Recently, I updated my website and one of the comments I got was that it must be exciting to be an Interior Designer..made me think…exciting? Well, it certainly gets my blood pressure up sometimes, but I don’t think people realize the extent of what I do.
I’ve always said, “I’m not just a pillow-picker”, but that doesn’t begin to cover all that an Interior Designer does, and I think that is why sometimes people have a misconception about just what a designer does.
College didn’t really prepare me either, but I think that might be true of many occupations. I remember a teacher down- graded a project because I used pink and red together…I always have ignored “the rules” apparently… I use pink and red all the time, just needs to be the “right” pink and red.
I recently looked at my college transcript and most of the design classes I don’t really remember. However, the required, seemingly odd ones that have been the most valuable to me, like Geology! Never dreamt I would need to know granite is volcanic and has certain characteristics totally different from say Marble…and then there’s travertine, I could talk for hours about travertine and sometimes do, just ask one of my clients whose installed travertine recently.
What I should have taken were business and accounting classes, I need those all the time! I’m a great Interior Designer, but I’d get paid a lot better if I was a better accountant. The Calculus class I possibly could have done without, don’t think I use it on a daily basis like Geology… but don’t tell my grandkids that.
But after looking at my new website, a client said I should have a tab showing my “Team”. She was referring to all the wonderful people that make me look good by the talented work they do. An Interior Designer is only as good as the people she works with and the people she trusts to turn her ideas and dreams into reality.
Early in my career, I mentioned to my Dad, as I introduced a woman I had just hired, that she “worked for me”, later he said to me privately, “Don’t ever say that, and never think it, …she works WITH you..never forget that,” and I never have. My Dad was Capsule Engineer for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Space Program. He literally was part of a team that got men to the moon, so I think he knew what he was talking about.
I know I wouldn’t be the Designer I am without the great people who move walls for me, build walls for me, guide my selections of plumbing and appliances and make it all work together, plumb the water, create the electricity that makes my chandeliers glow, lay the beautiful tile I’ve selected with genius precision, turn plain wood into beautiful furniture for baths and kitchens, carve and create life into a slab of stone turning it into a magnificent piece of art.
Come to think about it…being an Interior Designer is exciting!