“What do you think?” is not Advice that Helps

This post is for designers and the people that hire them.

As a designer, have you ever had the peanut gallery [your husband, wife, friends who are not designers] try to give you advice on the business of design? How many of you roll your eyes [inside] when you hear it? Why? Because the design world is a different animal than almost any other kind of business.

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 It’s why my coach/consultant is a designer. There are so many questions that a non-designer would not have the slightest idea how to answer. Which means if you are a designer and you don’t have a design mentor/coach that you work with, you better get one, and here’s why I think you should.

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 I was in a consultation on Friday and one of the first things the client said to me when I arrived was “I don’t want you to ask me what I think, I want you to tell me what is going to work”. She had her dining table spread out with hardwood flooring and countertop samples, brochures, colours, etc. (below) and was about to renovate her apartment.

I was there to make sure all her choices were going to work together!

Remember in this post when I told you about what it was like to be a new colourist and how I used to hold up colours (like Vanna) and say “What do you think?”. Well if you are a client and your designer says “What do you think? a few too many times—be concerned.

House Beautiful

As a new designer, when you’re not sure what the right answer is, you give your opinion and then add ‘what do you think’? Before you get all depressed cause you are reading this and you are new, here’s what you do.

If you are not sure, it’s better to call up your mentor right on the spot and ask (or say you’ll get back to them). I have done that many times in consultations when I was starting out. The client is happy because they get that you really care that you are giving the correct advice and then you are happy because now you have the answer for the next time.

Of course there is a fine line between bulldozing the client with your design opinion and giving them a look that works for them based on their likes and dislikes and the current style/architecture of the space.

I definitely ask ‘What do you think?’ if it’s a situation where the answer could be one or the other, or when fine tuning colour and style preferences. I cannot read my clients mind so I ask a lot of questions. It’s a collaboration. So remember, context is everything, I’m not saying take “What do you think?” out of your vocabulary!

In this consultation, my client wanted to introduce blue to her living room. She had ordered the sofa and 2 identical slipper chairs from a local furniture store 5 years before and had always thought there was something wrong with the combination of fabrics (above).

When my client mentioned this to the designer helping her at the time, her response was “We don’t want to be matchy matchy.” Personally I believe there should be a relationship (especially when working with pattern) between the major pieces of furniture in the room, but I don’t like coffee tables to match (for example) so I think context of ‘matchy matchy’ was missing in this conversation.

Since the sofa already has essentially 3 colours in this fabric without a spec of blue in sight, I would not introduce a blue wall colour into this space. If we painted the walls blue we would need to repeat it in the toss cushions, chair fabric, accessories, etc, to make it work. As you can see by the above photo, the colour on the left is working the best with this fabric.

The darker shade on the right (above) is a perfect match to the leaves on the sofa (but the photo didn’t come out well, there was too much glare from the window I see now, I should have adjusted the blinds further). I’m showing a gray on the left because she (like everyone right now) wanted me to consider that shade as well.

We ended up doing the darker gold on an accent wall to the left of the sofa. My recommendation was that she replace the current greeny/yellow chair fabric (that in no way worked with the sofa) with another pattern (maybe a stripe) that picked up the yellow beige we chose for the walls as well as the colours from the sofa.

The yellow/gold beige is still in the same family as the sofa fabric which is why it works even though it cannot be found in the fabric.

I specifically chose this image (below to show) because it’s the same dark gold colour which I personally think is too muddy to work with the clean bright blue of the chairs, but at least they are both solid (instead of one having a pattern with colours that do not in any way go with the chair), and I’m guessing there are more of both these colours in this space to make it work.

This blog is my opinion after all so take what works for you and leave the rest here 🙂

House Beautiful

As a client on the receiving end of design advice, if you are hearing too much “What do you think?” from your designer, and most importantly the advice you are getting isn’t resonating with you, find someone else. My favourite quote I recently found is “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur”.

And if you are a designer and you find yourself saying those words a little too often, find a mentor or hire one. ‘You can do what you already know how to do. The reason you get a coach/mentor is to do the things that you cannot do.’ T. Rauffman.
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Related posts:

3 Steps to Finding a Mentor in the Design Industry

Have you made these Decorating Mistakes?

Why you can’t Afford NOT to hire a Colour Expert

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