Stories from the life of an interior designer

Alright, let’s spill the tea on that topic. I know many of you are super curious about what the most asked questions and mistakes are from my interior design clients!

But before we dive right into the topic, I just want to make something clear. Mistakes are part of life and definitely nothing to be ashamed for. Mistakes happen all the time! However, we can use them to our advantage and learn from them. That’s why I am sharing these things– to make some people aware of what can cause problems and to help others identify troubles they might be having when furnishing.

Additionally, I want to highlight that I am definitely not mocking or trying to expose clients or other people I have spoken to. This blogpost has the goal to show problems when furnishing homes and also how I can help you with it.

A Cry For Help: When It Just Doesn’t Come Out Right

Nearly all of my client’s reach out to me because they are unhappy with their homes. Most of them actually already have an existing home but just can’t get it to feel right. Therefore, the biggest part of my work is also re-designing and re-decorating the homes of my clients to make it feel perfect! This, however, can actually be quite tricky because we are not talking about massive renovations, as we are actually working with existing spaces and just re-designing them.

When doing that, it is very important to identify my clients wishes and needs, where their focus lies, and what will work best with their budget. In order to do that, it is crucial to firstly identify the interior design style they want to head towards! Pinterest is a great tool to pre-select styles and to show different options, which I always love doing. Of course, a lot of the design also happens to come along the way, however, it definitely is important to decide on a design style to ensure both parties are happy with the results.

And that is also the first big mistake I see my clients making: not furnishing and decorating after deciding on a specific interior design style.

Random, unmatched pieces make spaces look chaotic

So what does that mean? Well, when I visit my clients for the first time, I usually am confronted with many different interior design items that do not fit to one another and which definitely do not follow a certain interior design style.

Instead of orientating around a specific design style, my clients often make impulse purchases. However, one of the most important things when trying to achieve a certain interior design style is to work with products that actually work with the style too! The problem with these impulse purchases is that a) they are wasting a lot of money, and b) never end up achieving the interior design look they want.

And you know what? I get it. I love interior design pieces and soooo many different styles too! I have a full list of items I’d love to buy. From pink mirrors to rustic vases, modern lamps, vintage side tables, hyper-modern glass doors, and old barn doors… Maybe you can already identify the problems: hyper-modern glass doors and vintage barn doors do not typically work well with one another. I am very lucky in this case, as I usually get to buy many different items in different styles for my clients’ projects, however, when it comes to my own home, I never “just” buy random products. Instead, I really focus on the interior design style and try to see if the product I want to buy actually works in the space I want it to be in.

Not respecting measurements

Another big mistake I see my client’s doing is the fact that they barely respect measurements. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the impulse purchases, as very often these purchases are not done in a thoughtful way, which means that not a lot of thought went into the product, including forgetting to take measurements first.

Recently, one client purchased wall covers, however, they forgot to measure the height of the wall… the products that arrived were too small and didn’t fit the wall, which meant the products had to be sent back and new ones had to be ordered. That cost a lot of money AND a lot of time.

Another client had purchased multiple rugs for the living room, without ever respecting the measurements. It was more about the looks! Surprise, surprise, the rugs never fit and ended up being stored away in another corner of the apartment. Wasted money, wasted space, wasted time.

I think these aspects are also the convenience that comes with hiring an interior designer, as you don’t need to worry about any of these things – I do it for you. Especially if you are not sure where to place products and which measurements you should choose, interior designers work wonders!

If you are interested in that subject but have no idea how to execute it on your own, you can also look at my online course, where I share all of the measurements I typically work with. From the width and length of a sideboard to how high it should be mounted, measurements of bedding in relation to the bed, or where to hang curtains and where a rug should be placed… Check it out here.

Lacking the real finish

The best interiors are the ones that have that little something. In my opinion, that doesn’t necessarily have to be something bold or crazy, it is more about the finish of it. An interior that looks complete, feels complete. A lot of my clients never really ended up finishing their homes and therefore lack the feeling of completeness.

However, MANY of my clients often don’t believe the importance of that “finish”, which typically happens when I recommend them to buy certain items. A lot of times I hear that they think something of less quality will also do it, as well as they often do not believe that this exact item is needed. However, that is not true. When designing something for my clients, they can be sure that I put in every effort and thought possible! Every item I have included was included with intention. Changing items randomly or not buying half of them will not lead to the desired result.

Not being brave enough

Another thing I see my clients doing often is NOT BEING BRAVE ENOUGH!!! It’s actually a bit funny to me, as this aspect is usually the point where I am 1000% sure, but my clients are not. How come? I think the main part is that many of my clients don’t have a full room imagination, and simply don’t understand how a space will look with the items I recommend to them. Very often, even visualizations can’t change that!

However, in order to have an interior look perfect and nicely, it needs that little something (including the finish!), which often requires a leap into the unknown. This can be a fancy piece of furniture, bold colors, unique finishes, fancy wallpapers or materials. Trust me on this … these are the things that will make your interior come together.

Fun fact: these things are usually the things my clients end up loving the most once the interior is finished!!! Don’t believe me? Well, recently, one client even laughed with me about the discussion we had at the beginning as she can’t believe we even talked about it (now, that it’s done). In that case, I recommended her to work with black wall skirtings instead of the outdated, traditional, wooden ones that match the floor.

Another time I had to convince a client to use wallpaper in a tiny area in the entrance, which wasn’t a place you’d see the whole day. At first, he was super sceptical but once it was done, he couldn’t imagine not having it before! And lastly, I recently talked one of my clients into buying a high-quality, fancy rug that fit perfectly into their home! At first, they didn’t want to spend that much on a rug, however, after they decided to just try it, they even bought two more for other rooms as they experienced first hand how much of a difference a rug makes.

Again… if you decide to hire an interior designer, then make sure to also listend (at least to some extent ;))

Not respecting the room specifications

The last mistake I’ll share for now is that a lot of my clients do not respect the building they live in. What does that mean? Well, many times, clients want an interior design that doesn’t match the building they have. For example, some clients show me inspo photos from loft-like interiors – high ceilings, cool wall design, spacious rooms – however, many times these clients end up having new-built homes with small rooms and low ceilings. An interior design style that lives through the rooms itself will not work in spaces that do not have these exact criteria.

I highly recommend that you keep it realistic and look at the room specifications, which I also share more about in my online course. The better your design style works in your room specifications, the better it will turn out! And if you still don’t know how to proceed, then you can always reach out to me 😇

If you want, you can read more about the online course here.

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