One Room Challenge – Spring 2021, Week 5: The Ugly Side of Interior Design Projects
Getting to the sexy, beautiful, alluring, gorgeous home from an idea, thoughts, inspirations and an empty room is quite a journey. As a professional designer, I possess an intimate knowledge of your entire home, or just one designated room, and what is exactly needed for that space to morph into a well-layered and well-dressed inviting home. As your designer, it is my responsibility to make certain the overall look and feel is just what you desire and need to live your best life. Along this journey to the beautiful after, there is the good, bad and ugly. The ugly is anything and everything that happens behind the scenes...products coming in damaged...redrawing furniture plans and floor plans various times to accommodate changes...console coming with a leg missing...furnishing items being on backordered, etc, etc, etc. So, this week, Week 5 of One Room Challenge, we spent our time to cleaning the room, receiving furniture items, inspecting the items for damage, contractors acting up, and dealing with several emails of items being on backordered. This is essential to take care of before we begin construction/renovation work, installation of light fixture and custom window treatment, and ultimately, installment of the furniture in the guest room.
Let's get started with the exciting news. Yay, she came...my fashion-forward, elegant, and fun light fixture. I cannot wait to see this hung up. Earlier this week, I spoke with my electrician to get him on the schedule, and he is just as excited to get this chandelier installed. I love working with him...he gets things done quick, in a hurry, and professionally. The light fixture was well-packaged and all the necessary parts were there, and in excellent condition. No problems there. Woo-hoo!!!
My excitement with the arrival of the light fixture was short-lived because on the following day, I received the buffet that is going to be part of my design for this guest room. I purchased the buffet from Amazon because the look, colors and materials were all perfect for the design vibe I am going for my personal Panama getaway space I am creating in my home. Plus, the price was superbly affordable, so I was like...hey, hey, hey, this is a winner. But when the package arrived, the box itself was open, damaged and moreover, marked as an "Amazon Return." I purchased this item as a brand spanking new item, and not as an open-box, so it should have been packaged as much. Some of the parts were hanging out of the box, so I do not trust even beginning the putting together of this buffet. This buffet was delivered on past Friday, so I took the long weekend of the Memorial Day holiday to breathe and relax and not worry about this. I said to myself, "God, you have this, whatever You do, I will follow." So today, on Wednesday, I spent my day online searching for a replacement for this buffet. When I looked to purchase a new one from Amazon, it had a lead time of 3-5 weeks. I do not have 3-5 weeks to wait for delivery on this item, so I need another alternative. To date, I have not found one that I liked and both budget-friendly and composed of high-quality materials, so the search continues. Then, I must deal with the nuisance of returning the buffet to Amazon. My mantra is still the same, "God, You got this, I trust You, and I will follow You."
In last week's blog post, I shared that the coffee table that I wanted to be part of this room's design, was not available. The very next day, I called my vendor, and they stated that they have restocked, and indeed the coffee table was due to arrive in their warehouse on May 31. I immediately placed the order with my representative. On May 30, I received an email, that unfortunately, the coffee table is on backorder and not expected to arrive in their warehouse in California until June 7. So, on this rollercoaster of emotions, I am praying and hoping, that this coffee table does not get delayed any further and does arrive on time, for the completion of the design of the room. Remember, as a designer, it is all in the details...I painstakingly believe that this is the impeccable solution and intricate component to this room's design.
Other than that, all of the other furnishings that I have ordered are on schedule to be delivered on its respective promised date, or have already arrived. The three-tier console have arrived with some minor damage to the box, but mostly, intact, and appears to be a brand new purchased item versus a used, open-box one. I also purchased this furniture piece from Amazon. If you have no earthly idea, as to what these items I am talking about or what they really supposed to look like, just click here to read our last week's blog post, and see our updated Furniture Board.
Besides tracking orders, I spent this past week, cleaning the room, and getting it ready for painting and installation. The room was full of multiple items and extremely cluttered. Getting everything out of there was a monumental task because there were many things that needed to be disposed of, and the things that were staying, needed to be organized. To see a before photo of this room, please click here. More so, I moved the wardrobe to another room in the house that is full of a full bedroom set including a queen bed, a huge dresser and nightstands. So, I shifted, lifted and slided the wardrobe that existed in the guest room, alongside and on-top of my bed to get in an unoccupied corner of the other room in the house previously mentioned. It was so hard to do because of the limitation of space. Ultimately, I had to call my brother-in-law to help me moving it into its new home [this super tiny corner] and get me to the finish line...which, he did. Thank God. But then, on today, I scheduled for a contractor to come out and clean and steam the carpet, along with the carpet in the other rooms of the home, so the carpet could be spanking sparkling clean before I lay down the area rug in this room...which, by the way, also arrived. Upon the contractor finishing the job, I was unhappy with the level of the cleaning...there were various areas of the carpet that were still showing black and wear and tear, and when I proceeded to advise him and show him that areas that needed to be better serviced, the contractor began arguing with me and stormed out of my house without resolving the issues. Ayyyyy Dios mio...Oh my God. I took deep breaths and I repeated my mantra, "God, You got this, I trust You, and I will follow You." I took many more deep breaths, and proceeded to finish cleaning and steaming of the carpet, myself.
Like I stated at the beginning of this post, getting to the beautiful, warm, inviting and cozy room design is a journey composed of so much good, some bad, and definitely the ugly.As a client of K Lilia Interior Design, you do not have to worry about the bad or the ugly. As my valued client, in a full-service design project, you are paying me to worry about every little detail of your project. As your designer, I do not mind being stressed out of my mind to make things right. I am not able to sleep until all issues are resolved, so it is no reason for both of us to be worried. Just sit back and relax, wait patiently, to get to the beautiful after. Hand me all of the problems...I got you!!!
As a designer, I am a problem solver, little things will come up, and I find myself having to make quick decisions immediately thinking of how I can execute things efficiently and effectively. More than half of the time, I am putting out multiple fires...always thinking on my feet and pivoting with different solutions. As your designer, I have systems and processes in place to handle the bad and ugly things...the behind the scenes. Coming up with the design concept, product research, product purchasing, tracking orders, contractors management, project management and solving the ugly problems that come up along the way, is what I am spending my time working on your project. The design process is not a perfect one, but you cannot do it without me. Someone has to put those little pieces together, and someone has to keep it all together. The work I do as your interior design professional is so complicated and time consuming. Whenever something goes wrong, you can just call me. That's Why You Are Paying Me To Do It For You. Every time I make money, I save you money.
Next week, I will be selecting the paint color, painting and doing the stencil work for the custom accent wall. And getting the daybed delivered and assembled. Can't wait to show you how it will all look, or what colors I choose for the accent wall....ooooohhhhh la la.
Hope you are enjoying our journey to the design of this room for One Room Challenge (ORC) Spring 2021. ORC is so exciting and the community support of the other designers have been valuable and synergic. Don’t forget to look to see how all the designers, especially the featured designers, are progressing along with #oneroomchallenge hashtag or click the links below to follow their respective blogs or visit the ORC official blog at http://www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog.
Until next time....
Thank you for reading and following our progress.
Un abrazo grande y muchas bendiciones (huge hug and much blessings)
--- Keesha
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