How to Balance a Client’s Needs and Your Creativity
By Robin Callan
As an interior designer, you know how your head and heart do that little Zing! thing when you meet a new client you really connect with? That dream client with a killer house and a spendy budget, whose personal style matches your own so closely it’s like you get to create your own dream house but not have to pay for it? And they say, “Just do what you do—I trust you! I have no kids/pets/limitations to consider and I’m up for whatever your amazing designer mind can think of!”
Yeah, that rarely happens to me, either.
The truth is, most clients come with a set of design parameters, and they run the spectrum. Here’s how you can resolve some of their typical issues, without gutting your creative vision:
Kids and Pets. Clients with kids and/or pets commonly ask for the same things: fabrics and textiles that won’t show stains and furniture that can take a beating. This doesn’t mean you have to furnish their space with dark-colored leather upholstery and plastic mold-injected Swedish side tables.
Your clients’ upholstery options broaden exponentially if you factor in some sort of fabric protection system. Most retailers offer fabric protection plans for an additional fee, or you can take advantage of furniture that comes pretreated, as is the case with West Elm’s Tillary outdoor furniture collection. Austin mom and furniture designer Sheri Bingham also swears by Trek’s Aqua Armor, an eco- and budget-friendly waterproofing spray she has used on even the palest linens with amazing success. For hardcore stain protection, incorporate Sunbrella™ indoor/outdoor fabrics into your designs. Not just for cabanas anymore, Sunbrella offers a wide range of modern designs—and all of their fabrics can be bleached!
As for case goods, stick to pieces made from solid hardwoods or metals, steer clear of veneer, and pass along this handy tip: In the event of a scratch on wood flooring or furniture, rub the meat of a walnut into the scratch. The oil in the nut is enough to darken scratches in wood and make them virtually disappear!
Fear of Paint Colors. Nothing will test the client-designer relationship more than the paint selection process. What if a client wants you to incorporate a color you know is wrong for the room, or their list of most-hated colors leaves you with three beige tones to choose from…or what if they’re afraid of dark colors and you’re gunning for charcoal walls?
First of all, what is true in movie scriptwriting is also true in interior design: Show, don’t tell. Everyone has a different color vocabulary, so rather than using words to describe a paint color, use paint swatches to clarify a client’s requests or to demonstrate your recommendations. I’ll never forget the homeowner who asked me to select a “mint green” for her Craftsman-style home’s exterior. What she really wanted was an olive green but she didn’t know how to articulate that. With all of the subtle variations in paint colors, you can avoid a lot of misunderstandings with the flick of a paint deck.
If you want to inject color into the home of a color-phobic client, start them out with low doses. Make a pitch for painting an accent wall or protruding fireplace in a contrasting color. If they won’t budge on the paint palette, you can still liven up the space with bolder colors in lamps and decorative pillows—people tend to feel less fear over lower-budget line items like these.
I’m all for light and airy spaces, but if that’s the mandate room after room, client after client, it can burst your creative bubble after a while. If you yearn to express your dark and dramatic side, you’ll have more success recommending these kinds of palettes for rooms your clients spend less time in—like formal dining rooms and powder rooms. I also recommend darker master bedrooms because they tend to heighten the sense of romance in a space and they’re more conducive to restful sleeping--two qualities most homeowners embrace wholeheartedly!
Clients’ Style ≠ Your Style. One of the great benefits of being an interior designer is the ability to express yourself creatively through many different decorating styles without having to live in all of those different types of environments. But what do you do if a new client’s style is one you abhor? There are always overlaps among different styles—those overlaps are your opportunities.
As an interior designer in Austin, Texas, I’m often hired to design spaces for clients who are fans of what we call the “Texas Tuscan” style—a rustic blend of cowboy charm with ornate Italian details. While I would describe my personal style as more modern, I can still create great design plans for aficionados of this style. Instead of typical faux finishes, I suggest more modern Venetian plaster wall treatments. If they want dramatic window treatments, I steer them away from swags toward streamlined, velvet curtain panels in rich color tones. I honor their requests for distressed leather furniture, but I recommend pieces with clean lines and less frou-frou. The clients get what they want (rustic finishes with an aged look and rich texture), I get what I want (simplified forms, modern materials).
Finding the balance between a client’s needs and your creative vision is the goal of every good designer. Sometimes achieving that balance is just a matter of finding the right workaround. For those times where you feel like you’ve sacrificed too much of your creative spirit? I recommend chocolate.
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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. For more information, email her at robin@roomfu.com or call (512) 797-5821.
