It's that time of year - we're all making lists and checking them twice! But while you're finding the perfect gift for everyone else in your life, be sure to give yourself a great gift to start the new year off right. I'm not talking about a book or a sweater. I'm talking about peace of mind. That i...

I love what I do - no really, I DO! But I get frustrated with the design business, just like I'm sure you do. Every business owner and CEO has times when they're ready to throw in the towel. That's just normal. But it's HOW you respond to those frustrations that can make all the difference. So I wan...

Get ready for a bit of personal post...

Goodbye, Budapest...Hello, London

Yes, I am moving from Budapest, Hungary, after living here for 4 ½ years. I was in Delhi, India, for 2 years before that, so it will be fun to live in a place where the primary language is English! In fact, earlier this mont...

On last week's blog post, I talked about how important it is to your productivity to have systems in place and to avoid reinventing the wheel in every single project! When you DON'T have a system or process for each part of your business, you WILL drop the ball. You'll make mistakes and that will DE...

It's interesting how time has seemed to change after the pandemic! So many of my design friends say they feel like there are FEWER hours in every day now. UGH! That means we need to make the most of every single minute. We need to be more productive with our working hours - that also helps us achiev...

It’s interesting how others view the work of an interior designer. There are people – hopefully our clients – who truly appreciate our vision, skill, and expertise. But too many really don’t understand what a designer can do. Most everyone gets that we can make a home look pretty, and that we probab...

One of the HARDEST things about being an interior designer is having to switch between your left brain and your right brain – often in the same hour!! On the one hand, we are CEOs running our own companies, paying attention to profit margins and payrolls. But our ENTIRE businesses depend on our crea...

Ready to get your color fix? While living in India, I quickly learned that the first stop in any city or town that I visited was the flower market, or mandi. The colors, the noise, the smells - and even the masala chai tea - made it an experience for the senses. While in Bangalore, I woke up early t...

As interior designers, it's important for us to have contractors we trust and love to work with. If we all operate as a team on our projects, we'll be less likely to have costly problems crop up, and much more likely to have a great experience. And we all know there are contractors who are terrific ...

Recently, Instagram changed its algorithm (again) and everyone was up in arms. After all, we want to see what the people we follow are posting, not random posts that are ads or from people we've never seen before. But if you're a business, it was also devastating because suddenly your followers were...

OK I can hear you asking: "Why are you talking about next year when we STILL have 3 months in THIS year??" And that's a fair question!! I like to plan ahead while still keeping my eye on what's happening today. It's how I've run my businesses for over 20 years and it's helped me stay ahead of the cu...

Creatives like us need to refuel occasionally. We can't constantly work with the business side of our brains and then expect ourselves to craft the most exquisite rooms and spaces without some inspiration! Just won't happen! Travel is THE most important way that I find inspiration for everything tha...