space a new look. Our (re)Design plan is all about that, augmenting the room with a few new peices, sometimes re-arrangin the space, for a fresh new look without starting from scratch.
Read more about how Spacelift uses the design principles in the March issue of the “Hill Rag”. Then contact us to find out what we can do for you!
“Sometimes a house just needs a Spacelift”
Hi Melanie,
I was just over at the model home in River Falls which your company decorated. It recently sold for $1.2M. I love the white table and chairs in the kitchen. I believe the chairs have a woven back. Is there a way I can find out where you purchase that set? Please email me at pulley.linda@yahoo.com or call me at (469) 223-1422.
Thank You o