The Chaise Lounge Podcast

In this episode, recorded early March 2020, The Chaise Lounge podcast producer—a professional painting contractor—Nick May checks in on the West Coast with Los Angeles-based interior designer Kristine Paige, principal at Jackson Paige Interiors.

Listen in as Nick and Kristine get down to basics on choosing careers, paint colors, subcontractors, and the logistics of cross-country creative collaboration.

Interior Design: Where Creative and Analytic Skills Meet

“My favorite thing about interior design is the flexibility it gives me to be a creative person and a very analytical person,” says Kristine, a former actor and film industry insider. “I live between the two, so for me, it’s very rewarding.”

Her least favorite part (we know our fellow entrepreneurs can relate): the general pressures of having your own business. Everything falls to you. 

It All Starts with Color

In Spring 2020, Kristine was named an official brand ambassador for Benjamin Moore—the maker of her favorite interior and exterior paint colors—and part of the paint manufacturer’s new Design P.O.V. series. "Our designs are built around color,” says the designer. Her current favorites come from Benjamin Moore’s Century line, “It’s like velvet.” 

4  Favorite Paint Colors:

Benjamin Moore Classic Gray 1548

 

Benjamin Moore Hale Navy HC-154

Benjamin Moore Chestnut 2082-10

Benjamin Moore Century Paint Color Viridian O6

Choosing the Right Painting Contractor

As important as the paint product itself is the application. 

So when choosing contractors, Kristine recommends having at least three experts on speed dial:

A highly specialized painter experienced in lime work or lacquer finishes, who works in close collaboration with the general contractor to make sure that the walls surfaces are perfect

An unfailingly reliable general paint contractor for walls, baseboards, trim, and ceiling 

And an specialty exterior painter

For every job, the final choice all boils down to trust.

 “It’s the person I know I’m going to get the least number of headaches from—someone I can depend on to do the job and they are not going to change out my paint to color match it with another paint. That’s the worst,” says Kristine.

“I’ve gone around to job sites and said, ‘I want to see the cans. Show me the cans,’” she confesses. “And if it’s not the paint I specified, I say, ‘Change it. Start over.’” 

A great tip from Nick: Have the paint contractor list the paint brands and colors by name and number directly on their signed schedules and contracts. That way, you know the materials that are being paid for are the materials you will get.

Budgeting in Outdoor Spaces

After weeks, or months, of feeling sequestered in our homes, we’re going to be ready to move outdoors. 

“Here in California, rooms all open up to the outside,” Kristine explains. “So if you don’t do your outside spaces, the interior design feels very incomplete.” 

Make the indoor-outdoor connection plain right at the first budget meeting, Kristine says, or will end up feeling like they are getting hit up with an “add-on” at the tail end of a project, when they have already make a big investment and are running out of money and enthusiasm.

Kristine’s advice:

“You have to explain to your clients, right at the beginning, ‘This is what you’re seeing from the indoors spaces, and when you’re outside, and this is how they coordinate.

How are our interior design business colleagues and friends in New York City faring through all this craziness? That’s the first question host Nick May asks our guest Kammi Reiss, founder and president of Manhattan-based Kammi Reiss Design, in this episode of The Chaise Lounge podcast. 

“So far, I think we are doing well. People are keeping their distance and staying in. So far, I think we’re really coming together. We’ve done that a number of times through the years—too many times here in the City—but we’re really good at it. We all need to get on board and keep each other safe.”

As avid travelers, all of us in the interior design community are eager to get back moving and coming together at shows and events around the world—but for now #NO_FOMO because we are ALL in this together. 

We are still, always, privileged to be connected to you here in The Chaise Lounge. We deeply appreciate your joining us here to listen and learn from each other. 

Until we meet again, we invite you to follow us on on Instagram (@thechaiselounge) and be part of the conversation…and solution. 

Kammi Reiss Q & A

Interior designer Kammi Reiss grew up in Potomac, Maryland, a picturesque “ride your bike to school” kind of suburb of Washington, D.C. She spent summer vacations on the Delaware beaches, and cherishes the memory of being given a dollar to go up on the boardwalk and get French fries and play pinball. Her weeks on the beach were filled with “good old-fashioned fun,” like charades at night and lots of soft ice cream. The kind of diversions—like playing flashlight tag and chasing fireflies—that Nick remembers as “good kid fun.” 

What’s Your Favorite Neighborhood Restaurant?

Kammi’s husband, who has MS, deals with the symptoms of fatigue: “So the idea of cooking and being at home all the time…we have got this down,” says Kammi, laughing. “We’re already experts at it. 

 “We mostly stay home and I cook,” she continues, “but when we do go out there’s a great neighborhood spot across the street from us. During the day it’s sort of a grab-and-go spot. But in the evenings, it turns into a nightspot with great burgers and wings. It’s called Night Shift and we love to spend time there. They also make some really good cocktails.”

What’s the last thing you bought for your house?

“Fresh flowers. I feel it’s really important to have things that are living and bring color. I have a muted palette and flowers are the perfect way to bring color and seasonal accents into the home. 

“The place that I think does the most beautiful job of that is in Paris, at the George V: They’ve got a big entry table that is overflowing with flowers. And they change it regularly. Every time, it is a feast for the eyes.”

Favorite Fashion Accessory: Jewelry that Tells a Story

“I have one necklace that I don’t ever take off. It’s called ‘Eleven Wishes.’ It’s made by my friend Melissa, whose company is called Devon Woodhill. It’s tiny little diamond drops on a necklace. I was married on November 11th—the eleventh day of the eleventh month—and it reminds me of that. Subsequently, I got one for each of my daughters, my sister, and my mom and we all wear them. So it tells a story and reminds me of what is important to me.” 

Beer, Wine, or Cocktail?

“Any cocktail with tequila in it. Preferably spicy. Maybe a Paloma, some grapefruit and a little bit of jalepeno muddled in there.” 

When Did the Interior Design Bug Bite?

“My tendencies date way, way back. To my parents’ dismay. 

“I was probably 11 years old. For the holidays, all I wanted were these Marimekko comforters. My mother couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that that would be something that she should get me as a gift. But I begged and pleaded. They are still in my mother’s house to this day. They look like Matisse cutouts and I was so drawn to them.

In this special guest-hosted episode of The Chaise Lounge podcast, we find ourselves in the excellent company of bespoke furniture designer Bruce Andrews Macdonald, founder of Bruce Andrews Design, and interior designer Sarah Eilers, of the award-winning Lucas/Eilers Design Associates, based in Sarah’s hometown of Houston, Texas.We hope you’ll enjoy this frank conversation between Bruce and Sarah—two industry leaders who have built successful careers making their clients’ investments in their homes pay off in long-term beauty, pleasure, and comfort. “I want to thank Nick May of The Chaise Lounge podcast to have this opportunity to create a luxury podcast and discuss the situation in our world,” says Bruce. “I positively believe that we will all be looking at a new world going forward, but I think it’s going to be a world in which we all feel more connected in and more appreciative of, once we realize what we need to do—together.”Redefining Luxury Interior Design and What It Means TodayLuxury interiors require “a curated look—it’s not one-stop shopping and you can’t do it overnight,” emphasizes Sarah. From concept to completion, her new-construction projects evolved over a period of about two years of planning, purchasing, and implementation.Here’s how these pros keep their big projects on track:Every Project Starts with Plan, a Budget, and a StoryAs Coco Chanel said, Bruce points out, “Fashion changes, but style endures.”At the end of the day, he says, luxury is sustainable because you’re not throwing anything away—you’re keeping something over time. “I’ve seen too many people thinking that luxury means that you can change things out and perpetuate newness. But luxury to me is that endurance of time—and really beautiful fabric.”Sarah agrees: “I’ve never met a mohair or linen velvet that I didn’t love. Mohair wears like iron. And there’s nothing prettier than a linen velvet and it lasts a very long time.”Collecting vs. Hoarding : Shop with a ListKeeping a warehouse or storage unit full of furniture, antiques, art, and accessories can pose a strong temptation for interior designers who love to shop. (And let’s be honest, what interior designer doesn’t love to shop?)But Sarah advises shopping for your project with a list.“I don’t like to keep an inventory or warehouse of things,” says Sarah. “It’s expensive!” She’d rather buy especially for a targeted project than stockpile merchandise in a storage room, where you can lose sight of what you have.  Think twice before you buy for an imaginary client, or you risk creating cookie-cutter interiors or harboring hundreds of square feet of design materials that simply won’t work for multiple clients who have diverse tastes and personalities.When Shopping Online, Look for Dealers You KnowSarah loves to travel and finds treasures at places ranging from the Houston Design Center to the Roundtop Antiques Show to Paris’s famed Marches aux Puces.“Online sources like 1stdibs  and Chairish are great resources for designers,” says Sarah. “But I’m always comforted when I see a dealer online that I know, so I can already trust what the quality is going to be.”Bottom line: The more homework you do before you buy, the less worried you will be that the product you purchase online won’t measure up to your clients’ expectations.If It’s Not Easy to Live With, It’s Not a “Luxury” “My mom used to tell me, ‘You don’t have to put out everything you own,’” says Sarah, whose meticulously tailored interiors are known for their individuality and comfort as well as their elegant restraint.“I grew up with parents who were collectors of English and American furniture, art, accessories, and I was raised living with these things, and not creating a museum interior,” she says.It Pays to Be PracticalRemember: As a designer of luxury interiors, you’re not focusing exclusively on bells and whistles.There are practical questions that need to get asked, too. Will there be children or pets?

Interior design is all about change—usually for the better.But what happens when obstacles present themselves, as they sometimes will, that require a design business to slowly or abruptly pivot? That’s what host Nick May and interior designer Wendy Yates—founder of Frisco, Colorado-based Abigail-Elise Design Studio—talk about in this honest, open-hearted episode of The Chaise Lounge podcast. Please join us! And let us know how you go about maintaining relationships, growing new business, and, yes, pivoting when fate throws you a curveball. We’d love to hear from you. The Launch: False Starts and Big HeartsWendy Yates, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, has demonstrated her gutsy approach to the design business (and life in general) since her high school graduation in 1995, when she bucked the four-year college tradition, got a job, and started studies at her local community college. “What I knew about design as a high school student was what I knew from watching shows on HGTV,” says Wendy. “It didn’t seem super-accessible.” So, instead of studying design, she majored in art history, then theater, and then thought about being a physical therapist. “After two years, I dropped out and started a design business.” She’d moved to a small town in Colorado as a high-school junior, “met a boy,” and worked hard to make a life in a small town where there was really no money to be made as a designer. “But, thankfully, I had connections in Hawaii and some people who were willing to help me. And the ability to fly over there and stay there for a couple of months at a time.”The First Big Break“I was fortunate enough to have a developer in Hawaii take a chance on me and let me do a model home for him,” says Wendy. “So I would make my money there, and then come back and live in my small town in Colorado.” She convinced a local newspaper to do a story on her business and put a sign in her front yard advertising her fledgling design enterprise, but the only job leads that came of it were $10 an hour wallpaper hanging jobs or solicitations to decorate rooms for kids. “I had no credibility because I hadn’t gone to school,” Wendy admits. But she had natural talent and a work ethic that brought new opportunities. It was time to pivot.A Career Develops: First Job, First SuccessCommuting back and forth to the Big Island, Wendy worked closely with the residential and commercial developer who’d taken a chance on her. “He would have me do the model-home work,” Wendy recalls. “I’d go with him and his wife to the San Francisco Design Center, where we would pretty much do all the furnishing selections for the model homes. But all the fixed finishes—tile, lighting, flooring, cabinetry, everything from the ground up—we would do in Honolulu.Looking back, Wendy feels both gratitude and amazement at the latitude her mentors gave her to make selections for their properties. “I remember being surprised myself at how great my first model home turned out. I was like, I love it! I was 22 and super green,” she continues. “I had no knowledge of even fixed finishes. For me, design was décor—that’s how I understood it, not being trained. But I had organic natural ability and visualization.” Silencing Your Inner Critic“I could always visualize a space from a floor plan. I would see it in a 3D way. So I think that creative side of my brain is what gave me the leg up in being able to pull off something like that without any training,” says Wendy. After her first big project was complete and successfully sold throughout the development, she gained confidence in her design ability. But the “imposter syndrome” reared its head on occasion. After every job, she asked herself: Can I keep doing this thing? Is the next project going to be as great as this one? How am I going to get clients beyond this one person?If you’re a self-taught designer, chances are you’ve dealt with the same insecurities from time to time. But remember: On-the-job training is real training.

In 25 seasons of interviewing successful interior designers around the world, The Chaise Lounge host Nick May has heard from dozens of design professionals who steer clear of residential work in favor of commercial projects—and an equal number whose scales tip strongly in the opposite direction.  One designer’s “dream client” can be another’s “nightmare.”

In today’s podcast, Nick discusses the advantages and disadvantages on each side of the equation with suburban Philadelphia interior designer Joseph A. Berkowitz, founder of JAB Design Group, based in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania.

Nick caught up with Joe at the designer’s office in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, where he heads a lean but active shop that typically runs about 30 design projects at a time—some residential, some commercial. 

Joe accepted his first design job while he was still in high school, launched his own business straight out of college, and has never looked back—until now. 

The Power of Personality—and Personal Recommendations

“I started my interior design business when I was a teenager, with a small job from my aunt,” says Joe. “That’s typical of how many designers get their start in this business. If you’re good enough, the client recommends you to friends, and someone else calls you.” 

For Joe, the phone has not stopped ringing since 1985, back when he used to present clients estimates written out by hand on yellow lined note paper. “I’ve been very lucky,” he says. “I really haven’t had any major downtime.” 

Running a successful interior design business over the long term, says Joe, takes three things: 1.) natural ability, 2.) personality, and 3.) business skills.

 “You can get a card and say ‘I’m a designer.’ It doesn’t mean you can run a business, though.”

What’s Different/Same About the Business Today?

“For one thing,” Joe says, laughing, “I no longer write my estimates on lined notepaper. But my office is still in my house. My wife is the office manager. And I’m getting better about being more selective about jobs.” 

Saying “yes” to the wrong jobs, he observes, eats up the time for the kind of work that helps your business grow. 

Through a conscientious marketing plan—including speaking engagements, magazine articles, and a winning appearance on HGTV design reality series Showhouse Showdown back in 2012—Joe has spread the word about JAB Design Group to a wider audience. 

The Dream Client: Commercial vs. Residential

While some interior designers focus exclusively on either residential clients or commercial clients, Joe is a firm believer in variety. 

For him, it’s all about people. 

“I do a ton of residential work. Residential people tend to talk more to their friends than business people do, so you get passed around a lot.” One testimonial leads to another job and another and another…and, often, repeat business with the same client when they buy a new home or decide to redo. 

“But I do a lot of commercial work as well,” says Joe, who notes that those jobs typically move along at a faster pace with more decisive owners, making it possible to get paid faster. “In commercial work, it’s all about the schedule.”

One advantage of doing both commercial and residential projects, rather than specializing: “If the residential market is starting to falter, there’s always somebody building a building or doing a spa, a dental office, or health care.”

That gives JAB Design Group a bunch of different areas to pull jobs from, “which is one of the reasons I’ve never really had any downtime,” Joe explains.

Goal Setting for Year-to-Year Growth

Even after 35 years in the interior design business, Joe continues to sit down and set business goals for the coming year. And 2019 was his most successful year so to date. 

3 Big Items on Joe’s 2020 Agenda 

Hire one or two new project managers

 “It’s a full-time job just handling the detail...

It’s the time of the year when the fashion community debuts its fall/winter couture collections, and you can bet today’s guest in The Chaise Lounge has been watching the runways closely. As the VP of the home and interior design space for Fashion Snoops, Jaye Anna Mize is a trend watcher extraordinaire. She makes it her business to observe consumer behavior and how that translates into buying trends for home consumers and the interior designers who serve them.

Nick tracked down the nomadic trend forecaster at Maison et Objet (scenes, above)—the twice-a-year home and design trade show held in the massive Paris Nord Villepinte, France’s largest exhibition center—and asked her to give us the scoop on the latest cultural shifts and why understanding them is essential to your interior design business.

Here’s a summary of just some of what Jaye shared.

What Exactly Does a Trend Forecaster Do?

"At fashionsnoops.com, we look at what’s happening on a cultural level and then predict product development two years out. We also capture the pulse of what’s happening one year out, three months out, and then present time to gauge validation—very similar to a financial forecaster," Jaye explains. "More than just selling stuff, it’s all about understanding people."

The Pros & Cons of “D to C”

Is brick-and-mortar dead? Not so fast, says Jaye.  Digital-only "direct to consumer" (aka D to C) companies are experts at marketing to the online consumer: They look great in your promo feeds, with beautiful ads, photography, and graphic design. They know how to use analytics to target you. But on the back end, it’s not always a great product.

“We’re finding—especially in the interior design space—that a lot of these products don’t hold the shelf life that a lot of traditional manufacturers and makers do,” says Jaye. “But now we’re seeing a lot of our traditional manufacturers and makers go D to C, or at least take that first step, like La-Z-Boy buying Joybird. We’ve seen people really get invested into this game. It’s exciting.”

The takeaway for interior designers: Before you buy product for your clients from a D to C company, you need to do your homework. That might mean visiting the factory or actually buying the products and testing them out yourself to see how they feel and stand up to the wear and tear of everyday life. Your interior design business's reputation could depend on it.

Five Hot Trends in Interior Design

We don't talk much about design trends here in the Lounge, but Nick always makes a little exception when his friend Jaye Mize comes to visit. By anticipating what your clients want, you can help them get what they need.

1.) No, We’re Not Past Pink.

In the world of color, pink is the new neutral, says Jaye. Consumers have adapted the full spectrum of pinks. It's a calming color and, as an alternative to cream or beige, it sets a nice tone.  Case in point: The Chaise Lounge podcast sponsor Benjamin Moore's 2020 Color of the Year, "First Light"--a soft pink that gives a room a subtle, rosy glow.

2.) More Color. More Texture. More Fun.

Trend watchers are seeing a lot more texture, prints, and color coming back into the home space. Color is key and fun—all the emerald greens and yellow golds. We’re seeing colors that resonate toward different cultures, like Scandinavian blues, Chinese reds.

People are feeling traditional and saturated primary colors make people feel happy. Home consumers are feeling free to have a little fun at home, and paint color—which can be easily changed—is a great place to start. Wallpaper and printed fabrics are back in a big way, too.

3.) Sensual Textures and “Sex-Positive” Motifs

Culturally, we're gravitating toward what we call playfulfulness and what trend forecasters call “sex-positive motifs” focused on health, wellness, fitness, and fun, says Jaye.

Welcome to Season 25 of the Chaise Lounge podcast, with your host, Nick May! It’s time to talk about growing your design business, and we can’t think of a better guest to help us lead off this exciting season than Angela Harris, CEO of the creative, collaborative, and courageous Denver-based design and visual merchandising firm TRIO. 

If you feel like your interior design business may be caught in a rut and you’re thinking about making some changes, you will definitely want to join Nick and Angela for this conversation on the risks and rewards of rapid growth vs. business as usual. 

From One-Woman Show to CEO

TRIO got its start in 1999, when Angela founded her own high-end interior design firm. “When we started, it was just me,” says the designer/entrepreneur. Twenty years later, her company’s client roster includes some of the country’s most familiar names in residential and commercial building and development—like Toll Brothers, Alliance, Shea Homes, Mission Viejo, and Grand Hyatt. 

Together, the partners envision and produce commercial hospitality projects, master plan communities, high-end housing developments and clubhouses for active 55+ adults, model homes, and sales centers—all based on meticulous market research.

Doubling in Size Overnight

Clearly, when it comes to business, Angela thinks big. 

Within the past 18 months, TRIO finalized a bold acquisition that doubled the firm in size overnight. TRIO also opened up a new West Coast design studio in San Diego, and launched new product licensing partnerships with Phillips Collection and Tile Bar. “We’re in the business of bringing beautiful, creative things to market, whether it’s spaces or products, and seeing how people react to it,” says Angela. “It’s exciting!”

What’s Next? 

“Change is hard and it can be scary for some people,” Angela acknowledges. “But not taking risks is not a good strategy.” Together with her executive team at TRIO—which includes her husband/COO Drake Harris and business development director Carrie Firmine (who makes a cameo appearance at the end of this episode)—Angela never stops asking: Where are you going next? 

“You can’t get stuck in how you’ve done things in the past,” Angela says, summing up a philosophy that has landed TRIO an ever-expanding client list (the day Nick spoke with Angela, her company had 176 jobs going on—at once). TRIO was recently named to Interior Design magazine’s Top 100 Giants and has earned a place in Inc. magazine’s annual list of fastest-growing companies. 

 “Keep watching,” says Angela. “We’re not done yet!”

You can learn more about TRIO at triodesign.com and on Instagram @DesignbyTRIO

Change is hard and it can be scary for some people, but not taking risks is not a good strategy.

Angela Harris, CEO and Principal, TRIO

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Chaise Lounge Updates

Our new podcast Coast to Coast Design is live! Give it a listen to learn about just how many ways there are to run a design business.

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Wrap Up

If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes, Spotify or your favorite podcasting app! We'd love it if you post a review, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. Also, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. With that said, keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!

Getting a home ready for market isn’t magic—it’s merchandising, and looks matter. 

Take it from Amy Powers C.S.P. (that stands for Certified Staging Professional), who has successfully prepared almost 100 million dollars in property listings for market since she took to “the stage” in 2007.

Intriugued by this growing interior design niche, iMay Media founder Nick May traveled to the International Association of Home Staging Professionals Conference and Expo in Nashville, Tennessee, last fall, where he met up with staging pros like Amy and talked about the art/science/and math of preparing homes for sale or rent.

In this episode, Nick welcomes Amy into The Chaise Lounge, to continue the conversation.

How she got her start: Amy turned to staging when the last recession hit her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, hard, flooding the market with foreclosed properties and precious few buyers. In a buyer’s market, says Amy, putting a property’s best face forward is essential to a faster sale or, in the case of short-term rentals (like Airbnb, Vrbo, or HomeAway), a higher rate of occupancy than the local competition.

Using staging to tell a story: Statistics say that 95% of today's home buyers and short-term renters see properties for the first time in photographs on line. Sure, they pay close attention to price. But they also expect to be wooed with picture-perfect spaces filled with beauty, luxury, comfort, Roku, and a top-notch coffeemaker. That's why, says Amy, owners need to hire designers who specialize in creating environments that appeal visually and emotionally to the property's target demographic.

A fast-paced niche: Amy's business, askforstaging.com, differs from traditional interior design in two significant ways. The first is the lightning-quick pace.  And the second is the target audience: As a home stager, you are decorating with the potential buyer or renter in mind—not the particular long-term preferences of the seller (your client). "I decorate for the buyer, the house sells, and I'm done," says Amy.

Of course, as a professional painting contractor, host Nick May already knows a thing or two about the power of fresh paint to boost perceived property value—and he has some smart tips of his own to share in a conversation that covers:

the emotional and financial aspects of home staging for resale vs. short-term hospitality (there’s a big difference)

Amy's handy “heads and beds” formulas for maximum short-term rental revenue

and Amy’s proven strategies for coming out on the profit side of the classic supply and demand equation 

This final episode of Season 24 on the Lounge is focused firmly on the financials. So grab your calculator, your color charts, join us for a cocktail—you can never go wrong with a good margarita or anything with rum, says Amy—and let’s get down to the business of design. 

Cheers to you! We’ll see you again soon, as we launch Season 25 on the Chaise Lounge podcast.

I decorate for the buyer or the potential renter—not the owner or investor.

- Atlanta, Georgia-based home stager Amy Powers

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Chaise Lounge Updates

Our new podcast Coast to Coast Design is live! Give it a listen to learn about just how many ways there are to run a design business.

That's it for our 24th season, we hope you've enjoyed it. Stay tuned for season 25, where we're excited to roll out interviews with new guests, more interviews with guest hosts, and other exciting changes and additions!

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Design Influencers Conference | Mar. 1-3, 2020

HDExpo | May 5-7, 2020

ICFF | May 17-20, 2020

High Point Market | Apr. 25-29, 2020

Here’s the bottom line: It’s 2020 and if you’re not marketing your interior design business on multiple digital platforms, you’re missing out on the kind of name recognition and working relationships that come with getting your images and keywords in front of the people who can help your business grow. 

The good news, says Chicago-area-based social media and blogging expert Kyla Herbes (HER-bess), is that it’s not too late to start: “I’ve heard people saying the blog is dead—but the blog is still there…and still very important part of the machine.” In this episode of the Lounge, Kyla shares with host Nick May her secrets to effective digital influencing, pinning, algorithms, analytics, keyword enrichment, and the perils of overthinking it all.

So pour yourself a glass of Prosecco (to match Kyla’s bubbly personality), grab a pen and notebook and start writing the next chapter of your interior design business today. Remember to be patient: One Kyla’s most effective social media traffic-drivers remains a post she wrote in 2014 (a step-by-step guide to marbleizing coffee mugs with nailpolish), when her House of Hipsters blog was just a hobby she indulged in when she wasn’t managing her full-time advertising career, her mid-century modern home, and two kids under 5 years old (now 10 and 7). 

You’ll find it all in this inspiring episode of The Chaise Lounge. You can also catch up with Kyla at Esteem Media’s Design Influencers Conference, in San Francisco (March 1-3), where she will be spilling all her proven social media secrets—Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok.   

Learn more about blogging and social media expert Kyla Herbes at House of Hipsters and on Instagram at @houseofhipstersblog.

Technology took hold as soon as the smart phone came out and our whole

world flipped on end to a digital, fast-paced, immediate world.

Kyla Herbes

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Chaise Lounge Updates

Our new podcast Coast to Coast Design is live! Give it a listen to learn about just how many ways there are to run a design business.

Our Events Page

Resources

See what our sponsors can do for you.

Upcoming Markets

Design Influencers Conference | Mar. 1-3, 2020

HDExpo | May 5-7, 2020

ICFF | May 17-20, 2020

High Point Market | Apr. 25-29, 2020

More About Our Sponsors

Wrap Up

If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes, Spotify or your favorite podcasting app! We'd love it if you post a review, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. Also, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. With that said, keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!

There are many kinds of modern families—and just as many kinds of family businesses. In this episode, host Nick May talks with fellow Coloradan Noelle Hernandez, founder and owner of MATTER, a highly collaborative family-run residential and commercial planning and design firm based in Aspen. A native of Denver, Noelle launched her design career as a kitchen planner. Over time, her innate sense of organization, refined eye for clean, quality-focused beauty, and expertise at identifying a place for everything and situating everything in its proper place evolved into an award-winning design career focused on full-service space planning, interior architectural design, and project management. At MATTER, Noelle works in close partnership with her sister, Soraya Gallego, an expert in commercial and marine design, and her daughter, Nicole Stewart, an accomplished project manager, to design everything from high-end residential interiors to investment offices, restaurants, bank and hotel lobbies, hair salons, retail shops, and cruise ship interiors.Noelle tells Nick how the three women keep everything running smoothly—and shares her recipe for the perfect cocktail with Casamigos (shaken, not stirred)—in this inspiring episode of The Chaise Lounge. Learn more about Noelle Hernandez, her family of designers, and her work at matterinteriors.com and on Instagram at @matterinteriors.

SHOP LOCAL: "We do a lot of sourcing in Denver. Lots of people think you have to go to NY or LA, but the Denver Design Center does an excellent job."

Noelle Hernandez

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If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes, Spotify or your favorite podcasting app! We'd love it if you post a review, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. Also, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. With that said, keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!