An Exhausted Designer Is Not a Good Designer

I started my company a little over 13 years ago. I was super motivated, highly ambitious and utterly clueless.

I started my company a little over 13 years ago. I was super motivated, highly ambitious and utterly clueless. Clueless because I charged $750 to design a full home, spent 16 hours a day on it, seven days a week, and was exhausted. I suppose that was the work I had to put in to build my business. But an exhausted designer is not a good designer, and that is important for clients to remember.

The first thing you need to understand is that a designer who undercharges can only be as good as her ability to keep her business running.

If she is undercharging you, she is probably overloaded with clients, because everyone has overhead. We have refined our square-footage load and our overhead so that what you pay us keeps the business running like a well-oiled machine.

We are not inexpensive. But we are so good.

I am here to tell you why you need to pay enough to keep your designer rested, creative and motivated. Ultimately, you are going to have a better home.

Imagine I am your financial manager. I am exhausted. My eyes are red, I can barely string a sentence together and the numbers are starting to blur. I have been working nonstop for days, and now you give me $1 million to invest across 80 different stocks.

That sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it?

So why would it be any different with your home?

I have matured—read: gotten old—and realized that I am so much more capable and 1,000 times more creative when I am rested. Now, that does not mean I don’t work well under pressure. My ADHD loves some pressure. But it does mean that when I start your project bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, your home is going to be so much more beautiful.

So, let’s carve out what clients and designers can each do to create this perfect scenario.

Clients need to brief their designer fully and realistically. That means sharing anything and everything that is important to you: the musts, the wish list and the things you absolutely cannot live with. We need to know all of it.

It is completely fine to have a budget. In fact, your designer desperately needs to know what it is. Just don’t be like one of my clients who refused to give us a budget and was then shocked when we came in above his very secret budget. Apparently, mind reading was also included in our scope.

Communicate clearly. Email is best because it is much easier to organize, refer back to and find six months later.

Let me explain why.

This is an actual version of my chat-group list with one client—let’s call her Millie because I watched The Housemaid the other day:

Millie. Millie and Mackenzie. Millie, Mackenzie and Kristen. Millie, Mackenzie and Giulia. Millie, John and Mackenzie. John and Millie.

And that is just the tip of the Millie iceberg. We have many more Millie chats, and not one of them has a subject line. Somewhere in that mess is a very important decision about a powder room wallpaper. Good luck finding it.

Email. Please.

I know not contacting your designer during evenings and weekends is hard. You love us. We are awesome. You are excited. You are frustrated, and we can alleviate that frustration. You are worried, and we probably have the answer. You heard something funny and wanted to share it.

Actually, the last one you can text. I love receiving happy texts after hours. Puppy pictures are also always welcome.

Now let me tell you why I want you to email the important things instead of texting or calling during evenings and weekends. Designers do not leave their work at the studio. It lives in our heads, and it is very, very hard to wind down. Every call and every text takes a tiny hammer to our calm and shatters it.

I know that may sound like I am minimizing our clients’ feelings and stress, but it is actually the opposite. Somehow, designers feel everything our clients are feeling and amplify it. I sometimes think we may be an entire industry of empaths, which is wonderful—but also incredibly draining.

I promise you, we dream about your projects. We go to restaurants and see finishes that inspire us for your home. But sometimes we need to pretend to forget about your project so our families can get a little attention.

Please know that our children, husbands and wives all thank you. They already know they come second to that stunning alabaster and unlacquered brass light that will patina beautifully over time.

Be respectful. There is nothing more debilitating or demotivating than disrespect.

Let me tell you a story about respect. A good one, actually.

We had a client who completely trusted us. She loved us, respected the process and worked as part of the team. Of her three homes, the one we designed was by far and away the best.

Why? Because we felt her respect, and all we wanted was to make her happy.

Now let me tell you about a disrespectful client. She questioned everything and anything. She was aggressive, called morning, noon and night, never made a decision and didn’t trust our opinions. She complained constantly and surveilled our vendors like the CIA.

We walked off her project.

It was not quite as cut and dried as that. We tried very hard to fix the situation first. But ultimately, we left.

And it felt so good.

Finally, don’t waste time. If you have hired a reputable design firm, follow their lead. Your project will be finished faster and it will be more beautiful.

Meeting after meeting after meeting is basically like putting Gorilla Glue into your project.

It gets stuck in one place.

As an interior design client, you should expect a process. You should expect structure. You should expect your designer to be interested in you and to truly understand what you want for your home.

You should expect respect—both personal and financial.

And you should expect lots and lots and lots of questions. If your designer is not asking questions, she is guessing. And we have already established that mind reading is not included in our scope.

So yes, this is going to be a little like raising a kid: the most fun, occasionally stressful and definitely not inexpensive adventure. But if you play it right, you are going to be so happy.

In the end, you will have a home that becomes the backdrop to your very best memories.

Nikki Levy Interiors designs homes throughout Miami, Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Delray Beach—and pretty much anywhere else a wonderful project takes us. We are not inexpensive, but we are so good, and we will care about your home as much as you do.