I can't believe that you can tile, sew,paint etc.! Is there anything you can't do? For those of us who are thinking of doing design work or having design work done would you consider posting how you got started,how much you charge, where did you get all of your talents, how do you get business, how your design process works, etc.?
Thanks for the question. I will answer it the best I can.
I have always had a passion for decorating. Growing up with decorators around me, I just thought it was what all people did. I can remember decorating things in my room as young as 7 or 8. By the time I was 12, I was rearranging furniture, and hanging mirrors. I think that most of my ability comes from exposure.
Of course when I got married and out on my own, we had NO money at all. So I was constantly taking old things, and sometimes new things, and repainting them and trying to fix up our apartments. It drove my husband crazy. He could never understand why I would buy something, perfectly good, and come home and paint it. He soon learned to accept this about me and zipped his pie hole (love ya!).
where did you get all of your talents
As for talents, not so much. I would more or less call them learning experiences. You will never know how to do it unless you try it yourself. I am a firm believer in "hands on". I am passionate about decorating and want things done to my house (and other peoples) that sometimes money can not afford to hire out. So my next best step is to do it myself. It is a little scary at first, but you get more confident the more you do.
how you got started
I got started 6 years ago when I was pregnant with our 3rd baby. I loved all the Pottery Barn Bedding and wanted to buy it for Addison's crib. I was searching Ebay looking for a good deal when I saw all these little switch plates and stuff that people were painting to match Pottery Barn Bedding. They were making a fortune, and their art wasn't even that great! I told Steve I was going to start doing it. He said, but you don't know how to paint ladybugs or flowers, and I told him that it wasn't "real" art, it was whimsical stuff that anyone could do. So I did.
By the time our Addison turned 1, I was running a Ebay business, painting in the upwards of $1500-$2000 a month worth of knobs and letters. My kitchen basically was loaded with wooden knobs and letters for 2 straight years. I soon got to the point where I learned to mass produce my knobs using a transfer paper so that I didn't have to paint them individually. I started really bringing in the dough, but Pottery Barn slammed us Ebayers and shut us down. At the time, I was actually part of a group of 7 woman that all sold different things to accent Pottery Barn's Bedding. Some of them have found loop holes to still sell on Ebay, but it stressed me out too much, so I cried, and then I quit.
But my disease of compulsive decorating was still there and I had no money anymore to do it in my own home, so I started doing it for my friends. Sometimes people would pay me a small fee, like $10 per hour, but most times I did it for free. I learned a lot for the year and 1/2 that I did that. It was so fun and I wanted my friends to be able to have a cute house to enjoy. Plus I really learned how to paint and choose colors. You get good at it after a hundred rooms.
When we moved to Austin I decided no more freebies, if I was going to take time away from my family, I was going to get paid to do it. I found out what companies were charging to paint per square foot and started with that. So basically the painting part is mathematical. I stay very competitive on pricing and include decorating advice to help people choose colors and such. A Sherwin Williams rep can't do that. So it is just an added bonus for people that hire me to paint. Last year I got so busy that I started employing helpers to paint for me. I have had my brother in law Scott work for me and now Lorena will paint for me every so often. Takes major stress of me with trying to focus on my family and kids. Pricing on paint ranges from .45 cents sq. ft. and up. So your average bedroom is going to run about $200. Fortunately it only takes about 3 hours to paint a bedroom, so you can rake it in if you can keep up on the speed.
Starting to get a bit bored with myself, but I will keep going.
On the decorating side: My husband runs an apartment community for a company called Archstone. When we came to Austin, they wanted to remodel the model apartments. They usually pay their designer around $25k to do it, but didn't have the capital budget that year. Steve said that I could do it, so I did. I charged $25 an hour for those apartments, which didn't pan out to be enough. It may seem to be a dream job, but I am telling you, all the running around and taking back, and unloading, and hanging, and sweating - not enough in the end. Once again, learning experience and I was thankful for the opportunity. Plus I got my name out there and next month I am doing a new job for them with a budget of $40K. Hurray!
how much you charge, how do you get business, how your design process works, etc.?
The amount that I charge really varies from job to job. Like I said, painting starts at .45 cents sq ft., but faux finishing can be up to $5 a sq. ft. Especially Venetian plaster, good honk! For decorating, I charge $50 an hour pretty much straight across the board. Although, I will do a 1 time consult for and hour for $100. Just depends. I think it is based on where you live and the demand.
For the most part, I do not advertise. I have a couple times on Craigs list, but that is about it. Everything is word of mouth and somehow I stay very very busy.
It really is a great job because I am able to make my own schedule and, most of all, do what I love to do. But I am not going to glamorize it too much. It is super hard word. I am not even kidding a little bit. It is not at all like doing your own home. You have to please other people. Plus when they are paying for it, they want it perfect! No corner left untucked. It always becomes very tedious by the end of every job. Sometimes to the point of tears, and there has been many. Also, you have to take the risk of messing up someones house. I have been lucky to date, but in the midst of painting, there have been some spills. You need to make sure that you can afford to fix the damage or cover insurance that will fix it for you. Believe me, I am a big liability to myself sometimes. It really is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I really wasn't going to post thunder thigh, but after writing about my job, I thought it was only fair that you could see the result of this labor intensive job that I have. This just happened today in fact. I must say that I am a clutz, but this could have happened to anyone. I was grouting my back splash and slipped and fell. It is beautiful, huh? It is so swollen right now that it looks like a knee cap on the side of my leg. Disgusting.
Thanks for the questions and comments on my blog. I am eventually going to start a blog only for my business, so I will update you with that. It should be very interesting. I appreciate everyone's compliments. They are very sweet and sometimes not completely deserved. Love you all!
"Here is my puppy"
"Here are my mom's tools that don't work and make her say bad words."
Dark and dreary, sheers cause cancer...
Need I say anything?
