Having been an interior designer for over twenty years, most people do not realize the amount of time we spend taking care of problems than doing actual design work. I had this conversation with a client/friend probably fifteen years ago. We were in the middle of working on her townhouse when she commented about my fabulous career. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love interior design but design is just a small part of the profession.
All designers have horror stories with furniture getting lost, misplaced, damaged, or just plain wrong. Somehow the furniture industry is fraught with problems. If it’s not the furniture industry causing problems it’s people problems – whether it is a difficult client that is impossible to please or a subcontractor who is impossible to manage.
I’ve been very fortunate with my clients. I absolutely love most of them. If there is a problem it usually has to do with money. Large projects usually take a large amount of time. At some point a client may think that they have paid enough and the rest of the project should be done for free. Or the furniture costs more than they wanted and the client wants to get a pound of flesh out of the designer.
