Welcome to episode 21 of designed curious podcast.
I'm your host and Mentor. Rebecca Ward.
Today, I am talking to you about the pros and cons of residential
design. What residential design, really
means to me why I love it, why you may or may not love getting
into residential design and it really brings up some points.
You might want to consider and help you decide whether
residential interior design is the career for you, or Whether
you want to go into commercial design, so let's get into it
today. You're now listening to design,
curious a place where you creative one are here to learn
about what it really is. Like, to be an interior designer
and I'm your host and Mentor Rebecca, Ward, if you're worried
about how to succeed in a creative career, if you're ready
to learn your next steps to become an Interior Designer.
And if you want the satisfaction of doing something you love
every day, you are in the right place.
Grab a coffee, a notebook. And let's dig into today's
episode. So I was thinking about this
topic the other day as I was planning out the different
podcast, I wanted to talk about and I was thinking about some of
the things that I really like about residential design.
Like, why does it resonate with me so much?
And why do I enjoy it so much as opposed to going in the
direction of commercial design? And I thought of the idea of
home and I thought that there's nothing more intimate and
meaningful than home home is supposed to know.
Nurture, you and take care of you, it restores you before you
go out in the world and when there's something wrong with
your home, you're not functioning at full capacity and
it needs to be fixed and designer is there to help
fulfill that need. And I was just thinking about
what Joy I can bring to people as their home designer and being
able to maximize their lives and really help them be the best
that they can be in their lives by having a home base.
He's from which they go forth that really restores and renews
them. So the whole concept of home and
nurturing just really, I think connects with me on a deep and
personal level that just helps me be passionate about
residential design, and wanting to help other people have homes
that they love. So, let me talk a little bit
more about residential design, pros and cons.
So I'll talk about the pros. First, one of the things that I
love about residential design is the amount of creativity that
you can express in it. The custom everything is
possible and home as well as the range of styles and every home
is unique and different depending on who the owner is.
And so it's so fun to take on these projects that change every
single time, every project is a new thing.
I'm using new materials and new sources and Colors are different
and textures and the needs are all different.
And so I think the variety and the creativity is what draws me
to it. On the other side of commercial
design. I am sure that there's a lot of
creativity, but maybe not as much variety when I think about
maybe like, education, where you're doing a lot of space
planning, which is, I guess not. The thing that I love the most
about design, I love working with the finishes and And
fixtures and materials and the materials selections that you
have to do for educational or corporate design.
It's very limited. I mean, you have to choose from
this Final fluorines in this commercial carpet and this
rubber base and these paint colors and I just don't think
that that would really satisfy my Cravings as a designer.
But, you know, those people that really love this base planning,
part of it and figuring out that puzzle, that might be.
What does it for them? But personally, as a residential
designer, I don't think I would feel quite fulfilled.
So, residential design really allows me to explore all the
textures and colors and fabrics and materials and finishes that
I could ever want to explore the other advantage of residential
designs that you typically have a single decision maker in the
project. It might be a couple who owned
the house but your client is that couple or that homeowner
and whereas with commercial design, oftentimes your meeting
with a board, you have to get board approval from 5 10, 20
people, and trying to get them all to agree on something is
extremely challenging. Whereas if you're only working
with one or two people and I'm trying to get them to make a
decision and you spent time getting to know that person and
knowing, you know, what their needs are and what they're
looking for and how to communicate effectively with
them. Then it's, I Much easier perhaps
it's because I'm a high is on the disc assessment.
So I like to relate with people and understand how they're
feeling and it might be a little bit easier for me to to work
with people one-on-one like that.
Another Pro I would say is that you get direct feedback and
responses on your design and the satisfaction of your client.
For example like you get to have that reveal like That
quintessential HGTV reveal where the client can walk into the
space and they're just blown away by the work that you've
done and how it's changed our life.
And, you know, people are getting emotional and I kind of
love that part of it. It's satisfying for me, I don't
know, maybe it's an ego stroke, but it just to see someone
appreciate the work that you've done.
In person is just really nice to have.
Whereas, if you're designing, maybe a commercial space like a
restaurant or Cafe, you know? That a lot of people are going
to be in there, enjoying it, but you don't actually get a talk to
those people necessarily and see how they on a personal level,
love the space, and what they think about the tile choice that
you made. And so I love getting that
feedback from my clients and that's something that I get out
of residential design. And then I also love
incorporating personal details of the client.
So maybe they travel a lot and you can incorporate artwork that
they've collected or they have a favorite color.
Color. And then you're trying to
incorporate that into the design.
So I love making a space really personal for the client.
So those are all things that I think there's probably many more
aspects of residential design, but those are probably some of
the top things that I really love.
That were motivations for me to choose residential design, as my
focus in my career, some of the cons that come up when people
think about residential design, or that maybe, you know, my
Professor said Baldwin College but one of the things that comes
up most frequently is the hand-holding that you need to do
with your residential clients it's often very challenging for
them to visualize the design like you can you have to walk
them through step by step to kind of see how and why you
chose the things that you did. How it's going to help them in
their life why they need to spend so much money on such and
such resistance? Is the focal point of the room
and you kind of have to walk them through and hold their
hand, as they might be hesitant, as they might be fearful to
spend money on that, or as they just don't understand where
you're coming from. So that does take a good amount
of patience with the client as they are walking through that
process and you have to do that almost every time with every
client. But that's, you know, like I
said before, that's one of the personal things.
I really love with the clients actually taking them through
That process one of the cons could also be that things might
tend to get personal. So if you have a client that
doesn't like your design and it's rejected, I think it's
because they have a closer relationship with that client.
The designer can tend to sometimes take it personally
that they don't like a certain thing about the design.
Whereas in a commercial setting, you might be like the board
decided that red was not the right color.
Well you're not going to really take that personally.
You're just going to shift and change directions, but when
you're thinking so deeply about your clients and how they're
going to live in the space, I mean, I really get in there and
envision like, okay, my client is walking into the kitchen on a
Sunday morning and this is her getting their coffee and then I
like to sit over here with the dog.
And, you know, as you're visualizing this and then, if
they don't agree with that design that you visualized, it
can be difficult to receive that.
So that's something that I probably They coached myself on
over the years. Now doesn't bother me as much as
it used to. But, you know, some there are
times when I've become attached to a certain aspect of the
design that the client decides not to go forward with, and it
can be disappointing. Another downside of residential
design is because you're working.
So personally, with these clients, is that there might be
a conflict of personalities. They might be argumentative, or
they might be not great communicators.
And so there can be drama that develops around a project
hopefully not but there is potential for that.
And so that is one of the advantages of really studying
personality types, understanding conversation Styles and
different methods of selling to people.
And I really enjoy getting into that.
I love all the personality test and understanding everyone's
personality. So, I enjoy that part of it, but
there may be people who don't and so, That would maybe be a
hindrance for them to actually have to think about what is a
person's communication style and how can I modify mine to work
better with my client? And then kind of like I said
before the subjective opinions of the client whereas you might
have a piece of art that you picked up for the space that
goes perfectly looks great. With the design, all the colors
work but then the client just doesn't resonate with that piece
of art, they don't like in. So then you have to To go back
to the drawing board and pick a new one.
And I suppose that could happen in a commercial setting but more
likely in commercial design or even with model homes, I felt
like we had a lot more autonomy with our designs because we were
just pleasing the Builder and the directors in charge of
building the models and not necessarily a particular client.
So we had a lot of autonomy on, you know, Style.
The house was going to be in the details that we were including
in the house and we just kind of got to do whatever we wanted to
do with that. Whereas your client is
definitely going to have opinions about specific items.
So that's why I spent a lot of time up front getting to know my
client getting to know their design style their personality
and really getting a lot of feedback from them up front so
that I know that they're going to love the pieces that I select
for them. In their design.
So those are just a few pros and cons about residential design.
But like I said, I really think that for me, I do love getting
to know my clients and really working with them on a personal
level. And I think that's an important
thing to know about residential design that if you, like
relating with people, and working with them one-on-one,
then that's going A big part of what you're doing.
I suppose, if you did have a larger firm, you could kind of
have your senior designers or other people be the point of
contact with your clients, if that's not something that you
love to do, but you could oversee it and kind of be the
design director, but not necessarily the person relating
to the clients that could be a work around if that's not your
Forte of hand-holding with your clients, but that's my two cents
on residential. Design and why I love it.
I hope that was helpful to kind of clarify my own personal
reasons why I do Residential design and maybe some insight as
to what it takes to be a residential designer.
And, you know, working with your clients one-on-one, just some
food for thought, for those trying to discover.
If interior design is the career for them, you can get all the
details in our show notes are War design.com forward slash
podcast, I would love to get any suggested topics from you that
you'd love to hear on the podcast.
You can email me podcast at our war design.com.
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tuned for another great interview next week, on design,
curious. And we'll see you then, creative
one. Thanks for listening.
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