I was listening to a podcast with Chris Do, an Emmy Award-winning designer, and the way he separated artists from designers has stuck with me.

An artist has something to say. They feel something about the world and turn it into a painting or a piece of music, and the work invites you to see things from their perspective. If your view happens to line up with theirs, it becomes great art.

A designer starts from a different place. Someone arrives with a problem and a goal, and the designer’s job is to solve it.

A mistake a lot of designers make is treating the client’s project as a canvas for their own vision.

The client ends up with a space that suits the designer. And the designer moves on to the next project. But the client is the one who has to live with it.

You’re playing both roles

This got me thinking about everyone who designs their own home.

If you’re planning the layout and choosing the furniture yourself, you’re the designer. You’re also the client, because you’re the one who lives there when the work is done.

That’s usually where it goes wrong. The designer in us takes over and forgets who the client is.

It happens gradually. A trend catches your eye, and suddenly you’re picturing how the room will look to other people. What will guests think of this? What would my mother-in-law say?

Each of those questions pulls you a little further away from the person the room is meant to serve.

You are the client. So is everyone you live with, cats and dogs included. Their needs are the brief.

Why my office took the living room

Here’s what that looks like in our house.

The main floor, which most people would use as the living area, is my office. I work there most days, weekends included, so it made more sense for that floor to support the way I actually spend my time.

Our living room is a small room downstairs.

By the usual rules, that’s backwards. Most people would keep the living room generous and squeeze an office into a spare bedroom or a corner. That layout works well for a lot of households. It just wouldn’t work for ours.

When the rules push back

None of this means good practice goes out the window.

If a sectional doesn’t fit your living room, it doesn’t fit. Wanting it badly won’t change the measurements.

But it’s worth asking why you wanted the sectional in the first place. If the real need is somewhere to stretch out, a regular sofa and a large ottoman can do the job. The ottoman doubles as a coffee table and a footrest, and there’s still room to walk around.

When the client clashes with the rules, there’s usually a creative solution that respects both.

The clash I’d watch for is the one Chris Do was describing, between the client and the artist. When what you need from a room disagrees with your idea of how an impressive room should look, the client wins.

Write yourself a brief

Good designers protect their clients by getting a brief before they choose a single thing. You can do the same for yourself.

The first step of the C.O.Z.Y.™ Method I teach in my Practical Home Design course is Clarify. It starts with five questions I ask before designing any room. These three do most of the work:

1. Who is using the room?
2. When are they using it?
3. What are they doing there?

The answers tell you more than any mood board will. You’ll know who you’re really designing for and what the room has to handle day to day. You might even find that the room you’ve been calling the living room should be something else entirely.

The designer in you will always have opinions about how the room should look. Let the client have the final say.

Cheers,

Reynard