Sleep Designing

​​SMLXL

This post is for the benefit of that designer who has a million and one ideas just waiting to come to life.

Sometimes we forget that our beautiful design is nothing but an idea without the agreement from a client for you to make that design a reality. We designers have a horrible time presenting our ideas in a way that our client can truly visualize the outcome. We struggle with should we present drawings, pictures, or computer graphics? I usually use drawings and pictures as I have found this easier for the client to absorb and visualize.

I know you have heard of sleep walking, but have you ever heard of sleep designing? Last night I awoke to write down details from a dream I had. Not because it inspired some great design idea, but instead a blog idea. In the dream I was shopping and picking out all the pieces for a client to make their home a Beautifully Done

space. It occurred to me in my dream on this little shopping trip that the wall color was all wrong that we were going to use, and I couldn't get a hold of the painter to stop him from applying the wrong color! I frantically kept trying to call him as I jumped in my car leaving merchandise unpurchased at the furniture store, to drive to the job site to stop this atrocity of color from taking place! Traffic was terrible and we were at a standstill no cars were able to move, so I jump out of the car to run the rest of the way...

At this point I awoke from this design nightmare realizing in reality, my appointment with a client for painting interior walls was just a few hours away. I tried to go back to sleep, but now I was mentally taking note of the colors I had carefully selected the day before to show the client. As I lay there tossing and turning it occurred to me I wanted to write about this very thing, sleep designing.

Many times I will dream about whatever I am working on or who I am working with. My dreams sometimes are just downright silly, much like the color nightmare from the other night. Other times though, I will reach over and start taking notes of the design ideas that I have dreamt about for a project. Recently, I had a client who was wanting to expand their bathroom, initially my thoughts were pretty simple. After a dream, I had a beautiful new bathroom design to present to my client and they loved it!

Sometimes, we get excited when we see a new project and immediately start a verbal vomit of ideas with our clients. When we should be patient and quiet. We should wait until we put the pencil to paper, or until our best ideas come to us. I always say to a new designer or decorator, wait a day after you have pencil to paper. Give yourself a two week window to present your design idea to your client with a quote on price ready for your client to decide if your design is as impressive to them as it is to you. Our best work is never hurried work, it is a process of mixing ideas, knowledge, and dreams.

~ Trish Whitsell

If you are not a designer, did this make you want to see and hear our ideas?

If you are a designer, I hope this truly makes you wait, let the design process truly take hold combination of your idea, dream, mixed with the knowledge you have on design... and then present the package to your client.

Remember, Life Is More Fun, When It Is Beautifully Done!