Interior designer blues

[Anonymous]

Ask the designer where they live. If you don’t like it or they won’t show you run.

If money is no object there are incredible designers in the US. But they are very very expensive. I loved Gwyneth’s new house. And her old house.

If you don’t want to spend that kind of money; getting middling designer isn’t a good idea. Maybe if it’s turnkey?

I’ve been watching Jeff Lewis with all these celebrities. He’s talented and not an architect and it’s really design build. But it’s all even with this celebrity designer, a bit by the seat of his pants

I want an architect or building scientist turned interior designer. Otherwise every furniture store offers the same for free

[Anonymous]

In re where they live; unless they are young, talented and cheap!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you had emailed instead of texted she could have waited until Monday to respond. That’s the issue with texting professionals - it mixes casual friendly expectations with professional norms.

It sounds like you may be coming off as a demanding client who wants to spend the bare minimum. If you have a proposal and a rough idea of the cost of your project, you can absolutely scrap her and move on to someone new. However I think that would be rude now that you’ve asked her to invest more time on the 2nd proposal. If you part ways I’d at least pay for her time.

🙄

[Anonymous]

Ditto any of these 20 designers. Time to start charging less and doing more for the domestic designers?

https://rugsociety.eu/blog/2021/01/18/20-interior-designers-in-prague-that-will-inspire-you/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s so great is you don’t need someone from VA with set views. You can get a designer from Milan, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Mexico City. You get much much higher end design and far more unique.

No offense, but I didn't see anything special in the links. What am I missing? Is there an amazing picture I didn't see in the links? A designer's portfolio you'd recommend? Honestly asking.

No. But you didn’t see anything bad. And the entire thing cost the customer about $500. They bought the furniture for around the $10k and voila.

[Anonymous]

I’m assuming you texted her on a Friday night because you were annoyed she didn’t supply you with what you had expected by EOB Friday. And now you’d have to wait several more days to receive it.

She likely responded passively aggressively because she was annoyed with you (you might have to do some soul searching here to determine the reasons why). I’d probably bail on this relationship and take it as a learning experience. Going forward: receive timeline estimates for things you care about, ask the person for their communication preferences, and then follow those preferences.

Sidenote. Some people think passive aggressiveness is kinder/more polite than being straight. I can’t stand it. So I’d have a hard time with this particular swat on the nose. But I think only op knows if she deserved it. If that’s the case, she might be able to proceed. But it doesn’t sound like that’s the case here.

[Anonymous]

Is it a marketing bot or just one person posting a bunch of times about her cheap overseas designers?

[Anonymous]

Why are you triggered by that? Every industry gets disrupted. Technology and gig economy is disrupting yours. An architect overseas who costs 10% of what an interior decorator charges but has access to everything because technology

It would be different if you passed on the trade discount but you don’t and in fact upcharge. It’s not a sustainable business model in the modern era.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's fine for you to send a text at 7:45pm on a Friday evening and also think it's fine for her to wait to respond until working hours Monday morning. She's not even doing that to you - she's saying she'll send you the revised contract Saturday morning. Get over yourself. 40 hours of work is very small beans.

I agree with everything you said above but I found the “I ask that you please respect my family time over the weekend” unnecessarily chastising- like in what way is she expecting me to invade her space this weekend?

This. She didn't need to say that unless OP demanded a response that weekend. That said, if I email or text a professional on a Friday evening or weekend, I make it clear I don't expect them to see it or respond until the work week. Sometimes the only time I have to respond is when they aren't working.

Also, for that much money an hour I do expect stellar service and good communication. I don't expect to hear from them on weekends, but if I am signing a contract, I want to know you are on the ball and not flaky. OP< I would move on.

The notion that you are texting a professional on a Friday evening or weekend denotes that you are not interacting with them in a professional manner.

The very nature of a text is to interrupt the recipient.

If you were relating in a professional manner you would be respectful and send a time delayed email.

You sound like an entitled pita.

The professional needs to be more flexible. She doesn’t work a traditional 9-5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it a marketing bot or just one person posting a bunch of times about her cheap overseas designers?

They are not cheap. They are fully staffed studios and not fly by night one person shops. It’s just that those markets won’t pay the US price so they charge normal prices and pass on the discounts.

The analogue are pharmaceuticals. The exactly same ones and often better ones as from the non-generic compound from India and China are much much cheaper in Canada than the US.

They are not cheap; they are priced normally. The US is an outlier and technology is a great leveler. Catch up or go extinct

[Anonymous]

Exactly. I’m all for setting boundaries. But if you are setting dr hours and you are not a doctor, not passing on trade discounts, and not being client oriented, you better be damn great.

I don’t know any that are in DMV. The only ones I know are architectural studios

[Anonymous]

Just like with the real estate agents it’s time to question the priors. Why is the commission 5-6%, ie, why are you not passing on the trade discounts?

[Anonymous]

Why not just do havenly or something? Its $100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a marketing bot or just one person posting a bunch of times about her cheap overseas designers?

They are not cheap. They are fully staffed studios and not fly by night one person shops. It’s just that those markets won’t pay the US price so they charge normal prices and pass on the discounts.

The analogue are pharmaceuticals. The exactly same ones and often better ones as from the non-generic compound from India and China are much much cheaper in Canada than the US.

They are not cheap; they are priced normally. The US is an outlier and technology is a great leveler. Catch up or go extinct

Please stop posting if you're not going to make recommendations for your amazing, affordable foreign interior designs.

[Anonymous]

This thread has gone off the rails with one crazy poster.