Friday, May 18, 2018

CUSTOM OR QUICK? THE DILEMMA DESIGNERS FACE IN THE AGE OF AMAZON PRIME











                                                        

A few other designers and I have noticed a trend in the last few years: clients seem to have less and less patience waiting for custom furniture items they have ordered from us. One of my vendors came up with a theory that I think is spot on: Amazon Prime. All of us are now able to order something online and within days or sometimes even HOURS, have that item delivered to our door. I'll admit, I use Amazon Prime all the time, and I love it!
But the downside to this world of instant gratification is that not everything can manifest that quickly and, honestly, I don't really feel that it should. If a client hires an interior designer, part of the reason they have done so is to have a well curated, thoughtfully designed space that is not only a reflection of who the client is and how they live, but also one of a kind, like them! All of this takes time. Time to design the furniture item, or the room. Time to select fabrics or finishes, time to pull it all together in a way that reflects the client's taste and budget. Take this sofa that our firm HCD designed, for example. The process of designing the curve of this sofa to fit the bay window took several site visits, the knowledge of our sofa work room and a life sized template to ensure the correct curve and size. The fabric selected is one of dozens presented to the client and ultimately chosen. Once all the decisions were made, the sofa had to be carefully crafted by highly qualified furniture builders to bring the concept to life. The time it took to make all of that happen? Four months. Yes, that is a long time in today's fast paced world. But look at that sofa! I can say with confidence that my client will not only love this sofa for decades, it will also last that long. Which is more than I can say for much of the stuff purchased and delivered instantly on Amazon Prime. I guess the moral of my story is this: you can have fast, and you can have custom, but you can not have both. Choose wisely.

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