Simple changes with a BIG impact
Five weeks ago I got a desperate call from a customer I hadn't seen for about eight years. She was going to be a first time grandma and had received a phone call from her daughter-in-law asking to have the baby shower at her house. Thrilled and immediately thrown into a panic, she said yes and started dialing. The next day I made a consultation appointment to get our time frame and list of what needed to be done.
Oddly enough, the back of the house and yard were ready to go. The front living room and dining room had been neglected since the late 80's. Furniture was outdated and sun faded, swags and jabots were threadbare and everything looked worn. The dining room was never used so it had outdated swags that dwarfed the window, set of table and chairs and an antique hutch from the customer's grandmother. The first thing we did was make a list of things that had to go.
(1) All swags and jabots were to be removed and disposed of. Too worn to donate or give away.
(2) Could the furniture be kept and possibly new window treatments, rugs and artwork? Only if we can find fabric and/or rugs to make the fabric feel updated.
(3) The customer felt overwhelmed with the 5 week time frame so I took painting the spaces off the agenda. The walls were in excellent condition and painted a soft white. It would do!
(4) The husband made it clear he didn't want the wife to regret anything when I left and he didn't want to hang, move, transfer or return anything.
Ok, so we had our list and we had to get moving. The first meeting, all the window treatments were removed. After a couple of hours of shopping, everything we could find made the fabric look faded and completely outdated. So we went shopping to a place that has a great turnaround, excellent customer service and the prices are awesome. I shopped to see what was there and had the customer meet me to look at what I had chose. Her and her husband sat on everything, they loved the fabric and we could get it in 4 weeks. AMAZING! Her husband later called me and said that she had NEVER made a decision that quickly and he was impressed. If she didn't cry at the end of this affair, I was worth anything I could charge. Ahwwww.....how sweet!!!
Next came the rugs, lamps, artwork and window treatments. The sofa and chair were in oatmeal, a matching chair in a gorgeous print with a neutral background and an open armed chair with exposed legs and a little curvy, in red with a small print. Lovely, but we can still use another couple of prints. Think big scale, a couple medium scale prints and a couple of small prints. Always mixed in odd numbers 1, 3, 5.... Take my word for it, it works. That would come from the window treatments and accessories. Rugs take the longest to get in, so I gave them 3 options for a living room rug and a companion rug for the dining room. They chose, we ordered and those came in 2 weeks and were gorgeous.
At this point, they were amazed that we had gotten this far so quickly. Also, a little nervous over what they had spent. So, I gave them 48 hours to shop and see if there was anything available that could work with our color palette. I gave them the fabric swatches and they were on a hunt. They did find something for the dining room but after getting it home, they thought it was too heavy, weighed the window down and didn't like the overall look. I got the phone call to find some fabric. They already have the privacy issue taken care of with 2" white wood blinds so this was more of a softening to the windows. I wanted to go up higher with the window treatments and did a 1 1/2" wood rod in a dark stain, like the dining room set, with rings and finials and pinch pleated drapes. Clean, simple and very elegant. Also, did them in the red which is heavily in the rug of the living room but only on the border of the dining room rug.
The living room was a little difficult because they have a radius bowed window. A difficult window to dress with very little space to mount hardware and no space to fix standard rods to. Plus, we didn't want to cover the windows. They had gotten used to nothing on them but the blinds and loved the light. My solution was to do 1/2 width pinch pleated drapes, with simple rods that would be hidden behind the drape in a sage, yellow green that pulled in the print from the chair. Small, tone on tone stripe with a little sheen and it turned out beautiful.
I knew the stress level of my customer and knew that the week of the shower everything we be in so I planned for it all to go in at one time. The furniture company had agreed to take away the furniture to Goodwill that they didn't give away so I arrived with the rugs and we rolled those out. The furniture guys showed up and hauled out the remaining furniture, brought in the new stuff and placed everything where it needed to go. (Forgot that we had also ordered end tables!) They left and we started finding things around the house that could hang in our newly decorated space. Took the plastic off the new linen shades and turned on the lights. Then my window installer arrived and did his magic. I hadn't shown the customers the panels so I asked them to get a snack and drink and take a break on the deck. They happily agreed and he went to work.
After I let him go, I called them in to see the finished product and my customer actually did start crying. But thank goodness it was tears of joy! They loved everything that we accomplished and once that furniture was gone, she couldn't even remember what it looked like.
Everything is ready for the very special baby shower this Saturday, all except for the cooking, and Decorating Junkies has another very satisfied customer.
Happy Decorating!
