Let’s say you have been thinking about your interior design project for months (maybe even longer), and you have decided it’s time to start the process. You have many ideas, have thought about theming, colors and the feeling you want your environment to convey. You think it’s now time to explore professional guidance, costs and timing.
You may be realizing that one of the things keeping you from starting your project has been observing how frequently trends shift and change. You know that impressions are important, and you like the way change helps to maintain interest and enthusiasm from the marketplace! You want your design vision and investment to be durable — and flexible!
But you’ve been concerned about how you can meet the initial costs, maintenance — and periodic refreshment. You want to be able to compete productively for your market share, and you know that the presentation of your environment matters.
Understanding the connection between presentation and bottom line is not the problem. The problem is finding the right, affordable rhythm for subsequent changes and improvements.
Your design team understands both the aesthetic needs and the financial concerns of frequent “updating” and refreshment of business environments. The key lies in the base.
When your designer learns that part of your marketing approach is to never allow the environment to go “stale,” you will have shared vital information for planning the “base” of your interior design project. Professionals in design and related fields have studied trends over the years. They are familiar with the patterns that have emerged and that drive trends in style, colors, textures and accessorizing. Anticipating flexibility and how to economically prepare for it, is an important consideration at the beginning of your planning process.
Work with your design team to anticipate the elements in your environment that are best suited for rotation, easy change and/or modification. Neutrality is an important consideration in choosing your base elements, allowing for future significant changes in featured colors and other focal aspects.
Your professional team will assist you in distinguishing between legitimate, quality trends and sensationalized fads. Print media, industry periodicals, promotional elements and advertising all reflect and promote what is currently appealing to the consuming public. Like it or not, the market at large does gravitate to the trends that are amplified by media.
Use your imagination concerning ways in which the simple process of rotating featured colors, accessories, wall art and other appointments can present your clientele with a continually pleasing experience in your facility.
A flexibly designed environment is an environment that allows for refreshment easily and economically. Select accessories that are carefully chosen for durability in both use and storage. Consider textures that have classical appeal. With your designer, take a creative approach to space planning and configuration — with potential for re-configuration. Such decisions support your intention to keep the environment fresh and exciting to customers and clients. Flexibility can equip you to meet the challenges that new trends present.
Robert Boccabella, B.F.A. is principal and founder of Business Design Services and a certified interior designer in private practice for over 30 years. Boccabella provides Designing to Fit the Vision© in collaboration with writingservice@earthlink.net. To contact him call 707-263-7073; email him at rb@BusinessDesignServices.com or visit www.BusinessDesignServices.com or on Face Book at Business Design Services.
