Beckert Dining Room Before

 In this dining room, the clients had hired someone else to do the blinds, stationary panels and board mounted Empire valance, and didn’t continue working with her because they were disappointed by how “ordinary” the window treatment looked once it was installed.  I can see why my predecessor went with a board mounted treatment; the window was in a weird little recessed niche, so there wasn’t room to do a swag valance on a pole set with finials (which is what the client mistakenly thought that she was ordering).  What’s more, there were little can lights inside the niche, so you couldn’t mount the treatment on the wall outside and above the niche or there would be light shining through from the back side of the valance.  Mounting the valance inside the niche, as the other designer chose to do, required dropping it down well below those can lights, which looked kind of weird and underwhelming.  

Beckert Dining Room After

 
 The clients brought me in to design window treatments for their living room and kitchen treatments, specifically requesting decorative hardware and more drama for these rooms.  I suggested adding some decorative hardware to jazz up the board mounted treatment in the dining room as a low-cost alternative to expensive rework or scrapping it altogether.  The clients were having trouble visualizing how these finials were going to look sticking up at the top of the swag valance, so I did a quick mock up in my design software and assured them that it was going to look like “I meant to do that.”  I ordered the finials with wood screws and my installer was able to add them to the dining room valance on-site without even taking it down on the same day that he installed my treatments in the other rooms.  The size of those finials was perfect – it looks like the valance was installed at that height deliberately to accommodate the height of the finials, and it seems as though the can lights were installed specifically to illuminate the decorative hardware.  The clients got a more formal and unique design for just a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of hardware – and I like the way it turned out so much that I plan to use finials that way “on purpose” for future projects!

Contributed by Rebecca Deming Rumpf of Custom Interiors By Rebecca.

Not surprisingly, given the state of the economy in general and the housing market in particular, both exhibitor and attendees numbers were down this year at the Vision 10: International Window Coverings Expo in Atlanta.  Many vendors, designers, and workrooms decided they couldn’t justify the expense of participating.  If you were one of those who stayed away this year and you judged the event based on the photos your industry peers posted on Facebook pages, you know that those of us who traveled to Atlanta for the show had a blast.  You might even convince yourself that the week was all fun and games, and tell yourself that you did the right thing by passing up the luxury of a week of industry socializing in Atlanta this year. 
 
However, as much fun as it is to reunite with old and new friends and dish about the industry over dinner, the IWCE was anything but a frivolous expenditure.  Weeks have passed since I got back from Atlanta, and my business is already getting a great financial return on the time and money I invested in traveling to the show.
 
I have to admit, I headed to Atlanta in a serious negative funk.  I’ve been working such long hours over the past year or two that I was starting to burn out, and felt like I just couldn’t keep working like this anymore.  I’d never been to an IWCE event before, although I always read about them in Window Fashion Vision magazine, and I decided that I should go “at least once” and this was going to be the year.  I was shocked to discover that, if I had started attending this show the first year I was in business (when I thought I couldn’t afford to go) instead of waiting until the tenth year I was in business, I probably would have quadrupled my business in the second year and would be making at least twice as much money today.
 
Here are my top three money making takeaways from this year’s IWCE event that have gotten me excited about what I do all over again:
 
1. Mary Larsen’s seminar, “Money Changes (Everything!),” made me realize that I was feeling burned out and unappreciated because I had been giving away hundreds of hours of consulting time for free.  When I came to present a window treatment design that I was getting paid for, what should have been a 30-minute presentation would often drag out into a 3 ½ hour appointment because the client would say things like, “and what about the paint color?  While you’re here, could you take a look at this chair I saw in a catalog and tell me if you think it would look good in the guest room?  I bought some lamps but I still have the receipt; can you tell me which one you like best?”  I felt like, since I was making plenty of money on the window treatment, it was petty of me to hand her an hourly invoice on top of that just for asking my opinion, but all that time really adds up.  Affirmations like “Clients come easily, money comes easily, my clients are happy to pay me” felt silly to me at the beginning of Larsen’s seminar (I kept thinking of the Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley skits from SNL and wanted to add “…and doggonit, people like me!”). 
 
But by the end of her seminar, I realized that I had all kinds of psychological baggage that was holding me back and preventing me from implementing my own policies about charging for my design time.  Now that I’ve had a chance to put Larsen’s ideas into practice, though, it turns out that she was right – my current clientele has no problem paying me for consulting time as long as I tell them it’s billable up front when they start to digress from the current project.  One client last week even told me (as she was writing me a check for consulting time) that she’s not going to buy anything for her home anymore without running it by me first, because she’s made so many mistakes on her own but every time she follows my advice she “gets it right the first time.”  Can you believe it?  My clients really are happy to pay me for my time when I tell them matter-of-factly that “this is how I work.”   Charging for all of my consulting time is going to put thousands of dollars of additional income in my pocket this year, without doing any more work than I did last year, even if the economy stays as sluggish as it was last year.  Learn more about how Mary Larsen can help make your workroom or design business more profitable at http://www.growyourdesignbiz.com. 

 
2. I spent over an hour in the Minutes Matter booth, playing with Studio to get a feel for how it compared to my current design software, and I was really impressed.  With my current software, there just aren’t enough built in design options and I find myself spending hours and hours on every rendering because I have to create my own vector line drawings for many of the components I like to use in my designs.  With the addition of the Jackie Von Tobel modules for Studio, I realized that just about every design I have ever done or would ever want to do can be created using components of their built-in designs, which would save me hundreds of hours per year.  I prefer the fluid, sassy drawing style that Von Tobel has brought to Studio over the more rigid, technical look of my current software, and the folks at Minutes Matter will drastically discount their software to those of us who switch over and turn in our old software.  Since attending IWCE, I am much more aware that not only does time equal money, but my time is more valuable because it’s the only commodity I can never get more of.  Switching over to Studio is going to enable me to spend far less time working on each client’s design renderings, which will allow me to cut back on my hours without reducing my paycheck.  I’m not feeling so burned out anymore!  (By the way, my current software company was nowhere to be found at IWCE.  If they had a booth there, I would have stopped by and they would have at least had the opportunity to try to convince me to stick with their software and tell me why theirs is the better option for my business.  I wonder how many customers they lost by not exhibiting this year and letting Studio have the whole show to themselves?)  To learn more about Minutes Matter and Studio, visit http://www.minutesmatterstudio.com.  To see Jackie Von Tobel’s beautiful window and bedding designs, as well as her new fabric collection that debuted at IWCE this year, go to http://www.jackievontobel.com. 
 
 
3. I found some great new-to-me resources for affordable fabrics and trims at IWCE.  I have a weakness for Lee Jofa, Vervain, and Kravet Couture, but I’m finding that clients in this economy are more price-conscious than before and they are more willing to splurge in some areas when I can show them that I’m saving them money somewhere else.  I came home with some gorgeous but reasonably priced silks and crewel embroidered fabrics from Catania Silks (http://cataniasilk.com/) that rival high end showroom lines, and I’m already using one of their silks in a current client’s project.  I found some beautiful and unusual trims from D’Kei (http://www.dkei.net/) and Expo International (https://www.expointl.com/) that look way more expensive than they are. 
 La Finial, a brand-new miniature finial concept with truly custom finishes to match any fabric, debuted at this year’s show, and the L’Interior Le Nair booth reflected the creativity, originality, and Parisian flair of owner Tammi Le Nair. 
I was also able to see the beautiful new Evita swing arm hardware line from Helser Brothers in person for the first time.  Off the top of my head, I can think of three prior projects that I could have used the Evita line for.  This look is exactly what so many of my clients want for their homes.
 I know that these new resources are going to give me a competitive advantage in the months ahead. 
 
4. Okay, I know I said this was going to be a “top three,” but I lied.  Deb Barrett’s seminar, “Transforming Custom to Couture,” made me feel like Charlie Bucket the first time he set foot in the chocolate factory.  Did I die and go to drapery heaven?!  I thought I was doing high end drapery design before, but Deb’s samples and the techniques and resources that she shared are taking my work to a whole new level.  Having met Deb for the first time on our Paris trip in January (Merci mille fois, Jay and Mark!), this was my first time in one of her seminars and it was easy to see that her reputation in the industry is well-deserved.  The room was packed well before the seminar began, with everyone vying for the front row seats so they could get the best pictures of all of Deb’s goodies.  When she’d finished presenting, I had a cramp in my hand from an hour of furious note-taking and a camera full of photos to post on my business Facebook page.  What’s more, the day after I posted my photos, a former client who had moved away to the other side of the country several years ago contacted me because she fell in love with one of Deb’s gorgeous samples on my business Facebook page and she wondered if I could do something like that for her home in California.  Hmmm…  I think that can be arranged! 
 If you ever have the chance to see Deb in action, RUN to sign up for her class and camp out all night if you have to in order to get a good seat!  Find out more about what this industry maven is up to at http://www.debbarrett.com/. 
 
Are you getting the idea yet?  Times may be tough, and some businesses are going to weather this storm better than others.  Although there may be less business to be had today than in years past, the vendors who are still out there working the trade shows and the workrooms and designers who travel to the shows in search of new ideas and resources are going to get a bigger share of what business there is than those who stay home.  Skipping IWCE and other major industry events because the economy is down is like deciding that you can’t afford to advertise because you don’t have enough business – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom.
 
Next year, the IWCE show is headed to Tampa, and I’m planning to be there.  Let’s all meet up for cocktails!

*

Contributed by Rebecca Deming Rumpf of Custom Interiors By Rebecca.

Anyone who dresses windows for a living has to make templates of specialty shaped windows from time to time, whether it’s for custom arched drapery rods, specialty shaped blinds or shutters, arched top Roman shades, or Tableaux faux iron.  I was talking to Ruth over at Helser Brothers about this the other day, and got her to dish about some of the worst templates that designers and installers have sent in over the years.  I couldn’t resist sharing a few of them with you, Jay Leno-style, so here you go: 

The Top 10 Ways to Make a Lousy Window Template 

1. Use leftover scraps of gift wrap, or sheets of notebook paper that your kindergartener helped you glue together, for your template material.

2. If you forgot to bring template material with you to the appointment, just use toilet paper, tissue paper, or Kleenex – whatever you can find.

3. If the window is too large for just one piece of template material, stick two or more pieces together with temporary spray adhesive or low-tack painter’s tape.  Your fabricator can stick the pieces back together if they come apart during shipping.

4. Don’t bother making a template of the whole window – just tape skinny strips together to follow the shape of the curved or angled edge.

5. If you label your template, use an air-erasable fabric marker, crayon, invisible ink, or lemon juice.

6. Any markings, measurements or labels on your template should be as illegible as you can make them.  If necessary, write in runes, hieroglyphics, or Mandarin Chinese.

7. Cut your template shape out using children’s safety scissors or a dull steak knife.  Those jagged edges and irregularities on your template add lots of character.

8. You don’t need to bother making a pattern of the ACTUAL window – these specialty windows are all pretty standardized.  Just take a few measurements at key points and then draw your template later when you get back to your office.  If you have several specialty windows of the same size and shape, you can just make one template that will work for all of them.

9. Once your template is finished, fold it up as small as you can get it and cram it into one of those envelopes that florist cards come in.

10. Mail your template to your fabricator without a return address, sidemark, or copy of your order enclosed – your job is probably the only specialty shape they have this month. 

    I know this sounds incredible, but with the exception of the lemon juice and the Mandarin Chinese, all of these template methods have been used by actual designers and installers to create disastrous templates for custom orders.  If you’re guilty of employing any of the template no-nos I’ve just described, it’s time for a refresher on how to create templates that will ensure success on installation day.  Actual template methods may vary depending on the particular product you’re ordering, your fabricator’s preferences, and the details of your planned installation, but here are a few tips to get you headed in the right direction. 

 For the best templates, you need to start with the right materials.  I like to use a sturdy, heavy paper for mine, either white butcher’s paper like this roll I purchased at Sam’s Club, or brown craft paper that you can find at packaging supply or hardware stores.  Get the widest roll you can find, because ideally you want one continuous piece of paper for your template.  If the window is too large and you must join multiple pieces, do this on a flat surface like the floor or a worktable to make sure you end up with a template that lays perfectly flat – don’t try to join multiple pieces together at the window.  Make sure whatever you use to join the template pieces together is not going to come apart during shipping or when the template is handled, either.  I like to use clear packing tape on both sides when I join template pieces together. 

Once you have taped together enough sheets of your template material to completely cover the shape you are trying to template, use masking tape or low-tack painter’s tape to temporarily adhere the paper to the window trim, the wall, or even to the glass, depending on where your treatment needs to install.  You definitely don’t want to use packing tape for this step, because it might rip off some of the wall or trim paint when you pull it off afterwards.  As far as drawing the actual window shape, you may need to experiment because different methods may work better in some situations than in others.  I like to use the flat side of a dark, peeled crayon to rub along the front edge of the window opening, but sometimes a pencil works better when you need to make a template at the back of the window casing, up against the glass.  When I’m satisfied that I’ve recorded the shape of the opening, I take down the template and draw over my crayon or pencil line with a thin black Sharpie marker, smoothing out any jagged edges and making as even a line as possible.  Next, I carefully cut out the template along the black line and – this is crucial – put my template back up to the window opening to make sure it’s an exact fit.  If it’s a tricky inside mount and I’m second-guessing myself at all, I’ll use my paper template as a pattern and cut the shape out of a rigid material like cardboard, tag board, or foam insulation board (they sell this at Home Depot) and then I test fit that into the window opening to make absolutely certain I like the fit.  Keep in mind that your fabricator will most likely make inside mount deductions.  Check with your fabricator if you’re not sure about their standard deductions, or if anything on the order form doesn’t make sense to you – remember, the only stupid questions are the ones you didn’t think to ask until after you received your custom made hardware and it didn’t fit the window!

Once you’re satisfied with your paper template, be sure to label it with the following information, again using the black Sharpie and legible printing:

• FRONT
• ↑ UP
• DESIGNER
• JOB SIDEMARK
• ROOM
• WINDOW # (if more than one window is involved)
• KEY LENGTH & WIDTH MEASUREMENTS

  Finally, roll your template into a mailing tube rather than folding it, and include a copy of your order and contact information.  There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?  The extra time it takes to obtain an accurate template of specialty windows will pay off on installation day when your design comes together beautifully and everything fits the way you envisioned.

Tableaux traceries piqued my fancy from the first time I saw the ad in Window Fashions Vision magazine a few years back.  In case you’re not familiar with Tableaux, it’s a lightweight faux wrought iron product that can be customized to virtually any size or shape, in just about any pattern homeowners and their designers can dream up.  Because Tableaux weighs only about 10% of what a comparable wrought iron piece would weigh, it’s ideal for windows, doors, and ceiling applications.  As an added plus, Tableaux is constructed out of 100% post-industrial recycled wood fiber and formaldehyde-free resin and is LEED certified.  What’s not to love?

   So I’ve had this cool Tableaux product floating around in the back of my mind for a few years now, and although I had suggested it to clients on several occasions it never panned out before now.  In retrospect, I think that’s because there are so many cheap-looking aluminum faux iron “wall art” pieces for sale through catalogs and discount stores these days and clients were hesitant to place a Tableaux order without seeing the product in person.  Before pitching Tableaux to this client, I ordered a sample kit with two big actual Tableaux pieces (about the size of a sample plantation shutter panel) along with a ring of finish chips.  I work out of my home, so finding storage space for all my sampling is an ongoing challenge.  However, seeing those actual Tableaux samples in person was crucial for reassuring my clients that this product looks as good in person as it does in the pictures, and that it wasn’t going to detract from their beautiful custom home.

For this particular project, the home had an odd little niche built into the wall in the upstairs hallway.  This area is open to the two-story formal living room on one side, and open to the two-story foyer on the other side.  The railings are a mixture of wood and wrought iron ballusts, and the home’s architecture is Old World European although the clients’ tastes run a bit more transitional and sleek.  My clients’ don’t remember what the previous homeowner had displayed in this wall niche, and didn’t quite know what to do with it themselves.  They had thought of hiring a muralist to do a trompe l’oeil window scene in the niche, but because the niche is so close to the foyer window on one side and the dramatic two-story living room draperies on the other side, I really didn’t want to make it into another window.  Plus, located on an interior wall right outside a guest bedroom, a window would have been pretty unconvincing.

   My clients liked the Tableaux samples so much that they chose the exact same design as one of the sample pieces, in the exact same finish.  Because I wanted to do an inside-mount within the niche, I sent my installer out to create a template, and I’m glad that I did.  The niche is totally out of square and the walls of the niche slope so that the opening is smaller at the front than at the back.  To ensure a perfect fit, I had the installer cut a rigid template out of foam board insulation from Home Depot and test-fit that in the client’s home prior to sending the paper template to Helser Brothers for fabrication.  The last thing I wanted was to be stuck with a non-returnable, custom-made Tableaux piece that ALMOST fit in the niche! 

I have to show you how well packaged this product is for shipment.  After reading the instructions on the order form about the shock sensors and what to do if they indicate shipper mishandling, I was a little apprehensive that my Tableaux was going to arrive damaged, but it arrived in immaculate condition, wrapped in bubble wrap and carefully crated in plywood that was held together by honest-to-God real screws. 

  On installation day, my installer arrived a few minutes before me and had the Tableaux piece easily installed in about 5 minutes flat, before I even got there.  He told me afterwards that my client had followed him up the stairs anxiously and wanted to immediately touch the Tableaux as soon as it was unpacked, so I know she was still nervous about whether this “faux iron” stuff was going to be something she could be proud to have in her home.  By the time I left, she had already called her boyfriend and gushed about how much he was going to love the Tableaux when he got home, and she had invited one of her neighbors to come over and see it that evening – a neighbor who had just spent a small fortune having a fairly plain wrought iron grille custom-made for the door to her wine cellar.  The client is so pleased with the Tableaux product in this niche that she’s looking around her home for other places where she could use it as well.  At the end of the day, the niche looks beautiful, the clients are thrilled, the installer is pleased with how easy this product is to work with, and my imagination is going into overdrive thinking up more creative Tableaux applications.  I can’t wait to use this product again.  I want to send a big thank-you to Jocelyn and everyone else at Helser Brothers who helped make my first Tableaux experience a success! 

I look forward to the red carpet Oscar glamour and all of the hoopla as much as anyone else.  I tune in every year to see who wears what and to jot down the names of all the dark horse winners and offbeat foreign films that I will want to rent after seeing snippets of footage during the Oscars.  Of course I’m curious about who will win the biggies like Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Film – but every year I’m amazed by the number of Oscars that are awarded to people I’ve never heard of, whose hard work and creative energy behind the scenes is absolutely essential to the making of a great film.  In addition to the Best Composer of a Musical Score, the Best Set Design, the Best Special Effects, etc., think about how many more collaborators on those films never set foot on stage: the musicians in the orchestra, the carpenters who built the sets, the writer who wrote those memorable lines, not to mention the key grips, assistants, and countless others without whom film production would come to a screeching halt. 

Filmmaking is a collaborative effort on a gigantic scale, but the parallels to the design industry are striking.  The client sees a fabulous finished room or a beautiful window treatment, and usually only has the designer’s face to associate with it.  Can you imagine what it would look like if we could present the client with a group photo of everyone whose efforts and ingenuity went into pulling off that one show-stopping design?  The designer would be in the picture, as well as the client (producer) for financing the production and influencing the direction of the project.  But we’d also have our ingenious drapery installers and our workroom owners, seamstresses, and the workroom assistant who calculated yardages and coordinated the project to ensure it was finished on schedule.  The showroom manager would be in my photo as well, along with her staff for assisting me in locating the perfect trim to complement that gorgeous fabric.  My cast and crew photo would also include the artisans who created our handmade molded tassel fringe, the people at the fabric mills who wove the breathtaking silk damask, the fabric company that imported that fabric from the mill and their sales rep, who provided me with samples, as well as the person who designed the trim and the textile historian who discovered the antique damask pattern in some dusty archives somewhere.  The hardware manufacturer would be in my photo, along with the men and women who designed, crafted, and carefully packaged each exquisite piece for shipment.  I’ve got hundreds of people in my photo already, and those are just the ones responsible for the window treatments – imagine how many more are involved if we’re designing an entire room or an entire home.  Clearly, the success of the design industry is made possible by the dedication and passion of millions of unsung heroes whose work goes on behind the scenes.  This year, as Oscar night drags on interminably with speech after speech thanking everyone from the gardener to the kindergarten teachers, I’m going to be thinking of all of the many people who have made my successes possible…  this year, the Oscar goes to YOU!

By Rebecca Deming Rumpf of Custom Interiors By Rebecca

Rebecca Deming Rumpf

Rebecca Deming Rumpf of Custom Interiors By Rebecca made us all smile with her “Paris Field Blogging” adventure, and now has graciously agreed to help us out with an occasional WhyHelser post. 

It’s Not You Baby, It’s The Economy! By Rebecca Deming Rumpf:

One of the most valuable questions on my new client questionnaire is “Have you ever worked with a designer in the past?  How did that go?”  I originally included this question to determine which prospects needed a reality check about what to expect when working with an interior designer (as opposed to the magical fairytale version depicted on HGTV) and to help me identify that tiny percentage of clients who have unreasonable expectations and are impossible to satisfy.  However, since I started asking, I’ve been surprised to discover how many of my best new clients over the past year or two have come to me after parting ways with talented designers over basic customer service issues.  A few of these clients had voiced their frustrations to their designer before calling it quits, but many more opted to avoid an unpleasant confrontation by crying poverty or simply disappearing off the radar, leaving their designers to assume they had curtailed their decorating plans due to the economy.  It’s the sales equivalent of “It’s not you – it’s me!” 

Here are some of my favorite “Why I Broke Up With My Designer” responses, along with simple steps each designer could have taken to save the relationship.  In most of these situations, the clients were still attracted to the designer’s style but just weren’t willing to be taken for granted anymore.  Think about the clients who have stopped calling you over the past year – could any of them be saying these things about you? 

1. “I could never get him on the phone, and he doesn’t even use email!  It’s like he’s working in the Dark Ages!”  Solution: Be accessible to your clients and return messages promptly.  I can’t imagine why anyone running a serious business would refuse to use email, either – sometimes you don’t have time to get sucked into a long conversation by a really chatty client on the phone, but you can still acknowledge her phone call with a quick email message in a matter of minutes. 
2. “She didn’t respect our budget.  Everything she showed us was beautiful, but it was always two or three times as much as we told her we wanted to spend.”  Solution: Duh!  Granted, sometimes clients are willing to splurge and spend more than they initially planned if their designer finds something really special, and sometimes clients just don’t know how much certain things will cost in the beginning, but you should always bring in at least one item that fits the budget you all agreed to up front.   If their budget isn’t realistic for what they’ve asked you to do, they will respect you more for being honest with them instead of ignoring their budget and playing fast and loose with their pocketbook! 
3. “We hired him because we really liked what he did for our friends’ home, but then his assistant ended up doing all the work on our project – and we were still charged the same as our friends who got the main designer.  We feel like we got the old bait-and-switch!”  Solution: If you have an assistant, let your clients know ahead of time which things you will be handling personally and which things your assistant will be doing for them, and explain any differences in billing to avoid misunderstandings. 
4. “We liked what she did in the first room, but then everything else just started to look the same.  She didn’t have any new ideas.”  Solution: Get thee to a trade show!  Take a couple of seminars!  Peruse shelter magazines, or treat yourself to a new design book or two.  We all get in a rut from time to time, but you can’t continue to serve up fresh, innovative designs to your client if you’re working with your head in the sand.  Make it a point to stay on top of new trends and deliberately seek out inspiration on a regular basis.  
5. “We liked all the furniture and accessories she picked out, but the cornices for the bay window didn’t fit, and she had to send them back to the workroom three times to be redone.  I don’t think she knew what she was doing.”  Solution: This designer needs more training and experience with window treatments so she can supply the workroom with accurate information and get it right the first time!  The Window Coverings Association of America (WCAA) has a Certified Window Treatment Consultant program that would be a good place to start, and Window Fashions Certified Professionals (WFCP) is another great educational resource.  Meanwhile, consider hiring your workroom or installer to verify your measurements prior to fabrication any time you have a tricky window that you don’t feel 100% confident about.   
6. “The custom chairs she ordered for our living room were made to the wrong dimensions, but when we asked her to have them remade she burst into tears about her personal finances and said she couldn’t afford to eat the mistake.”  – She what?!!  Solution: Get a grip!  Conduct your business professionally and when you make a mistake, take responsibility for it and do whatever it takes to make it right.  Work with reputable suppliers who take pride in what they do and share your commitment to outstanding quality and service. 
7. “He never took any notes, and he didn’t listen to us.  We had this whole long meeting about what we wanted for our master bedroom and we told him the only color we really hate is blue – then two weeks later he came back to us with an all-blue design for our bedroom!”  Solution: Listen up and take notes!  Especially when you’re juggling projects for multiple clients and some time elapses between that initial meeting and when you finally get around to working on the design, you can easily get confused about which client said what.  Keeping organized notes will help you get it right the first time, saving you time and preserving your client’s confidence in your ability to meet their needs. 
8. “We loved her, but she was really busy with a lot of important clients.  Our project was dragging on forever and we’d ask for something and then wait months before she had anything for us to see.”  Solution: I suspect this designer is just disorganized and may even be one of the part-time-hobbyist designers that workrooms like to call “decorettes,” but if she’s really this busy she needs to either raise her rates, hire an assistant, or else stop taking on new clients until she’s caught up with her current commitments.  Each one of your clients is spending “a lot of money” with you (although that phrase means different things to different people) and that gives them all the same tangled up emotions of anxiety/excitement/fear.  No one wants to spend a lot of money to be made to feel slighted or unimportant!  Show your smallest clients the same attention and concern as you do for your biggest clients. 

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I’d love to hear from anyone out there who has a neat idea for making sure their clients feel loved and appreciated all year long.  Do you have a signature thank-you gift for each client at the end of the job?  Do you show up with Starbucks for your clients on the morning of their installation?  And if you’re a workroom or retailer reading this post, feel free to chime in as well.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

By Monday morning, reality and end-of-trip panic were beginning to set in.  Since I only had two more days in Paris, it was now painfully obvious that I was not going to be there long enough to see everything I wanted to see.  I still hadn’t been to the Musée d’Orsay (the temple of Impressionism filled with paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, etc.), the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon’s tomb, the Arc de Triomphe, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame, the Rodin museum, the Centre Pompidou (said to contain Europe’s best collection of modern art), the Musée Carnavalet (a museum of French history housed in two Marais mansions), or the famous Père Lachaise cemetery, where the tombstones read like a Who’s Who of the Hereafter (Oscar Wilde, Frédéric Chopin, Molière, painters Jacques-Louis David, Eugène Delacroix, Georges Seurat, and even Jim Morrison from The Doors are buried here).  And although I had zipped through one wing of the Louvre on that first night in Paris, I knew that I had barely scratched the surface there, as well.  I hadn’t even seen the apartments of Napoleon III, which is kind of a must-see for those of us in the interior design industry.  I briefly considered racing through Paris like a madwoman, trying to fit in as much as possible, but in the end I decided to head back to the Louvre with Karyn and play it by ear.  I’ll just have to come back to Paris again next year to see the rest!
One of my favorite things about Paris is the variety of wrought iron grillwork on the buildings.  Look at these unusual brackets holding up the balconies on this building, which we passed on our way from our hotel to the Pont des Arts (the pedestrian-only bridge that leads to the Louvre):
Those brackets could be scaled down and reinterpreted as really cool double rod brackets for iron drapery hardware, don’t you think?  Hmm… who do we know who could do that for us??  Maybe someday Helser Brothers will come out with the Parisian Balcony Collection of drapery hardware.  J
Passing under an archway just before entering the courtyard of the Louvre, I passed this interesting iron grate.  I just have ironwork on the brain lately, but this would be a pretty design for the Tableaux faux iron product – I like the leafy vines in the center of the cloverleaf, but I think I’d skip the padlock:
Okay, so now that I’m done taking pictures along the way, I finally made it back to the Louvre itself.  Ta da!  For those of you who don’t know, right behind me is the main entrance to the museum, a glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei and added to the Louvre in 1989.  Critics complained that the pyramid was ugly, too modern, and would ruin the classical architecture of the Louvre (ironically, the very same complaints were made about the Eiffel Tower when it was built for the 1889 World’s Fair).
Once I got inside and checked my coat, I was determined not to get sidetracked.  Today was going to be different; today I had a plan of what I wanted to see; today I had a map in hand marked with the location of the Napoleon III apartments and the Vermeer paintings…  But I had to go through a 17th and 18th century French sculpture garden to get there, and I was so intrigued by the differences between these statues and the Greek and Roman statues I’d seen on my previous visit that I had to stop and check them out. 
That’s a statue of Perseus and Andromeda taken from the Garden of Versailles, made by a French artist in 1684.  This next one is called L’Amour embrassant l’Amitié, or Love Embracing Friendship, made in 1758 by sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle:

Once I tore myself away from the sculptures and got my bearings again, Karyn and I finally made our way towards the Apartments of Napoleon III.  Just to be clear, we are not talking about THE Napoleon — these are the rooms of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the Great One’s nephew who ruled France as President of the Second Republic and then as Emperor of the Second French Empire from 1848-1870.  It was during Napoleon III’s time in power that Baron von Haussmann got the green light to clear out many of the medieval slums of Paris and create the broad streets lined with uniform Belle Époque buildings that we associate with Paris today (think Champs-Élysées). 
The draperies of Napoleon’s apartments were a bit of a let-down.  The architectural detail is unbelievably ornate in these rooms but the window treatments are just plain tied-back drapery panels with soft cornice valances or simple swags.  But man, oh man – you have to see the CEILINGS!  I had a stiff neck when I got out of there!  Apparently “the ceiling as the fifth wall” is not such a novel concept after all.  Here are my favorite ceilings from Napoleon’s apartments at the Louvre:

One more thing I need to show you is dry rotting silk draperies from the Louvre.  Some of you may know that I use more silk in my drapery designs than any other fabric, and I encourage clients to have a nearly-invisible UV film installed on their windows before the draperies get installed as an added protection from sun exposure.  True, the linings and interlinings we use for fine draperies protect the valuable face fabric to some extent, but look at what has happened to the hems along the lead edges of these beautiful silk drapery panels where the silk fabric wraps around to the back.  The silk fabric has just disintegrated!  Such a shame!
And I had to laugh (and my family and friends will all have to laugh AT me, I’m sure) when I discovered a Starbucks in the Louvre, just next to the gift shops.  Yes, I stopped in for a latte like the American tourist that I am…

It was dark outside by the time we left the Louvre (and they nearly locked us in again.  We stayed all day and I still never found the Girl With the Pearl Earring painting by Vermeer).  Isn’t the Louvre beautiful, all lit up at nighttime?

That evening, I went out for dinner with Beth Hodges, a workroom owner, teacher, speaker, and writer – a real authority on the window treatment industry.  We ate at Le Procope, a famous restaurant on the rue de l’Ancienne Comédie that was opened in 1686 and is said to be the oldest operating restaurant in France.  This is the café where the Enlightenment was conceived, and it was frequented by the likes of Jean de la Fontaine, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, Maximilien Robespierre, Napoleon Bonaparte (the Napoleon you’ve heard of), Victor Hugo, Jean Paul Marat, George Sand, and now by Rebecca Deming Rumpf and Beth Hodges.
I was feeling very adventurous, and I was heady with the history of the place, so I went out on a limb and ordered the “Tête de veau en cocotte comme 1686” because it was one of the original menu items (maybe this is what Voltaire used to eat??)    Let’s be very clear that I ordered this myself, of my own free will, full in the knowledge that it was calf’s head stew, because I was convinced that there was no such thing as bad French food.  Well, I’m not saying it was bad, but it definitely wasn’t my favorite and I don’t recommend it.  Thank goodness I was able to fill up on the oysters and prawns in my fruits de mer appetizer or I would have starved – next time, I’m getting the Coq au vin!  Here’s Beth and her beautiful ice cream dessert at Le Procope:

Well, that’s pretty much it, folks.  Tuesday we did a lot of souvenir shopping (I spent most of the day in search of the perfect Eiffel Tower souvenir), then had a wrap-up meeting in the hotel lobby to go over departure details and say our formal goodbyes.  Here’s California designer Doreen Yun, my roommate Maria Vila, me, and the fabulous Jackie Von Tobel of Las Vegas mugging for the camera after the meeting broke up:
After that we had one last, fabulous dinner in Paris, this time at Les Bouquinistes, where I ordered safe grilled scallops with risotto and thoroughly enjoyed every bite.  
This has been such a wonderful opportunity for me, and I’m so grateful to Helser Brothers for sending me to Paris and for allowing me to share the experience with all of you on their blog.  THANK YOU!!!

On Sunday I headed back to Maison et Objet for another full day at the show, but this time I was decorated with the Orange Necklace of Press Privileges – what a difference that made!  There were still a few vendors who didn’t permit photos, but most were very accommodating “pour la presse.”  Sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy a vicarious whirlwind tour through Maison et Objet 2010!
I loved this whimsical mismatched table grouping at the BMG Creations booth:

Mixing the chair finishes and upholstery fabrics was so fresh and fun – and a perfect solution for those times when clients just can’t narrow down fabric choices!  You can learn more about BMG Creations’ line of tableware at www.bmghomedesign.fr. 
More ribbon details caught my eye today, this time with a more contemporary feel — brown velvet ribbons on creamy ivory fabric from the innovative Italian fabric house of Siola Alois.  Wouldn’t this make fabulous drapery panels in a contemporary living room with sleek, brown velvet upholstery?  You can find Siola Alois online at www.siola-alois.it. 

Next, drapery trims got a Space Age treatment at Passementeries Ile de France.  Look how they trimmed out the stools in their booth with rope cord, rosettes and tassels:

Passementeries Ile de France had a broad range of mostly traditional trimmings in a rainbow of delicious colorways.  You can find them online at www.pidf.fr. 

While we’re on the subject of passementerie, I have to show you this dainty tieback from Tessitura di Rovezzano, a fabric and trim company from Florence, Italy.  It’s like a dainty double-strand choker necklace made of blossoms:  www.tessituradirovezzano.it. 

We saw some beautiful tooled leathers displayed by the Parisian company Cuirs Tassin:

I love the birds!!  Cuirs Tassin can do custom colors and indicated that they are willing to work directly with designers from the States.  You can find them at www.tassin-cuir.com. 
Donati is an Italian fabric company we saw at M&O that is not yet represented in the States.  I loved their detailed cactus-embroidered fabric , shown here upholstered to the back wall of their booth:

Donati also has sumptuous wool fabrics, including a line of readymade throws and this reversible ivory and gray snowflake fabric.  www.donatispa.com. 

Another fabric line that stole my heart at M&O was this flirty, lighthearted array of French prints from Lalie.  I had the opportunity to chat with the designer at this booth and was delighted to learn that Lalie will be represented in the States in the near future by Grizzel & Mann in Atlanta.  www.laliedesignertextile.fr

Moving on, I have to show you some of the coolest non-traditional wallcoverings from Tracy Kendall.  The three-dimensional paper on the left is made of torn and folded white paper.  The one in the middle is embroidered with lines from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the one on the right is comprised of thousands of individual jigsaw puzzle pieces attached with a tag gun.  www.tracykendall.com. 

At the Fabricut booth, I got to preview the new Barry Dixon line even before the U.S. sales reps have had a chance to see it (eat your hearts out!).  Aisle after aisle, the exhibit halls were packed with so many visual feasts that we began to get sensory overload after a few hours.  We saw some playful contemporary light fixtures from the German company anthologie QUARTETT, like this upside-down umbrella fixture: www.anthologiequartett.de.

Volevatch Paris had a large booth displaying their sleek, elegant bath fixtures.  My favorite was this prototype for a vanity faucet with bird handles in an unusual blackened silver finish.  The attention to detail is amazing.  www.volevatch.com. 

As far as overall color trends go, purple was everywhere at Maison et Objet 2010, especially smoky plums and deep eggplants in combination with taupe and gray.  I predict that, within a few years, purple will become the New Orange in the U.S. – the color no one wanted that suddenly we can’t get enough of.

Here’s more purple at the James Brindley booth, www.jamesbrindley.com:
…and still more purple at Stepevi, a luxe contemporary carpet-maker from Istanbul (available in NYC and in Delray Beach, Florida).  www.stepevi.com.

Later on Sunday evening, just in case we hadn’t seen enough at the show, Susan and Deb arranged for our group to enjoy a private presentation of the new fabrics and wallcoverings from Jakob Schlaepfer at their showroom in the Marais.  Jakob Schlaepfer is a Swiss company that is best known for supplying “industrial hand-made” fabrics to edgy couturiers such as Marc Jacobs, Blanc de Chine and Jean Paul Gaultier, but they’ve only been in the interiors market for two years.  We were honored and privileged that Creative Director Martin Leuthold himself took the time to show us his favorite new fabrics, such as this one comprised of two layers of different colored polyester chiffon sandwiched with an inner layer of aluminum foil and bonded together.  The result is a fabric unlike any other I’ve ever seen, that can be scrunched and sculpted by hand over and over again.  www.jakobschlaepfer.com. 

 After wrapping up at the Jakob Schlaepfer showroom, we headed down the street to a little restaurant called Robert et Louise for dinner, where we crowded around a family-style table in the cellar and savored the plat du jour, a bœuf bourguignon stew that just melted in my mouth.  I liked the funky iron sconces on the stone cellar walls of this restaurant:

Well, I know it’s a long shot since I’ve been so long-winded, but just in case any of you are still reading this, au revoir et bonne nuit!

Bonjour from Paris!  On Saturday I had great intentions of heading back to the show, but after three consecutive days of sleep deprivation I was feeling pretty ill.  So I slept like a sloth most of the day and felt MUCH better when I woke up.
Jackie Von Tobel organized an informal meet up of international design bloggers Saturday evening at the Hotel Duo lounge.  Although we had quite a few no-shows, those of us who were there had a wonderful time.  I learned so much about the whats, the whys, and the unwritten rules of blogging that I feel like I got a free seminar and private coaching session!  Jackie plans to form an international design bloggers association to help legitimize this 21st century form of journalism and create a distinction between serious design bloggers and hobbyists for the purpose of press privileges.

From left to right, here’s Maryann Flaherty from Brenham, Texas (www.beadboardupcountry.blogspot.com), Mélanie Aussandon from Aubagne, France (www.enseignedegersaint.typepad.fr), Sarah Youngblood from Alpharetta, Georgia (www.youngbloodinteriors.blogspot.com), Jackie Von Tobel from Las Vegas, Nevada (www.jackiebluehome.blogspot.com), Tammi LeNair from Ephrata, Pennsylvania (www.couturewindowfashions.wordpress.com), and me, Rebecca Deming Rumpf from Charlotte, North Carolina. 
Afterwards, Mélanie, Sarah, Jackie, Tammi, and I went to a great little restaurant right down the street called l’étincelle.  The quirky restaurant décor was so French; check out the fun single light sconces scattered all over the walls behind Sarah and Mélanie:

After eating Italian food two nights in a row in Paris, I was ready for some French food and I was feeling adventurous, so I ordered (and ate, and really enjoyed!) an appetizer of escargots before the meal.  Who knew snails could taste so fabulous?!  If you’ve never had them, I’d describe it as a similar taste to shellfish like clams, but with an earthier flavor almost like truffles.  Delicious!  I don’t think there’s any such thing as bad French food!
By the way, while I was slothful in bed this morning, Susan took some of our group to the Vanves and Clignancourts flea markets.  When you hear interior designers talking about “shopping the flea markets in France,” these are the ones they are talking about.  My roommate, Maria Vila, picked up this pretty Sevres porcelain cherub bowl at the flea market as a souvenir — I don’t know if it’s an authentic piece or a reproduction, but it’s very pretty in a Victorian-Valentine’s-Day kind of way:

As you’ve probably noticed, I’m having so much fun that I’m getting a bit behind myself.  My next post will show and tell you all about my second day at Maison et Objet – it was much easier to take pictures after Susan got me a press badge.  A bientôt!

I must admit; after two wonderful days of sightseeing in Paris, I was not entirely thrilled about going to the Maison et Objet trade show yesterday even though that was the whole point of this trip.  The devil kept whispering things in my ear like, “Get lost on the Metro and ‘accidentally’ end up at Versailles or at the Musee d’Orsay instead of at the show!”  With so much still to do and see in Paris, the last thing I felt up to was traipsing around a trade show looking at the same vendors and lines I’ve seen before a hundred times in the U.S.  But I could not have been more wrong.  I’m glad I went with the group to M&O, and I wholeheartedly recommend the experience to all of you designers, shop owners, and style makers out there if you ever have the opportunity to be in Paris for the show. 
So, what IS this Maison et Objet business anyway, you may be asking?  Well, the only thing I have to compare it with is the High Point Furniture Market in the U.S.   Imagine what the High Point Market would be like if all those different exhibition spaces were adjacent to one another so you didn’t have to schlep all over the place, and then multiply the size and number of exhibitors by four or five.  There are exhibitors showing everything from home furnishings to accessories, linens, fabrics, trims, small accessories and gift items, home fragrance, outdoor, etc.  Now envision every vendor’s booth looking as though the space was professionally designed and styled for an advertising photo shoot, so you feel like you’re walking through the beautiful ads in Veranda and Architectural Digest.  It’s an alternate universe from the shows in the U.S.!  All those resources that have eluded you, the truly unique, must-have product lines you’ve been searching for that your competition isn’t offering because they can’t find them either – they’re all here at Maison et Objet, the premier European trade show for the interior design industry.  According to the show management, over 90% of the exhibitors at Maison et Objet do not participate in any of the U.S. shows.  And even though this show is much larger and more comprehensive than what we have in the U.S., I found it to be a less stressful and more enjoyable experience overall.  The entire show is infused with French hospitality.  At High Point, I couldn’t even get a decent cup of coffee inside the exhibition buildings.  At Maison et Objet, they have gourmet food stands, sit down restaurants, and a Ladurée macaroon stand shaped like a carriage from the ancien regime – and that’s just in the one hall I was able to visit today.  Here’s a photo of designer Octive Healey from our group, getting her macaroon fix at the Ladurée stand:
Susan and Deb arranged for our group to get access to Le Club at M&O (the VIP lounge) and all sorts of other perks and privileges.  I was expecting Le Club to be something like the Frequent Flyer lounge at the airport, but it blew away all my expectations.  Have you ever seen on E! TV when they take you backstage at the Oscars to show you the “Green Room” where all the stars hang out before they go on stage?  That’s what Le Club was like.  Here I am, savoring one of several free cappuccinos I enjoyed at Le Club:

This next photo, from left to right, shows my roommate Maria Vila, Tammi Le Nair, and Karyn Caldwell (the Karyn from yesterday’s post), enjoying free refreshments at the bar inside Le Club:
…and in this photo we have product designer and book author Jackie Von Tobel and designer Octive Healey relaxing at Le Club before heading out to the exhibit floor:

Photography was not allowed at the show, and Karyn even got chased out of one booth just for sketching, so I’m going to have to do my best to describe some of the treasures I discovered.  I fell head over heels in love with Zuber, a high end fabric and wallcovering company that has been manufacturing in France since 1797, and their factory is actually classified as a national historic monument.  They are still using over 100,000 original woodblocks from the 18th and 19th century, which gives their line a unique character and authenticity.    I drooled all over their embossed velvet damask wallcoverings, and I could barely tear myself away from their exquisite hand embroidered and appliquéd fabrics.  I didn’t even think fabrics like this existed anymore!  I know you’re thinking “Damask, velvet, embroidery, I can get those anywhere,” but these fabrics and wallcoverings are on a completely different level.  This was my favorite exhibitor yesterday by far, so please take a look at Zuber’s web site to learn more, even though the photos there do not do the line justice:  http://www.zuber.fr/default_zone/gb/html/page-23.html  Zuber has a showroom in New York City, and their line is also represented at Stark Carpet in the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles.
But fortunately for you, after awhile I got brazen and began interpreting the “NO PHOTOGRAPHY” signs as “NO PHOTOGRAPHY EXCEPT FOR REBECCA IF SHE CAN’T HELP IT AND NO ONE’S LOOKING,” so I do have a couple of interesting photos to share with you.  I loved this whimsical scrolled iron chandelier featuring wooden tassel beads instead of the expected glass or crystal accents:

The heading on this readymade drapery panel caught my eye as well with its tidy horizontal pleating and simple grosgrain ribbon intertwined as though it was braided:

I saw a lot of ribbon embroidery at the show, with rosettes and floral ribbon embroidery (like what you’d see in vintage millinery) made to feel fresh and modern in tone-on-tone colorways of taupey lavender, gray and neutrals.  I’ve got a couple of books on ribbon embroidery stashed away at home, so I know this is something I’m going to experiment with when I get home.
At one point Karyn sat down in the middle of this fun exhibit where retro “flower power” prints were shown with deep, muted plums, and I just had to take her picture because I loved how her blouse fabric blended into the display like she was part of the vignette:
In the afternoon, the high end Italian textile company Dedar conducted a special presentation of their new product offerings just for our group.  Here’s the Dedar rep showing us an interesting unevenly flocked velvet damask that is flocked in some places, but not in others – in person, this technique creates a magical 3-D illusion as though parts of the pattern are floating freely in the air just in front of the fabric:

What I loved most at Dedar were their overscaled patterns with enormous repeats, several of which could fill an entire standard length drapery panel with one repeat, and the soft, luxurious hand of all of their fabrics, even the polyester fabrics that were rated for commercial applications.  Look how beautifully Dedar merchandised their passementerie collection for the show, as though their trimmings were delicious candy treats:

Back at Le Club later in the day, Philippe Bazin held a show overview and trend presentation on behalf of M&O management just for our group of designers and bloggers.  The show organizers were very interested in our feedback and asked for suggestions on how to encourage more Americans to attend Maison et Objet in the future.  That’s our Beth Hodges to the right of the girl presenting for M&O, and Sue and Jackie on the left.  The back of designer Sarah Youngblood’s head is in the foreground at left, and Philippe Bazin is on the far right:

I want to leave you with one thought tonight: Out of all the registered show attendees at Maison et Objet 2010, only 2300 came from the U.S., and many of those 2300 were teams of buyers sent to M&O by big companies like Williams Sonoma or Pottery Barn.  Only 6% of the attendees at this international show hail from the U.S.!  Your competition isn’t here, and your clients haven’t seen these products yet – but it’s what they will all be wanting a year or two from now.  If you want to position yourself as an expert on what’s hot in design, you need to be able to anticipate the next big trend before it hits and be the first in your area share these offerings with your clients.  Going to this show will give you a huge competitive advantage in your market, and the fact that it’s in Paris is just the icing on the macaroon!