Name: Irene
City: Montreal
State: Quebec
Country: Canada
 

Comment:

Hi Mr.Wolf,

I am a huge fan of your work! Having studied Interior Design many years ago, I have decided to start my own business and I wanted to know if you used AutoCad to draft your plans or do you still do the plans manually?

Vicente Responds:

Irene-

Personally I prefer to work with paper, pencil and scale ruler as I am prehistoric, but everyone in the office works on AutoCAD.  I don’t think it’s a great advantage but you have to go with the times.  You can erase a line on paper and redraw it which makes it the creative process more organic and less mechanical.

Please speak up if there are any others like myself out there who still use pencil and paper, don’t let me be the only prehistoric left!

Below is a question from a FB friend….

Dear Vicente,

My fiancé and I recently bought our first home and I couldn’t wait to get in and start decorating. I am not formally trained and I don’t have a ton of experience, but I’m an artist who studied fine art in France and I’ve always been told I am a natural when it comes to interiors. I thought I would finally be able to show my true vision to the world using our new home.

For the last six months I have obsessed over every detail, lived and breathed design, arranged and rearranged floor plans, and scoured every possible resource. After all that work, I don’t feel like my vision is coming together at all. In fact, I think that I have put so much pressure on myself to make my home perfect that I have lost my vision entirely. I’ve also been hindered by my fiancé’s contrasting ideas for our space as well as price and time constraints.

I follow your blog and your vision is so clear and apparent in all that you do. Your spaces always possess that “thing without a name” or that certain something that can’t be articulated, but it makes a space great and whole. As an experienced designer, do you have any suggestions for finding my vision and keeping it at the front of my mind?

With admiration,
Visionless

Dear Visionless,

Great space is not about being perfect, it is not about every item being a ten and it’s not just about the objects in the room. It is about the concept or vision of the overall space.

To me obsessing translates to insecurity and being unsure of what you want.  I always tell people to go with their gut, trust yourself and try not to second guess every decision you need to make.

I would first start by doing a floor plan and furniture plan to scale on paper, go into your mind and pull out what is important to you and your fiancé and what are your needs.  Then you can start balancing it out in the plan.  You should be aware of scale, the ying and yang and try to have a sense of humor.

 If this doesn’t bring you joy or a sense of well being, maybe you should hire a professional that can translate your wishes into reality.

Who out there has had similar problems?

Is it harder to do it for yourself than for other people?

What is the biggest blow to a designer or any other creative person?

It is the termination of a project prior to completion, whether it be financial or difference of opinion it doesn’t matter.  I have explained this to one of my facebook friends who has recently suffered this blow.  I have told her that it has happened to me and almost every designer out there.  Her friends recommended contacting the client and saying to them, “What can I do to make you happy, what can I do to make this right for you? “

These are hard words to say when you feel you have done your upmost on behalf of the client, where your personality and talent in no way have been the cause of the problem. We are living in times where an enormous sense of entitlement and turmoil is prevailing in our society.

I think we should all be responsible for our actions and ourselves and try to learn from whatever lesson is in front of us and refocus towards the positive. 

How have you coped with things of this nature?  Speaking from 37 years of experience I still felt like a piece of crap when things like this happen.

Name: natalie
City: new york
State: ny
Country: usa

Comment:

First of all I have to say that as a new interior designer, I always admire your work and creativity.
I have 2 questions for you.
The first one is how do you take creative risks, like pairing completely different furniture and styles? Any advice?
Second, what are your first client meetings like? What do you show or bring with you to discuss with your potential clients?
Thank you and keep up the amazing work!

Vicente Responds:

I don’t see it as a creative risk; I see it as I dialogue. They may be different in style but somehow I try to find a common thread between them. I go for the ying and yang, square with round, smooth with rough, but there should always be something that gives the different styles compatibility.

My first client meeting is always in my office as I feel it is important for them to be in my surroundings to be able to see my work. This also gives me the opportunity to bring out my three books, my publicity books and my past job folders. Another advantage of being in my office is that if I need to illustrate a thought right away everything I need is at my fingertips.

I discuss with them how I work and I try to find out what it is that they want and more importantly what they don’t want. I find that giving too many ideas without knowing their likes and dislikes can be a double edged sword……you may suggest something that might turn them off too early on in the process.

This is from one of my facebook friends who shall remain anonymous

“Vicente

I enjoy your blog and always look forward to it. You seem so sensible in the world of design. I wish I had a mentor with your ideas and encouragement when I was young and starting out. I am an interior designer in the South the vast majority of my work day in and day out involves custom windows treatment, pillows, bedding, loose cushions, window seats, and headboards. I have typically charged retail on the labor, lining, fabric inserts and fabrics that I sell are typically of an entry level price point. I fabricate everything myself and pay great attention to detail. I have always been able to charge a premium price, however now I find that I just do not have any customers. No one is doing much. I have had to reduce my pricing by 20%. No one is giving me approval for jobs that have much detail such as handmade trims, borders and other embellishments.

Everything seems to be “bare bones” these days without any finishing touches. The outlook is bleak. I do not know what to do. Design and decorating has been my life.

With warmest wishes,

Anxious designer ”

Dear anxious designer-

They say that misery likes company, and right now believe me you have a lot. You cannot let go of your dreams! We need to be as cautious with our spending as we are with maintaining the lowest overhead possible to weather this storm. Maybe things will be different in the future and we all will need to adjust, myself included.  I find it hard to wrap my head around providing 100% service with 50% compensation. But survive we must.

I would try to come up with simpler window treatment designs and maybe use less embellishments then possibly the volume could make up the difference of the profit you had before.

Please keep us informed on what your decisions are.

From: Katherine Fortier Interiors
City: Boston, MA

Dear Vicente,

I have just finished the renovation of my parents’ beach house in Maine–my first major project to be completed since going out on my own after leaving the high-end residential design firm where I began my career four years ago–and now I’m tying up the second phase of this project: the interior decoration.  (I gave my presentation on Sunday, and we’re hoping to have an order placed by the end of the month.)

For the upholstery, I selected light-colored linen and cotton fabrics from Rogers & Goffigon in the hues of the landscape–watery blues, seagrass greens, and sandy taupes and creams.

My client/parents were thrilled with the design, but are concerned that the light-colored fabrics will be quickly ruined by wet, sandy dogs and people who flop down on the furniture right after a romp on the beach. I will have the upholstery stain-treated by a company who will come to remove any pesky stains whenever necessary and without an additional charge, but my clientparents envision their having to make weekly housecalls, which they consider a hassle and, thus, not a solution in and of itself.  I’ve been experimenting with using indoor/outdoor fabrics from Janus et Cie in place of the lightest-colored Rogers & Goffigon linens and cottons, but I feel like I’m sacrificing the nuances of color and texture . . .

So we’re thinking that slipcovering the all the upholstered furniture in a white fabric could be the ideal solution.  I actually have no experience slipcovering furniture, but I noticed that you slipcovered all the upholstered pieces in your Montauk house.  Would you mind telling me what fabric you used?  Do you wash your slipcovers at home, or do they require special laundering?  I have excellent workrooms that I use for custom upholstered pieces, drapery treatments and pillows, from whom I presume I could order the slipcovers–if not directly from O. Henry House, where I’ll be getting most of the upholstered pieces–so finding a trusted and experienced fabricator isn’t an issue . . . Do you recommend using a separate workroom for slipcovers or ordering them from the furniture company?  Are there any additional tips/instructions that I should know about when writing out the specifications for the slipcover order?

(Other upholstered pieces with rattan or woven wicker frames–like the WS-10 Umbria Lounge Chair and the A-56 Toscana Lounge Chair from McGuire–will require a different solution–any further advice on those?)

I really appreciate your taking the time out of your very-full schedule to read my email, and hopefully select it as one that you’ll answer on your blog–which, by the way, is such an inspiration.  I think I speak for all your loyal followers and fans when I thank you for your generosity of time, expertise, and spirit.

Cheers,
Katherine

PS: I’ve attached a photo of the house:  taken from the kitchen, looking out onto the dining room, living room and screen porch.  (All the existing furniture will be replaced.)

Vicente Responds:

I upholstered all the furniture in my Montauk house in a dark taupe color about eighteen years ago and then had slipcovers made for pretty much all the sofas and chairs. The thinking was that the dark taupe would be great for winters and the white ones for summer. After all that planning, I’ve never taken the covers off to expose the darker look. The white covers look great in winter and summer time. I also had stretch covers made for metal chairs – which you could consider for the wicker. (Or why not paint the wicker frames white?) Here’s a tip: make sure all the fabric is pre-shrunk before you have them sewn. We wash all the covers about twice a summer at home in the washing machine and then just put them back on when they’re almost dry.

Name: Paige Koch
City: San Francisco
State: CA
Country: USA

Comment:

Dear Vincente,

In “simplicity” there is incredible sophistication and ease. Your photography and interiors are this. I have immense respect for your work and your artistry because it is so hard to capture these qualities! My design business is in both San Francisco and in Paris. In DEEP search of a Louis XV style cane daybed, would you be kind enough to share with me something about the one shown in “Style and Substance, The Best of ELLE DECOR”? This room is an oasis of calm.

With Kind Regards,
Paige Koch

Vicente Responds:
Paige, that room is one of my favorite spaces amongst all the rooms I’ve ever done. It was inspired by surrealist styles. Unfortunately the bed belonged to the client. It was reproduction which I had painted white and set in the canopy. So I really can’t help, but I suggest you try 1stdibs. They always have things there that fit that kind of feel. Good luck – let me know what you find.

Name: Whitney Lundeen
City: palo alto
State: ca

Comment:
Hi Vicente,

I’ve always been amazed to see designers make a piece of furniture go from sketches to elevations to production.
I have recently created some furniture designs that I would like to have made, and hopefully some day sell. They are not only wood pieces, some are modern and made from molded plastics. Do you have any suggestions for where to start the process? Do you recommend any manufacturers?

Have you learned anything the hard way that you would be willing to share?
Your blog has become a favorite of mine.

Thank you,
Whitney

Vicente Responds:
Whitney, there are a lot of pitfalls in having furniture produced for yourself. First is the cost. Unless you’re planning on order large quantities, creating prototypes is expensive. Second is distribution and how you expose it to the public. Are you planning to sell to designers or retail? It took me a long time to fully understand how construction and the shortcuts one can take or the ones to be avoided works. You should investigate furniture and cabinet makers and upholsterers in your area and walk through their shops and see how things are made. If you don’t understand the construction process you cannot really bring your concept to a finished product. Start from the inside out and have lots and lots of patience.

Perhaps some of the readers would like to share their experiences in manufacturing here as well?