Scot Meacham Wood's blog post today was so timely, As the Fan Deck Turns…. He talks about the yin and yang of designing for our clients and this has definitely been one of those types of days. Clients often wonder how we spend our time thinking when we spec products for them it's more or less a "shopping adventure". I only wish it was that easy =). There are so many factors that go into specifying items for clients and then the worst happens, we get word the item is on backorder. Today, I've spent hours looking at other pillow options for my client as I learned the ones I selected were now on "backorder". Such a terrible word in my vocabulary that only runs second to "no longer available"!!
This is what we initially specified and went mostly retail because of course; there is a very tight deadline to get everything completed in place. My client's son is graduating high school first week of June and we're redoing their guest bedrooms so their family members will feel welcomed and loved when they arrive for the big day.
Everything was humming along as orders were placed and confirmations received with estimated ship dates. That was until this week, learning that two of pillows were now "no longer available" and another on "backorder". Back to the drawing board with only three weeks until having to place everything in my client's home. Back to the internet – searching, searching for the right combination of color, size, pattern and texture not to mention finding something that's available and within budget. This is definitely not the glamorous side of design!
We initially were hitting a dead end looking at retail so decided to look into selecting a fabric and making on our own. We in the studio fell in love with this fabric from Thibaut and were going to use that as a starting point.
Thibaut Sansome Fabric White on Natural (Richmond Collection)
This fabric hit all the points – texture, color, pattern but unfortunately it was outside the budget by the time you added in the labor to fabricate so back to the drawing board.
Here's where we finally landed:
Shetland Manor Pillow from Ralph Lauren Home
Watercolor Medallion Pillow from Williams Sonoma Home
Ikat Dot Printed Canvas Pillow from Williams Sonoma Home
Just to give you a sense of how quickly things change, I looked at the Ikat Dot Pillow, said yes let's order when my assistant saw the status as now "call for availability". Too funny (or not so funny) – in just a matter of minutes our pillow was now "on backorder". I joked with her that I want to go into the pillow business because there apparently is such a strong demand J. We quickly called the Designer Service for Williams Sonoma (love that they have a dedicated staff to help us because only they can understand these dilemmas) and they were able to locate the Ikat Dot Pillow at their Portland, Oregon store who will ship it out tomorrow. Yeah!!!!
Yes, the life of design can be fun and absolutely rewarding but there are also so many days that are more like this one. It just makes me realize it's the love for what I do that allows me to keep these days in perspective. I'm ready to call it day and think about something other than pillows now =).
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