The problem with
HGTV is inherent in the media itself. In television – time is limited and you
can only share so much information in that limited time. So viewers end up coming
away with the impression that the beautiful kitchen/living room/dining
room/bedroom/etc. they saw on HGTV was created in fifteen minutes. And problems
arise when they decide to hire a professional interior designer and they expect
that same level of amazing design in that very same short time frame.
The show Divine
Design is a big culprit of this. I respect Candace Olsen’s work – I think she
does a great job most of the time and I sometimes look at her design portfolio
when seeking inspiration for new projects. It irks me though when I see her
meet with a client for two minutes and then sit down and sketch out a fully
finalized floor plan (to scale!) in 30 seconds. What’s even more frustrating is
when specifying materials and products for her design, she takes just a few
seconds to select the perfect tile, the perfect cabinet color, the perfect wood
floor, and the perfect rug—and have everything work seamlessly together.
That is incredibly
misleading to viewers. What the viewer doesn’t see is the reality. They don’t
see hours of time Candace and her team spend developing the design plan in
advance of the show. This advance time then allows Candace to summarize her
choices in that 30 second slot. Summarize being the operative word.
For what it’s
worth, the only TV design show I’ve seen that accurately conveys some of the
challenges that go into a design project is Sarah Richardson’s Design Inc.—which
I believe isn’t even on the air anymore. Design Inc. showed some of the pit
falls that can happen on a real design project (clients who can’t make up their
minds and cause delays in the construction schedule, products that go out of
stock or arrive damaged, measurement issues that lead to a piece of furniture
that doesn’t fit, etc.) While unfortunate, all of these things actually can and
do happen.
In my practice,
when a client comes to me saying they love HGTV, I know that I may need to have
a frank conversation with them about their expectations.
I need to clarify
their expectations about how much they plan to spend (because many design shows
don’t say how much things really cost), as well as their expectations about how
long they think our work will take (because often they see work in my portfolio
that they love and they want to be able to reach a similar level of quality in
a two hour consultation).
Because the truth
is that good design takes time and planning. Quite a bit of it in fact.
It takes time to
get to know your client and understand not only their functional goals for
their space, but also their aesthetic goals. It takes time to measure a space
and photograph it so that, as a designer, you have the right information to
draft a scale model of that space using a computer based tool and explore the
best layouts to meet your client’s goals.
Not to mention the
fact that the creative process takes time. It’s true that I’ve been doing
design long enough that ideas come to me quickly and I have a good sense of
which design directions make sense from the get go. But really good design –
design that doesn’t look like cookie cutter molds of everyone else’s – isn’t
created in an hour or two.
Design like that
involves time to look at other designers’ work for inspiration and precedence.
Time to brainstorm different approaches to problems and see what makes the most
sense. And just plain time.
Believe it or not,
I come up with some of my best design ideas in the shower, or in my car when
stopped at a red light on the way to pickup my son from camp, or lying in bed
just after waking up for the day.
Good design needs
time to breathe, to marinate if you will. If you rush it too much, you may miss
out on an amazing idea or solution. You may miss out on the “ah ha” moment that
happens when your ideas suddenly gel and it’s exactly what your will love.
So watch HGTV and
be inspired by the shows you see. But understand that the spaces you’re
admiring on the “better design” shows weren’t achieved in 30 minutes. They took
time.
