Week 2: Getting Adjusted
Michelle HI finally am getting the hang of things. I am getting better at knowing where things are without asking which is good.
Monday: Rachel, my supervisor, wasn’t able to come in until mid day, but I helped Amy, another interior designer on staff. Amy had a client meeting involving interest in a sofa and chair the client saw in the showroom. I was asked to look up the prices for the pieces since the price was not located on the furniture. The items were also not located in the catalog because they were new. I finally found the original P.O. (purchase order) and found the wholesale prices. The rest of the day I called vendors for pricing and availably. I assisted designers in fabric selection.
Tuesday: I called vendors for pricing and availably. Carocle sends out a list of discontinued product every month. I went through every book and marked every discontinued fabric.
Wednesday: I called vendors about pricing and availably. I helped a designer find fabric for her client. I organized Sam Moore fabrics and identified more discontinued items.
Thursday: I called vendors about pricing and availably. We also organized the trim closet. We called vendors to see if the trim books were current. If the book is discontinued, we threw them out the window to the dumpster-I almost missed the dumpster on a few of books.
Friday: I accompanied Sherlene and Rachel to install accessories for a client project. The project was located on the patio at the client’s house. The first thing we did was rearrange the furniture. We placed the reupholstered cushions on the chairs, and then arranged the accessories around the patio space.
The firm organizes their projects in the following phases: pre-design (research), schematic design, design development, and installation or accessory job. The research phase is where I assist the designer. The research is finding the product (furniture or fabric) and then getting the availability and cost on the product. The designer has several meetings with the client until all the furniture and fabrics are exactly what the client wants. The designers are responsible for floor plans. Some designers have a magnet board of the floor plan to decide on where the furniture pieces are going. The designer or the Resource Manager (Project Manager) orders the product for the client and checks on the order until the product comes in. Scheduling a date when everyone: painter, mover, client, and designer can assist. The designer does an accessory pull of what might or should go in the space. The final step is the accessory job or the installation.
This is Natalie Sims who is an interior designer. She actually lives a few miles away from me on Signal Mtn. She likes to jog on the mountain brow and thinks that it’s one of the most beautiful places in Chattanooga, which I agree. She likes to run as well as plays tennis.
Reader Comments (2)
Michelle! Those are tons of books! Did you have to throw all of those in the dumpster? That would take forever!
Tell me more about Natalie. How long has she been an interior designer, and where did she receive her education? How long has she been with the company? The images you share are really helpful -- all those sample books! You had quite the work out eliminating them. To see how the design phases are broken down more distinctly, I suggest you ask to see a typical client contract and the potential scope of work that is possible in each phase of work. I am curious when the selection of accessories is planned? What is included in the selection of accessories, typically? More detail around this activity would be good to know. Give some more detail about how the designers within the company communicate with each other on the projects and the types of activities that occur with the clients. Your examples are good, but more detail would be helpful for clarity.