Advice for finding a designer?

[Lucas Hammer]

My wife and I just closed on our first deal and it's pretty dated. We're wanting to do a full rehab, but we're doing it with our W2 income so it'll be in stages. We've never done anything like this, so we're really striving and hoping to find a designer that help, but we won't need them for the entire process. Before we even move in (we'll be living there for much of the work), we need to get floor stain, cabinet colors and paint color. We're going to be refinishing the floors and want to complete it before we move in, but we really need a plan.

My question is, how do you find design ideas or a designer to help you with your plan? We're going to probably go back to them a few times throughout the project for different things (bring them back for the kitchen, again for the washroom, etc.), but we're just kind of stuck on selection criteria or how to get started so we can move in.