Robin Siegerman, Renovation Bootcamp(tm)'s Profile

Regarding the client posts: There are certain projects that fall under my budget range that I won't take on. That doesn't mean I'm passing judgement on you or what you have to spend. It means that in my business, where I'm a sole practitioner, my most precious resource is time, and I know that if I do 10 projects at once with a modest budget which I have to do to make a living, not only can I not physically do that, but you won't get the attention and time from me that you deserve. There are other firms whose models are different from mine who could accommodate a modest budget because they have staff they bill out at a much lower hourly rate and administrative staff who can do all the co-ordination.

Regarding taking things personally: Design is a creative endeavor and creativity is a very personal form of expression. Of course, this is also a business arrangement, so no one should feel hurt or insulted if their choices are rejected. But the reality of life and business is, that wherever you're dealing with people, designer and client will have and deal with varying degrees of insecurity, sensitivity and hurt feelings. So throughout all this, communication is key. For many reasons, not every designer is right for every client, and by the same token, not every client is right for every designer.

As for the part of the discussion that revolves around "To the trade" products, I think MMaves says it well from the designer's point of view. This is a business and not the designer's hobby. It is the same as a consumer not being able to buy product straight from the manufacturer instead of a retailer. In this case, the manufacturer has added designers to their customer base and consumers are free to either buy from a designer where they often benefit from a split discount, or buying from a retailer with a full 100% markup or more, or chose to wait until it goes on sale.

As for the TV part of the discussion where all of this started, I have been on many TV design/renovation shows and can tell you from personal experience, they exist to entertain an audience so the audience will buy the advertiser's products, which is how the production company makes their money. So to that end, they story-board the shows, edit them, set up conflict of various kinds to keep the viewer coming back. Reality on TV is strictly manufactured. That doesn't mean that there aren't some good aesthetic ideas being shown, but their first mandate is to sell advertising and keep their production costs to a minimum, so product and labor is often donated skewing the budgets to an unrealistically low level. I wrote my book, Renovation Bootcamp(tm): Kitchen to give the consumer the real reality and give the professional back up when they are explaining the process to a client.

Everything we've been talking about here is about managing expectations on both sides of the professional relationship and communicating clearly and making as few assumptions as possible.