Awkward! Your Client Is Attached to a Piece That Doesn’t Work
Enlist your diplomacy and creativity to handle this sticky situation
It’s a familiar scenario. You’ve got a great design plan, but your client is attached to an item that you can’t imagine using in the space. Here’s how designers have successfully approached this situation.
For this guest room, Rosene gave her client’s existing chair and desk, seen in the previous photo, a refresh with paint, new hardware and new upholstery. Also, the homeowner’s brother had brought back from Vietnam the three prints on the right. She rematted and reframed them to work with the client’s antique map of France, on the left.
Move It Around
If refreshing an item isn’t going to work in the space, Rosene recommends looking around the house for other places where it will. And if that doesn’t work, she takes a diplomatic approach. “If it’s not going to work at all, I am careful and sensitive in what I say,” she says. The last thing any designer wants is to hurt a client’s feelings.
Interior designer Julia Mack agrees and considers these situations teachable design moments. “As a design professional, I feel that it is my responsibility to be honest with a client about which of their existing pieces are included in a new design scheme and which are not,” she says. “I carefully spell out why the piece doesn’t work and then try to find another, better spot for it with the goal of teaching a client how to make good design decisions in the future.”
In this case, she took an older armchair and some artwork that wasn’t working in her scheme for the family room and used it in the master bedroom to create an inviting spot for reading. She added a small black accordion table, a floor lamp and a yellow pillow to make things more cozy.
If refreshing an item isn’t going to work in the space, Rosene recommends looking around the house for other places where it will. And if that doesn’t work, she takes a diplomatic approach. “If it’s not going to work at all, I am careful and sensitive in what I say,” she says. The last thing any designer wants is to hurt a client’s feelings.
Interior designer Julia Mack agrees and considers these situations teachable design moments. “As a design professional, I feel that it is my responsibility to be honest with a client about which of their existing pieces are included in a new design scheme and which are not,” she says. “I carefully spell out why the piece doesn’t work and then try to find another, better spot for it with the goal of teaching a client how to make good design decisions in the future.”
In this case, she took an older armchair and some artwork that wasn’t working in her scheme for the family room and used it in the master bedroom to create an inviting spot for reading. She added a small black accordion table, a floor lamp and a yellow pillow to make things more cozy.
Make the Process Collaborative
In this case, the clients were moving from a large, traditional home filled with family pieces that needed to be whittled down to fit into a much smaller, contemporary high-rise condo with transitional style. Interior designer Emily Griffin was tasked with helping them go through their antiques to see which pieces would mix well with new contemporary pieces.
Making the process collaborative allowed it to run smoothly. “I took a thorough inventory of my clients’ existing furniture, and we sat together to determine which pieces they wanted to bring to their new home,” Griffin says. The beautiful English dining room antiques — table, chairs, buffet and beloved clock — were a shoo-in. She also had their artwork reframed and rematted to fit the style.
In this case, the clients were moving from a large, traditional home filled with family pieces that needed to be whittled down to fit into a much smaller, contemporary high-rise condo with transitional style. Interior designer Emily Griffin was tasked with helping them go through their antiques to see which pieces would mix well with new contemporary pieces.
Making the process collaborative allowed it to run smoothly. “I took a thorough inventory of my clients’ existing furniture, and we sat together to determine which pieces they wanted to bring to their new home,” Griffin says. The beautiful English dining room antiques — table, chairs, buffet and beloved clock — were a shoo-in. She also had their artwork reframed and rematted to fit the style.
Try the KonMari Method
Now that professional organizer Marie Kondo is a household name, call forth the “spark joy” rule. Make her buzzworthy book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up required reading, or recommend a few episodes of her show on Netflix. Then have the clients ask themselves if the item truly sparks joy or is more connected to guilt or other negative emotions that are making them hang on to it. If the item truly sparks joy, use your skills to work with it. (And if you still hate it, see if you can diplomatically pull it out of the space on photo shoot day.)
Now that professional organizer Marie Kondo is a household name, call forth the “spark joy” rule. Make her buzzworthy book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up required reading, or recommend a few episodes of her show on Netflix. Then have the clients ask themselves if the item truly sparks joy or is more connected to guilt or other negative emotions that are making them hang on to it. If the item truly sparks joy, use your skills to work with it. (And if you still hate it, see if you can diplomatically pull it out of the space on photo shoot day.)
Share: What kinds of client pieces have you had to fit into a design? Tell us in the Comments how you did it — or how you persuaded them not to use it.
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Interior designer Dona Rosene tries to exhaust all possibilities when a client is tied to an item that isn’t working. “I try to see if it can be refreshed and repurposed in some way,” she says. “Often I can work it in by repainting or reupholstering it.”