Let’s admit it; we are all feeling the pain. For those of you running an interior design business, the impact of home decor shows has clients questioning your fees and services. Rooms done for under $500, interior designers having the clients’ neighbors finish the rooms for free, interior designers having entire an entire staff behind the scenes and making it all happen in 30 minutes (minus commercials) and of course the information and encouragement for a client to “Do It Yourself.”

“Designer’s Challenge” shows three interior design firms competing for one client’s project. CAD drawings, sketches, colored renderings, full-scale modeling and the interior designers’ concepts (intellectual property) are all given to the client 100% for free. The client gets to decide which interior designer is best for them, which is the way it should be, but did you notice how the winning designers end up using some ideas from the rejected interior designer’s plans?

This is not a profitable way to run a design business, but clients are learning from television how an interior designer works. None of us want to give away hours and hours of service with no reward - with only the “hope” of landing the project. Even worse is this example of providing creative and critical information to sell your project and having it ripped off by the customer.

The show, “Find Your Style” is the worst example of how an interior designer works. No written interior design program is created. Clients are told to go ahead and design their rooms the way the think they should be done and the designer whooshes in on stiletto heels, wearing a party dress (two sizes too small) and “fixes” the client’s “errors” with a team of moving men and several changes of furniture. The designer then proclaims, “Your style is Mexican-Modern-French Provincial!” Isn’t interior design all about planning? Interior Design is not tricking a client into your opinions. Why is no design plan formed and executed?

I don’t know of any interior designer who works this way, yet this is how the general public perceives what an interior designer does.

“Devine Design” shows boring rooms turned into luscious makeovers! The final rooms are gorgeous, but any interior design professional realizes the cost of transforming these rooms is upward of $50,000 and some rooms $100,000. There is no mention of designer’s fees, charges for labor, timeframe or cost of the project materials. Candice Olson, the designer has her cool and witty electrician, Chico magically install an entire ceiling of “pot” lights in two minutes of commercial time. Wouldn’t it be great to have a full staff of electricians, painters and carpenters just standing around to obey your every command?

My clients tell me how much they love Devine Design. I agree; it is a great show for entertainment purposes. It just doesn’t reflect how a designer works in the real world.

On the flip-side you have the really low-end shows like, “Decorating Cents” that shows the interior designer slopping paint on the walls, dressed in overhauls and gym shoes and making vases out of coffee cans. The rooms end up rather depressing looking. It makes you wonder how much the homeowner is going to have to pay someone to paint over that horrible faux mural - done in one day!

With something as powerful as television, how can we change the distorted image of an interior designer? Simple, we need to join them, not beat them!

We can alleviate this blurred vision of what an interior designer does by having interior designers represented in a positive, professional way. This can be done with some snappy, well-placed commercials and even a television program which features interior designers demonstrating the correct way to do a room. Wouldn’t you love to see a show that teaches clients the real process of programming, evaluation, steps to a presentation, execution, etc?

ASID is the largest organized group of interior designers in the country. Why doesn’t ASID put your hard-earned dues into television advertising in order to differentiate your credentials to a client? Because they are spending millions of dollars to lobby the government to curtail professionals from using words that describe what you do.

With all the furniture arrangers, space planners, floral re-arrangers and room stylists competing with interior designers in today’s market, what do your credentials mean to a client? Not much if you are an ASID interior designer.

Your membership has done nothing for you in the way of promoting the credentials of ASID in the free market. In fact, on the show “Designers Challenge” some ASID designer’s lose the job to the non-ASID competitor.

In nine years of business I am still waiting for a client to ask if I am an ASID designer.

Imagine what some great commercials, placed in prime-time slots on HGTV, FLN and Bravo could do for your business! Too bad for interior designers trying to earn a living that ASID is too busy legislating and trying to turn designers into lobbyists. With their limited vision they are trying to elevate interior design into architecture.

NKBA has done a wonderful job promoting NKBA credentials in the marketplace through commercials but ASID feels it is most important to spend money to control and prohibit future interior designers by using our government resources.

As a former ASID dues-paying member, I was confused when I received the big, thick annual membership publication. Why would I need a publication listing all the other ASID members? It sure was exciting to see my name listed, but it never reached any potential clients. Are ASID credentials of value to the general public or are they insular to the industry? In my opinion, ASID credentials only mean something to someone with ASID credentials!

If we think about what ASID has done for interior designers in terms of marketing, it isn’t much. They have only recently updated their website and the “find a designer section.” Try it out. It takes way too long for a client to find you as a designer. Being listed along with all of your competitors isn’t going to help your business either.

If you don’t agree with your dues going to legislative action committees, then don’t pay your dues and spend that amount helping grow your business! You do have a choice, ASID dues are not union dues. Your precious dollars should be spent marketing to draw clients in, not lobbying the states to enact laws. If ASID starts focusing on their member’s needs, they may find enough money to inform the general public how great ASID interior designers really are.

© Elizabeth A. Bennett, Principal Room-to-Room Solutions, Inc.