Interior Design Tips – Home Office Design Projects Will Increase Due to Remote Work

Without taking advantage of a stressful situation, it seems prudent to mention that the need to work remotely will likely lead to heightened interest in home office design projects. In response, Kravet is featuring a line of functional yet stylish furnishings for a home office that is leading the way (as we’ve come to expect).

As the internet becomes flooded with “pandemic business tips” and “tips for working from home”, few marketing experts seem to be focusing on the home office environment. For interior designers, this could be the difference between staying busy and spending your days streaming Netflix while on lockdown.

Even as you work to keep your design business viable from your own home, you will begin to grasp what other remote workers are going through. From solitude and isolation to screaming children and needy pets, working from home presents unfamiliar challenges requiring unique solutions. Frankly, it’s not for everyone and a sharp designer will find opportunities to generate business from this trend.

The folks at Kravet seem to have realized this need before other manufacturers and are featuring a remarkable line of products for home office design projects. From desks to seating solutions and from lighting to filing and accent pieces, designing a stylish, comfortable, functional work-from-home environment will offer exciting challenges for you.

Other Work From Home Tips

Beyond adding a potential new source of projects for your design business, we would like to share some tips for working from home. As mentioned in passing above, distractions are a huge issue when you're stuck at home during the workday. Thankfully, the folks at DreamHost web hosting have some high-value Tips to Stay Focused When Working From Home:

Have a Dedicated Workspace – Whether you have a sprawling home office or a kitchen table setup, it’s crucial to carve out a dedicated space that’s just for work. (Need a home office, much?)

Stay Off Social Media – Avoid the rabbit hole of endless scrolling — use tools to set specific time restrictions on your fave social networks. (Talk about distracting!)

Create a Schedule – Knowing what you want to accomplish each day helps both Type A planners and go-with-the-flow types to stay on task. (And, change out of your work PJs.)

Take an Exercise Break – Scheduling a sweat session into your workday is a great way to stay active, get the endorphins flowing, and bring on a natural burst of energy. (Even a quick walk is a great way to get away and refocus.)

Know When to Clock Out – Refine your work-life balance by sticking to set work hours. Enjoy your time off and feel ready and refreshed come Monday morning. (Just because you're at home does not mean you have to be available 24/7.)

While the article linked above offers 16 work from home tips, we have found these are the most important for the work at home novice. Good luck!

Looking for more interior design tips, ideas for growing your design business, new design trends, designer marketing tips, and product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Open For Business Through Uncertain Times & An Unpredictable Future

We’re navigating our way through uncertain times. It also appears that we face an unpredictable future, while individual states continue to enforce stay-at-home orders even as others declare themselves “open for business” once again.

Having stated the obvious, we feel compelled to let you know this: All of the companies we represent are financially stable and fully operational. In response to the unprecedented situation in which we find ourselves, they have implemented steps to weather this storm and protect their customer’s and client’s investments.

Likewise, we at TD Fall are open for business as your partner in design and luxury furnishings. Though our teams are being diligent in following social distancing guidelines, our facilities remain open. To help you keep your projects moving forward, we will hold your orders until you have a time and date for delivery, as needed.

This type of message is essential in the wake of the global health crises we’re facing, with repercussions for businesses at all levels. Experience tells us that, much like the 2008 recession, some will not make it through to the other side. 

Then as now, “On one side of the equation, the buyers are wary. On the other, sellers are stressed. Taken together, it’s an industry-wide game of chicken. With millions of dollars in the balance, designers continue to ask each other the same question nervously: Are you placing orders?” (BusinessOfHome.com)

The follow-up question to this is obvious: Are the vendors healthy, and are the brands ready and able to ship?

Stick with What – and Who – You Know

A recent article at Business of Home, titled Are you placing orders right now?, outlines many of the concerns of both designers and manufacturers in response to the pandemic (and its potential aftermath).

So, where does a designer or furnishings business turn in uncertain times? While small companies may be more versatile and responsive, large manufacturers likely have more resources to fall back on, having weathered such storms before.

As described in the article, “Large or small, the new table stake for any brand is transparency. Companies that don’t pick up the phone, or aren’t willing to send detailed updates about the state of their operations, are rapidly falling out of favor with designers. Now more than ever, vendors have to be willing to field tough questions.”

Of course, vendors also have concerns about those with whom they do business. They can’t help but wonder if their designers and dealers are working on a solid foundation. In other words, this is a two-way street of business stress. Both sides want to be supportive, and both sides worry at the viability of the other.

Even as the article offers the opinions of various designers and vendors, the conclusion seems relatively apparent – the solution is to rely on relationships. “Designers tend to be deeply involved with the companies they work with, and a worldwide health crisis has only deepened the bonds.”

Based on our decades of experience, the relationship we’ve built with Kravet is as stable as it has ever been. Further, working with the recognized leader in the home furnishings trade has instilled a sense of confidence in our ability to support our customers as fully as we have in the past.

In short, our relationships with the vendors we represent allow us to proclaim confidently… Yes, we are open for business!

Are you looking for more tips on growing your design business, new design trends, designer marketing tips, and product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Does Working from Home Lead to Feelings of Increased Isolation?

As we continue to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic or try to, a multitude of changes are taking place. Most evident of these is the trend toward working from home instead of heading to an office or, in the case of an interior designer, the studio. These changes also lead to questions such as:

• Does working from home cause feelings of increased isolation?

• Does creativity suffer from a work-from-home lifestyle?

• Does working from home allow for more flexibility and freedom, or do you feel trapped in the unfamiliar?

Of course, the concept of telecommuting and working in the virtual world are not exactly new. However, this approach applies to a relatively small number of people. Now, while it’s becoming increasingly popular to claim that our experiment with social distancing will inevitably lead to a “work-from-home revolution”, others have serious doubts.

With these things in mind, let’s consider what the future may hold as the pandemic plays itself out.

The good news: The rate of coronavirus infection seems to be slowing, as is the mortality rate as new treatments become available.

The bad news: Many states and localities remain on “lockdown”, requiring tens of thousands to continue isolating themselves by working from home.

Whether or not you believe the various stay-at-home orders were necessary for keeping people safe from Cov-19, it appears they will remain in place for some time yet. This will only exacerbate any of the negative consequences that shifting to work from home may have caused for you and your team.

Consequences of Social Distancing: Are Isolation and Loneliness Inevitable?

There certainly are some fantastic benefits to working from home. These include, “The flexibility to plan your work around your life, not the other way round, the control you have with the flow of your work and the hours you add back to your day from not having to commute further than the stroll from your bedroom to your office (or dining table).”

Then again, while staying in your uber-comfy work PJs all day makes you happy, “Working from home has one big drawback that burns people out and makes them depressed, and that’s social isolation and loneliness.” (TheWorkAtHomeWoman.com)

The sense of being disconnected due to social distancing is very real. Granted, it may be an unintended consequence, but that does not mean we shouldn’t have seen it coming. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, it seems to have been inevitable.

If you’ve begun to crave more social interaction than our current restrictions allow, you can get it virtually and stay safe.

Online business meetings – Staying in touch with your team, clients, and others in the design and furnishings industries will enable you to feel more in touch with your business. It may even enhance your professional relationships by displaying your commitment to staying connected in times of distress and/or crisis.

Social meet-ups – Family and friends are an invaluable resource for engagement when you begin to feel socially isolated. Just because you can’t visit them in person does not mean you have to avoid them altogether. Stay in touch with all who matter to you so you can remain close when the current pandemic ends – and it will.

Live online events – If you’ve been thinking about signing up for a particular webinar or getting some online training, now would be a great time to follow through. Heck, you could even produce your own online event!

With a live event, you may also benefit from the opportunity to connect and network with others in the design or furnishings industry. In other words, use this as an opportunity instead of adding to your sense of loneliness and isolation by avoiding the chance to connect with others, virtually.

You would do well to remember that many of the people you used to interact with daily, whether personal or business, are in much the same boat as you. If you’re feeling isolated, it’s likely that they are too.

Are you looking for more tips on coping with COVID-19, design business consulting, marketing tips, and product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.