There is a common interior design lie lurking around. Maybe you’ve heard it or even thought it (gasp!) before?
That interior design is JUST about picking pretty things.
I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation that goes something like this:
(person) ”Oh what do you do for a living?”
(me) “…I’m in interior design.”
(person) “Oooohhh! It must be so fun to pick out pretty things for other people and shop for them. I would love to do that all day!”
(me) Smiles. “Yes-it is fun.” Yet sighing on the inside;)
Okay...now let's break down this interior design lie juussst a bit.
Yes…it’s a true pleasure and honor that clients trust me to shop for them and pick things out to make their homes more functional and beautiful. 100% that is a part of my job. And going to design functions or trade shows to look at products can be really fun at times. It even sounds pretty glamorous, right? BUT…what doesn’t get talked about are the less glamorous (and frankly sometimes unpleasant) parts of interior design that can actually take up a whole lot of time for any designer.
Such as…
- placing and tracking orders
- handling damages
- dealing with backorders
- scheduling contractors
- rescheduling contractors
- driving to design vendors
- coordinating deliveries
- unloading shipments
- handling issues and problems
- waiting
- paperwork
- more paperwork
…hmmm…not so glamorous, huh?
The truth is, there is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that’s not so pretty or fun that is just part of the job. And it can take hours to manage it all. That’s not even factoring in the actual designing of a space which involves a whole other set of tasks and decisions. (I’ll save that for another post!)
You with me still?
Now, don’t get me wrong- I wouldn’t do this for a living if I didn’t LOVE my job and I’m truly grateful to say that I do totally love my job. But anyone who thinks that picking out pretty things is ALL there is to it (or that it’s even the main part of the job) has watched way too many edited design shows on TV. There are SO many behind the scenes tasks that an interior designer has to do to create that pin-worthy room. It can actually take weeks or even months to go from start to finish depending on the scope of the project. As designers, we of course want to serve our clients well and taking care of these less glamorous tasks is all just part of the process.
