Giving Back to Yourself
By Robin Callan
Would you be surprised to hear that illustrious television personalities like interior designer Candice Olson and landscape designer Jamie Durie have spent decades creating beautiful spaces for their clients but have neglected the design of their own homes? I know I was. During a recent episode of HGTV’s The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie, Jamie confessed that in the twenty years he’d spent in the landscaping business, he’d never done his own yard before. What?!
Recalling a similar conversation I’d had with Candice when I interviewed her for my blog, Fu For Thought, it seemed incomprehensible that their homes weren’t as tricked out as those we’ve seen them makeover on TV. You would think that the two of them have both the money and the talent to rectify the situation—especially Candice, whose husband is a builder of other people’s dream homes. “We refinished some floors about five years ago,” she told me, “and all I want for Christmas is the baseboard trim put back on in our dining room!”
This phenomenon is not uncommon in any profession. The proverbial cobbler’s kids run barefoot and a ton of interior designers’ homes don’t measure up to their portfolios. There are enviable exceptions to the rule, of course, but for the rest of us, I would like to throw down a little challenge: Take all of that creativity, talent and resourcefulness that you shower upon your clients and channel it into your own home. Give back to yourself by transforming your space!
Here’s how to overcome what’s stopping you:
You Do Have the Time
Time—or lack of it—is the number one excuse for not finishing home decorating projects. This is especially hard for me because I prefer to finish the task at hand before moving on to something else, which usually translates into a timesuck. However, it’s much easier to give up a half hour to an hour per day over the course of a week or two than it is to find an eight-hour stretch during a busy workweek to devote to your makeover. Schedule a little block of time each day and stick to it. Stopping at the end of that allotted time is like a little reward for getting started, and knowing you can stop, lets the drill sergeant in the back of your brain know that this project won’t detrimentally eat into your billable hours.
You Do Have the Money
I’m certainly not advocating getting yourself into buttloads of credit card debt over some home improvement project, but if you decorate interiors all day every day, then you know where all the best deals are! You are also the piece of the demographic pie who can make something from nothing. Plus, you probably know a few contractors who are dying to offer you discounted (or free) services to thank you for all of the referrals you’ve sent their way.
Don’t Turn It Into Work
“Why do I want to keep doing my job at the end of a long workday,” you ask? Because it’s what you do best. Because you’ll have creative carte blanche. Because you deserve to experience all of the excitement your clients feel when you’ve finished their homes.
When I blogged about being inspired to tackle a few of my own home improvement projects recently, one of my clients responded with an offer to help me repaint my home office. This client, who paid someone else to paint her own house, offered to help paint mine? Frances knew firsthand the value of my services and wanted me to have what she has. Her kind gesture proves what we sometimes forget … that what we do has a ripple effect, and we deserve to be privy to that!
___
Robin Callan is the founding design guru of Room Fu, an Austin, Texas interior design firm and long-time defender of affordable design. Her blog, Fu for Thought,features steals and deals, design-related musings, and interviews with celebrity designers. She is mid-way through her own long overdue home office makeover and would love to send a trim carpenter to Candice Olson’s house, like some kind of Candygram.
