Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they discuss the behind the scenes situations in the interior design industry that are rarely talked about. Have you been stuck cleaning a client's home because the contractor's cleaning crew didn't show up? We have. Have you been tasked with repairing a sofa that arrived with a missing leg? Yep. Same here. There are so many intricate details that go on behind the scenes of every project that most clients - ...
Feb 13, 2025
35 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they explore the collaborative process with clients during the construction and furnishing phases of their homes and offices. Text messages at all hours of the day and night? Check. Spinning in circles on which throw pillow to choose? Check. Making unrealistic demands and having over-the-top expectations? Check. Is it collaboration or exploitation of your time and attention? Join us in Surviving Design as we...
Sep 19, 2024
37 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they discuss the elephant in the room: PRICE! You've heard it before. Sometimes you have to "fake it to make it" or sometimes you need to pick up work to pay the bills until you get to that "top tier" level of design where clients are literally beating down the door. Newsflash: It doesn't always work that way. Sometimes you lower your fees to gain a project only to find the client never quite respects you. S...
Jul 18, 2024
39 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Timm Dolley, and Melody Smith as they discuss a huge elephant in the design community: Taking credit for other people's work. Architectural Digest received a huge backlash when interior designer Timothy Corrigan noted that one of his projects for a famous celebrity (in which he did a lot of the work) was eventually taken over by another designer who took credit for the entire job. Social media is even worse with burgeoning interior designer...
May 16, 2024
30 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they discuss the latest High Point Spring market. This episode is all about furniture and design trends, funny stories, and the highlights of market, including excessive amounts of food and alcohol, but if you're going to get interior designers to show up to anything, there better be food and drink! Music Credit: Audiorezout
Apr 26, 2024
33 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they discuss the ins and outs of the interior design industry, especially as it relates to the "tricks of the trade" and lessons learned by making mistakes. After all, you don't know what you don't know, and many important lessons in life are learned by doing - even when it's wrong! Laugh and learn about the design industry, and avoid some future mistakes by learning what to avoid in the first place! Music ...
Mar 14, 2024
33 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they discuss the pitfalls that design school and your mentors never taught you. As the old expression goes, "You don't know what you don't know," and this episode is full of stories about design projects that started off strong only to end up in ugly disputes between the homeowner and contractor and/or a host of other problems that most designers never get to see - and hopefully never will! Think you have wh...
Feb 29, 2024
36 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they discuss how the rules have changed when it comes to being in a client's home alone. Cameras, microphones, and other technologies are slowly seeping in, and even when you think you're alone, someone may be watching! Laugh and learn with us about the industry as we share true stories about installations, messy jobsites, subcontractors who leave their "results" in clients' bathrooms, and other mishaps that...
Feb 8, 2024
35 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as they take you behind the scenes in the design industry. This episode is all about receiving and delivery nightmares. Just when you thought you were safe! The client approved the design. You've placed your purchase orders, and - as fate would have it - you're fighting with your receiving warehouse or the showroom you purchased from because the item arrived damaged. Whose fault is it? What do you do? An...
Jan 26, 2024
32 min
Join professional interior designers Melissa Guerra, Melody Smith, and Timm Dolley as we explain the WHY behind hiring an interior designer. In a world full of social media fake experts and design-build companies that are more concerned about their bottom line than making you happy in your own home, the construction and planning process can be a heavy burden for the end user. On the other hand, interior designers and architects can sometimes be off-putting and pretentious, which - let's face ...
Jan 10, 2024
37 min
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