How Havenly Helped Transform My Home
And here’s why the service is perfect for rooms that just need a little love
Imagine this: you move into your first home and you want to furnish the entire house but then five years later, you’re still staring at boxes and empty space in the room. That is exactly how my first few years in my home went. I started to design in my mind how I wanted each room to look but ended up in a serious rut when I couldn’t figure out where to put certain pieces, what art to hang on the walls, and how to really maximize the space. I realized it was maybe time to tap a designer, but I was already on a budget and didn’t want to pay interior design prices. That’s when I found Havenly.
What I loved about the concept of Havenly was that I could choose any designer from their platform no matter where they were located in the world and have everything done from the comfort of my own office. I didn’t need to pay in-person prices and I was guaranteed my money back if I didn’t love the design. Also, I wasn’t working from a blank slate but more so needed help finishing my rooms. Havenly is not only for those with a brand new space but also for those who just need help with those finishing touches. I chose the Full package for $199, which gave me:
- Access to a personal designer of my choosing
- One-on-one meetings
- A personalized shopping list once the design was completed
- Multiple revisions of my design until I was 100% in love
- 3D renderings (the coolest part)
- And a custom floor plan
The first step was to fill out a design quiz to figure out my style. I found myself browsing Pinterest-esque photos for an hour realizing how specific my style really was — minimalist and modern.
From there, the site matched me to a bunch of interior designers where I could browse their portfolios and see how compatible we were. There were a few designers that really stood out to me based on my style, but I went with Camila Padilla, who’s modern, minimalist style really caught my eye.
Once I selected Camila, it gave me a time frame of when to expect my first round of designs back. I filled out a Room Profile which asked things like what my overall vision was for the room, exact measurements of the space, pieces I’d like to keep, and more. I also was able to schedule a call to discuss the design, which I appreciated so it wasn’t all done through the messaging platform. When coming up with a design for your home, it’s definitely easier to talk it through than try to figure everything out in a message.
Havenly alerted me as soon as my first round of concepts from my designer were ready. Upon opening the concept, my designer had created a video to also walk me through her choices and describe why she chose certain items and how she would lay out the room. She wanted honest feedback, which she truly meant.
As I browsed through her choices, I found myself loving certain pieces but finding others to not be so much my style. Camila was so open to my feedback and was genuinely excited and determined to finalize a room design that I’d absolutely love. Upon giving my feedback, she got back to work on a revised concept, which she delivered only 48 hours later. The speediness of this process was already worth the price of the package.
From there it was time for the 3D rendering, which is hands down the most awesome feature of Havenly. It gives you a chance to truly imagine your room with the new pieces your designer selects down to the exact measurements.
Once I had the renderings, I hopped on a call with my designer to talk through the elements I loved and together we moved pieces around the room to come up with a final design.
What’s awesome about these renderings besides imagining the space come to life, was to see actual pieces I owned, like the lion painting shown above, incorporated into the design.
As we worked on finalizing the design for my dining room, my designer provided a complete shopping list of every single item included in the design, down to the small décor. What’s so amazing about this is that it’s your one-stop shop. You don’t need to browse tons of websites to grab each piece in your design. Instead, Havenly has everything listed there for you to add to your cart and then they even price match if you find the price lower on their partner’s website. Your designer will get commission for each piece you buy, which is a nice way to say thank you for the enormous hard work they put into each design.
Havenly has sales pretty regularly so you likely won’t end up paying full price for pieces from usually costly sites like West Elm and Crate and Barrel. They also offer a 10% off coupon as a new subscriber, which applies to some of those high-end items that normally don’t go on sale. It is likely you’d find the pieces for less from sites like Amazon, Target, and more which is a miss Havenly doesn’t price match those.
Overall, I’d highly recommend using Havenly whether you’re starting from scratch, redesigning an existing room, or just looking for help with the finishing touches. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the process and found myself so excited to see each revised concept and design my designer shared. I’ll absolutely be using the service to design the rest of my rooms and can’t wait to call my house a home!
