In a business where tradition can squelch creative ways of doing things, it is often difficult to introduce fresh ideas, but the economy is encouraging experimentation.
Interior designers who say they are doing well in the recession are taking risks and changing what has been a very conservative business. And while luxury items and services are the first to go in hard times, these new approaches are benefiting customers who are finding design more accessible and less expensive.
In a recent survey, the American Society of Interior Designers reported that 65 percent of its members said they were taking smaller projects than they once had, compared with 50 percent who said that last year. Of course, there have always been designers, who offer relatively inexpensive services, but they haven’t been those whose work is shown in shelter magazines or shops frequented by wealthy customers. Now designers of status are reaching out.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Two years ago, Betsy Burnham, 47, a Los Angeles-based interior designer, added a service called Instant/Space (instantspacedesign.com). For a flat fee (a living room plan is about US$1,500), Burnham creates a master plan on line, including resources and unlimited phone advice. There are no budgets, fees and markups — just a creative design plan.
Burnham said she came up with the idea when she saw the economy trending down; it is an alternative to the traditional full-service designer who comes to your house, expects a large budget and spends the next few years with you. But when she started it, her colleagues sneered.
“Designers are a snobby group,” she said. “I got a lot of funny looks and catty comments behind my back. Now, I have designers telling me they wish they had thought of it first.”
Many designers are testing new concepts and taking risks they never thought they would take. Celerie Kemble, 36, a designer with offices in both New York and Palm Beach, said she recently worked on a project she never would have taken a few years ago. She decorated the lobby and other public spaces in a luxury condo building on the Upper West Side, and gave design services to the first 10 buyers, paid for by the developer.
“I really felt like it was risky because typically I don’t design building lobbies, and I was being handed a clientele that really wasn’t picking me — they were being handed to me,” she said.
As it turned out, though, “I ended up meeting amazing people, gaining more clients from the project, and it has kept the jobs flowing through my office,” she said.
Niche businesses like color consultation, art hanging and personal shopping for specific rooms are popping up across the country as designers try to gain an edge. Kimba Hills, 56, a designer and owner of the shop Rumba in Santa Monica, California, wanted to reach people who needed a second pair of eyes but not a costly long-term relationship with a decorator. She came up with Speed Design, a concept that is both educational for the client, and fast. She goes to a client’s house, assesses what should be changed, offers advice and resources to change a room instantly, and typically finishes in less than a month. Her fastest turnaround so far has been three days.
“It’s really more about teaching a client how they can reinvigorate a room by changing the placement of the furniture, maybe hanging the art on the wall differently, or simply have a few tired chairs reupholstered,” she said.
Designer tag sales, pop-up stores, auctions and weekend events that mix shopping with picnics and cocktail parties are another way designers are reaching a different clientele. A recent Venice, California, designer tag sale attracted hundreds of people who paid US$10 at the door to rub elbows with design-world stars and buy discards and extras from local designers. Anjelica Huston stopped by, and the free designer consultation area was packed all day.
Nathan Turner, 36, a Los Angeles-based interior designer, hosted a Spring Bazaar in June with a number of designers selling their wares and offering advice.
“It was a way to bring a variety of people together to sell things at a lower price point, which is a real draw right now,” he said.
He noted that openness to change is essential.
“If you’re not flexible right now, you’re simply being silly,” he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique