Do you have a standard pricing system for your service? If so, please share the details here.
I either bill my clients at an agreed upon hourly rate or a percentage of their budget depend on the size and scale of the project.
How did you get started doing this type of work?
After years of not know what I wanted to do, I finally decided in 2003 after watching hours and hours of TLC's Trading Spaces and HGTV that I wanted to design houses. I had no idea what that meant or exactly what I didnt know, I simply knew that I was fascinated by design and had sort of developed a knack for it.
You see all my life, my momma was obsessed with rearranging our house. Almost every Saturday morning, she would make my sister Judith and I get up and help her move furniture. Sometimes would simply move furniture around the room and sometimes we would completely change up the main rooms of the house. We would drag the sofa literally from one end of the house to the other trying to determine if it should be in the den or in the living room. Sometimes, the den would become a dining room and sometimes we just didnt have a dining room. We moved furniture a lot.
Reflecting back, I really enjoyed these times with my mom and sister. We laughed, we cried, and we sure as hell bitched a lot. I think these were the moments that most affected my desire to design. I must also admit that my moms affection for knick-knacks, ducks in the 80s, and birdhouses in the 90s also had a huge impact on my desire to minimize and use large scale accessories.
What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Find a designer whose personality matches well with yours. Consultations should include getting to know each other personally. Without the personal connection, the designer will not be able to create the spaces as well.
What questions should customers think through before talking to professionals about their project?
It is so much more than making things pretty. It is a lot of work both physically and mentally.
