Well, putting your Interior design project on hold because of COVID is not procrastination, but not getting back on the horse as things stabilize is! It’s too late (and pointless) to worry about it, it’s just time to get back into your Interior design plan process.
In some ways, this time, a little procrastination may prove to have been one of those blessings in disguise that we have all heard of! The challenge of the pandemic has changed a lot for both commercial and residential “operations,” presenting changes and innovations not previously considered or implemented. This time, we just might thank ourselves – and our Interior design professionals – for the pause.
There are two very practical sides to the resume and catch up perspectives: the Client’s and the Interior designer’s. Just as Interior design Clients can now build new approaches, new ideas and new preparatories (gifts from the pandemic!) into their plans, your Interior designer’s advice, guidance and functional recommendations will have (in many respects) shifted.
Somewhere in all of our personal backgrounds, someone wise probably advised us that out of every bad or difficult experience something good could emerge! (Albeit, it might be tough to see in the middle of the foray!) If not exactly expressed that way, the adage simply means that we have the choice to stay stuck in the problems, or believe there are solutions – and find them!
Interior designers, General Contractors, Architects and myriad and various sub-contractors have re-tooled and re-grouped as the limitations and disciplines demanded by the pandemic began to let up. It is not over, but it is easing. Some of these specialists qualified as “essential services or industries,” and were allowed to continue throughout the raging pandemic, under very strict requirements, conditions and disciplines – such as limited crews, masking, distancing and regular testing.
Other specialists, not so categorized, are reconnecting, re-planning their procedures and, in some cases, modifying Interior design plan installation methods. Some may see it only through a negative lens, as having to re-do, undo and revise. It would really be better to choose positivity and see the importance of contemporizing your project to meet new, important and changed Interior design paradigms. In some very important ways, it amounts to investing more prudently as many “operations concepts” have significantly evolved and modified.
New and innovative ideas for space use management are making more and more sense. One could say that during the pandemic’s worst months, with the convenience of the Internet, our imaginations and innovation had a wild ride of adaptations!
Perhaps the closest ally to the COVID ride has been our radical weather patterning. As partners in negativity, both of those factors challenge all of us who are concerned with Interior and contiguous Exterior environments.
For instance, landscape designers must modify old assumptions about “the Seasons!” Drought, wildfires and flooding have turned those assumptions upside down, and have heavily influenced Exterior landscape designing.
You may have also been revising (or procrastinating about?) what to do with the grounds surrounding your residence or commercial building. Altered Exterior designs newly connect and embrace our Interior design with inherent and intense threads. Because some of these anomalies have – quite literally – driven people indoors, much more of our modified Exterior landscaping is appreciated from our Interior environments. We have greatly expanded our Interior presence, needs and uses!
It is pretty easy to procrastinate under exceedingly stressful circumstances. It could be about just getting back to your Interior design project, deciding how to re-landscape, or maybe do awnings or glassing in that patio for more hot weather and rainstorm comfort. Clearly – thanks to COVID — Interior and Exterior are more intimately partnered!
Catching up as the pandemic slows, can be a big sigh of relief – and, help is on the way!
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.
