Funky Friday: The Time I Made an Interior Designer Cry

A comment on a Saturday post a couple of weeks ago, reminded me of the time I unintentionally made an interior designed break down in tears. 

It was in the summer of 1985 or 1986.  I was working for now long gone Laurel Homes* in Orlando Florida. We were opening a new community called Arbor Woods North out near the University of Central Florida. In a rare step for that company, at that time, we hired an interior designer to decorate and furnish a model home.  It was a 2-bedroom, 2 bath, about 1,000 square feet (a little less than 100 sq. meters.) Our target was young, recent graduates, first time home buyers.  And we hit the market right, we sold half of the community in just a couple of months. 

The designer came up with the idea of doing the model to attract female buyers. The color scheme was light and bright, with celery green paint, and pink carpet. The pink carpet was a bold choice, but it worked. It felt very comfortable for single women, and very old Florida. The designer reasoned that if young single men, thought young single women were buying there, they would also. (That part didn't work, there were very few women buyers, and those that did buy were not interested in men.) 

The living room in the model had a light tropical print sofa, and glass topped tables.  On the tables at each end of the sofa, was a lamp, that combined a coil of brass as a base, perched on that was a pale green grecian amphora, topped with a shade. The young designer was finishing up the installation and she asked me what I thought. 

Then for some reason she asked specifically about the lamps. I honestly answered that the lamps looked much better turned on, than they did turned off. 

That triggered a breakdown, tears and shaking. She kept repeating, "I knew no one would understand what I was doing, I knew everyone would hate it!" I didn't hate it, in fact I it worked as a model showing what could be done with a relatively small space.** I swear I meant no harm. And the lamps stayed for the duration of the project. *** 

*The company was named after the founder's favorite cow. 

** One exception, the glass topped table in the tiny kitchen was to large, I begged them to put in a drop leaf table, and was told "I didn't understand design." 

*** I was onsite as we were setting up and moving in. The desk for my office arrived, and wouldn't fit in through the door.  We lifted it in through the window. I was not there when it came time to move out of that office, the guy couldn't figure out how to get it out, and took a power saw and cut it in half. The next day he asked me how did you get the desk in there? Sometimes you really should ask the person who helped put it there.