Common Questions

We shine brightest when these 3 things are at play.

1. Residential, 100% of the time. 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.

   If you're more of a DIYer, but want some guidance, we can still help. This is an awesome option if you're just looking to get advice and ideas. We can setup a design consultation and hit the ground running, giving you real, useable guidance, taking notes and leaving them for you to keep the ball rolling on your own. Consultations are $450 for up to 2 hours of professional advice, which will set you up for a redesign with confidence.

3. Projects with budgets of $15,000 or more. 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.

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. 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.

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

1. 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.
2. 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!
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

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 help you tear out your kitchen and rebuild 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.

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 unique, and so my work also 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

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 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'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 favorite handy people, Kam and Hanoch; the trades people I bring into my projects; my heavy lifting, moving, and delivery fella, Oscar; and my vendors who are providing the products I use. There are also sales reps that help resolve issues, and there is a warehouse in town that receives and processes my orders and then delivers things to the clients for me. (I'm pretty capable, but there's only so much I can handle with my SUV and Oscar's pickup.)

So, there you have it! That's the "we." I only work with people I like and trust. If I need to find someone new to cover something I don't already have a person for, I'm honest with you about that and I'm going to do my best to vet them before I hire them to help with one of my projects. (I also have a financial guarantee in my contract in case something goes wrong on that front.)

I think this is technically illegal... but I've been working in this industry since I was about 8 years old. :) I grew up in the furniture industry and started helping out here and there since elementary school.

My father owned a furniture manufacturing company that makes custom-order upholstered furniture (sofas, sectionals, chairs, etc.). When I was old enough, I would be tasked with taking inventory of fabric samples at the seasonal markets. I got to run around in a fancy dress and talk to all the sales reps and retailers at the show. It was a lot of fun.

So after college, I went back home and took up a [very, very underpaid] position at my dad's company. I worked for him on the tiny marketing and design team for nearly 5 years.

Because of my unique situation (being the boss's daughter), I got to have a wide range of exposure to different parts of the business. (He not-so-secretly wanted to groom me to take over the company someday. Sorry for moving away, dad!)

During those 5 years, I...

• worked with our R&D team to design new frame styles, and with our lead merchandiser to choose new fabrics and leathers each season;
• was the point person for creating and distributing marketing materials and samples to the stores throughout the year;
• reviewed warranty claims at weekly meetings to discuss any customer complaints that had come in and decide on a disposition;
• conducted the occasional training sessions at retail stores to educate their sales team about fabric and leather;
• spent a lot of time talking with the retailers about their issues, hearing about the things they loved and any disappointments with our product;
• reviewed and approved catalog shots for composition, lighting, and style;
• attended dozens of fabric and leather trade shows to see the seasonal offerings from textile mills and leather tanneries all over the world;

Like I said, I got the unique opportunity to be involved in a wide range of projects, committees, and work groups.

This experience gave me a deep understanding of aspects of the furniture industry that other interior designers may not know.

Most designers learn about fabrics in school, but they typically don't get into furniture construction and leather types in any significant way. I have a much better understanding of construction features of upholstery and how they hold up over time, which means that you can feel confident we're getting top quality goods for the most used, and most expensive furniture pieces in your home.