House Calls: A Design Business

Background

Years ago, I had a design business (in addition to teaching) that I named House Calls.

It’s premise was simple.

Once contacted and for a nominal fee, I arrived at someone’s home- making a ‘house call’ -and

together we walked through each room and discussed and listed suggestions for changes.

Sometimes those suggestions were very specific (paint this, move this here) and sometimes they were general.

My clients were often friends or someone who called me because of a recommendation.

Occasionally , a client may have purchased my time through

a donation I made to a church or social group’s fund raising auction.

My Thoughts

*As my sorority sister and dear friend in college used to say, ‘everyone is doing the best they can’.

Design is all in the eye of the beholder.

*Design choices are easier for someone who is what my mother, daughters, and I have always called ‘a house person’.

Note: I did not say a design person.

For example, I love houses in all shapes and sizes. I love your home, and I haven’t ever seen it. I love thinking about houses and imagining what I would do to that house. I love the potential that exists in all houses.

That is a house person to me.

You are a house person too.

*Houses have bones and recognizing those bones and how to enhance them and fit your needs is really all design is.

*Some houses were born with problems. It isn’t your fault.

How do you know what those problems are?

Here are a few simple examples-

Are their walls in rooms where furniture can logically rest?

Is there enough space on a bedroom’s headboard wall for side tables to live- with electrical outlets and without blocking windows?

If you plan to float furniture in the middle of the room, are there floor outlets?

And honestly, an important question in most homes- what wall will the television be on?

Conclusion

We are all designers. You are a designer.

You design your own life every single day.

As a result , you are a home designer too.

Design Tip

Our home has a long living room.

Having something on the end walls helps anchor the space .

I use a piano to do just that.

Rather than using a piano to only hold photographs or other small items, try treating it as a mantel instead.