the ugly truth about design

 

I have been a designer for several years now and whenever someone learns I’m an interior designer their first response is, “Wow, what a fun job!” The misconception is that creative fields are not work, it’s all fancy fluff, and hardly worth taking seriously. Today, I’m going to talk about the ugly truth of design.

 

Most of the time In response to the “Wow how fun” remark, I smile idiotically and take a swig of my cocktail and agree, “Yeah, so fun”. At the same time, I’m rehearsing the conversation I will have with my client about the electrician going AWOL, the fabric we designed the room around and ordered five weeks ago being on back order for two more months, and the light fixture arriving with a missing part… are we having fun yet?!

 

Although there are many aspects of the design process I love and it may be fun, make no mistake about it – interior design is a legitimate profession that involves real life issues, safety standards, and real hard earned money.

 

Trust me – many designers (including myself!) never talk about the unglamorous side of design – like measuring a building in 90+ heat with no air conditioning, schlepping back-breaking boxes of tile samples around, or the exhaustion after a day of installation all to provide that big reveal moment to our clients.

 

So when it comes to the so-called glamorous side of design, we’ve earned every sexy second of that fleeting experience because our day to day lives don’t remotely look glamorous.

 

If the design world looks fun from the outside, it’s because any designer worth their pearls will never let onto the ugly truth about design (unless they absolutely have to). Mums the word when it comes to the near-misses, sleepless nights, and endless amounts of cookie-dough consumed just to make everything perfect for the client.

 

As designers, we do so much more than create a pretty room and fluff pillows. To execute a project to completion, we step into many different roles such as mediator, motivator, negotiator, forensic accountant, counselor, and ninja problem solver because of the many different personality types we expertly juggle on any given day.

 

The same way Michael Jordan dominated basketball and made a slam dunk look so easy, we design professionals are so good we make the whole process seem easy – almost like we waved a magic wand to bring the vision from your head into existence!

 

And that’s how we know we have done our job well – when we can give you the best home experience possible within your budget, we make it all look easy and dare I say…fun.

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