I trialled the new Dulux Amazing Space service. Check out these amazing designs!

Have you ever looked around your house and thought, I’d love to refresh this room, but I just don’t know where to start? Have you ever kicked yourself for choosing the same, safe colour scheme? Have you ever dreamed of getting an interiors expert in to give you some tailored advice, but found the cost prohibitive?

I could have said yes to pretty much all of the above when Dulux got in touch to introduce me to their exciting new service, Amazing Space, a new online interior design service which connects you with an interiors expert, provides you with a 30 minute live consultation, and then delivers a perfectly tailored set of actionable recommendations – all for just £75.

An easy, painless consultation process

When you sign up for the Dulux Amazing Space experience, the first step is to tell them all about your project. The whole interface is button-based, so it’s quick and simple to work through.

Tell them what room you’re looking to refresh and give your project a name – I found that this was the first step to helping me clarify what I wanted to achieve in my own mind.

Tell them what kind of house you live in – this helps them make realistic, practical recommendations that make best use of the space.

Thinking about who uses the space is another obvious question I otherwise wouldn’t have considered. During the consultation, being able to talk about how we would use the room influenced the later recommendations.

The next screen asks you to hone in on what you’re looking for help with. You could ask your Dulux Design Expert to look at everything, or get specific help wth colours, storage or accessories, for example.

Setting your budget is an important step and one that my experts took great care to be respectful of. It means that the final concept you’re presented with isn’t just a room you’ll love, but one you can afford. More on that later!

Next, Dulux asks you to choose from some vision prompts. This helps to focus your mind on what you want to achieve for the room. How do you hope it will feel when the project is complete?

To help get a sense of the kind of styles you like and dislike, the next stage of the process is to scroll through some images of completed spaces and say whether you like or dislike them and why. I discovered during this stage of the process that I was looking for something light and airy, but also surprised myself by some of the bolder colour choices I was putting a tick next to.

The final stage of the taste element of the process is to choose your preferred colours. You can tick as many as you like, and even use the text box at the bottom to choose specific colours. The Dulux Design Expert will then use these to start building their colour recommendations.

Next, the Amazing Space system starts to gather very specific information about the room you’re looking to refresh. This is a really key element of the service, as it means the final recommendations you receive will show you very accurately what your room will look like.

This isn’t like looking in a catalogue, this is having a real designer create a vision for your amazing space. so you upload pictures of the room as it currently stands.

And then you use the next screen to accurately map out the exact size and shape of your room. Don’t worry if you struggle with little quirks of the room shape, though, your Dulux Design Expert can help with this during your live consultation.

Towards the end of the process, you’re given a final chance to share any extra thoughts about the room and what you want to achieve. You can even share links, so if you have a dream sofa that you want to be central to the design, or have built a Pinterest board around your favourite colours and designs, you can share them here.

The last step is to book your consultation, which is as simple as a couple of clicks. Once you book, you’ll receive an email confirmation and then it’s time to sit tight until your live consultation.

Fun, inspiring live consultation

At your allotted time, you’ll receive an email reminder with a link to log in to the Dulux Amazing Space system and meet your Design Expert.

Over a 30 minute session, they’ll talk you through their thought process and selections, getting your feedback on their early concepts and making sure you’re happy with their selections.

I loved this process. I had three consultations looking at three different rooms and in every session, I had brilliant fun.

The Dulux Design Experts are just that – experts. Their ideas were brilliant, their suggestions flexible and at no stage did I feel pushed in any direction.

Shortly after each session, I received my recommendations. I can’t wait to show them to you…

The results

Opening the recommendations after the sessions felt like Christmas. Each time, I called my husband and kids over and we huddled round the computer to see the results. I love them all. I hope you do too…

Daughter’s Bedroom

When I decorated my daughter’s bedroom for the first time, she was really happy with the very pink results.

She was two back then, but as she’s just turned four now, it’s time for a more grown up look. We were looking for advice on how to make the most of the small space again, with some slightly more subtle colours but retaining a happy, fun feel with a wow factor that she and her friends will love.

My Dulux Design Expert came up with a gorgeous colour set that I never would have thought of, using a gentle grey for some walls, but boxing out the bed area with dusky pink.

What really impressed me was the brilliant idea to edge the pink with a bright, warm yellow, and use that same yellow to pop some colour around the window.

I never would have thought you could achieve so much in such a tiny room, but check out the 3D rendering – I’m completely convinced.

My Dulux Design Expert found the perfect raised bed to make best use of the space, and then went through and found us rugs, lighting and other accessories to compliment the room. It’s just gorgeous, and all of the items are clickable, so this is a shopping list I can order from with complete ease.

We have no doubt that we’re going to action this design – look out for an update in January 2016!

Our Kitchen

Next up was the kitchen, I love our existing space as it’s where I do a huge amount of my work, but it’s tired and a little boxy, so we were looking for advice on how we could brighten it up on a limited budget.

The colours that Jade chose are gorgeous, don’t you think? The finished concept is light, airy and ‘grown up’ and offers some brilliant solutions for tidying up the space.

I suspected that the redesign would suggest sticking with a bright colour on the window wall (it’s currently bright lime green), but the suggestion to continue that orange across the ceiling blew me away. I would never have thought of that, but I love the impact it brings. What do you think?

I loved how during the sessions, no question was too silly, no request unreasonable. Jade made every effort to find designs that achieved a look I could feel completely happy with. I was left with a shopping list I cannot wait to get started with. This project is now scheduled for January 2016!

Our Living Room

Our living room has really only ever been an accidental space – a mishmash of furniture from our last house, with new bits shoehorned in to lend extra surfaces to the endlessly growing piles of toys, drawings, odds and ends.

I’d been dreaming of making a change for some time, but found the long, narrow space challenging, so I was excited to get started.

I set a budget of £1,000, but as you’ll see, we decided to unleash that budget later to see what could be achieved if we went after a whole new look from top to bottom.

I can’t express how much I love the finished concept. The colours are soft yet warm and there are some really clever ideas, such as painting the inside of the partition in a darker taupe to define the living and dining areas of the room. So clever!

Doesn’t this look like a gorgeous, grown up, relaxed space? I want to move it right now! This is officially our March 2016 project.

I’m particularly excited to go shopping, because the process didn’t just open my eyes to what could be achieved with wall colour, but also with braver furniture choices.

I adore that mushroom storage side table, and don’t worry, the final budget isn’t really £6.5k, Jade just went away after the call and found me loads of sofa and chair ideas to choose from, because that’s how brilliant this service is.

Making it happen

So, all these projects are slated in for early 2016, and I cannot wait, but Dulux doesn’t just love you and leave you. The final screen in your Amazing Space reports is titled ‘Make it Happen’.

It carries you through to the Dulux YouTube channel which is packed with clear guides to walk you through every step of the process, from prepping walls to achieving paint effects, it’s all there.

I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I loved every step of the Dulux Amazing Space process. To say that £75 is an absolute bargain is a ridiculous understatement – this is a service you will love.

This is a commissioned post for Dulux, however opinions are entirely my own and I have full editorial control.