where it all begins: how aDesignGuide can work for you

I'm currently sitting at my dining room table. A window is cracked beside me letting in the first cool breeze we've felt in over a month. The smell of fresh rain on the pavement floats by and I see a squirrel out of the corner of my eye carrying a nut that looks slightly too big for its mouth. It's the first official Monday of fall and with it brings on a new wave of motivation.

For the past year and a half I haven't been working in the professional world. December of 2022 brought on a shift of lifestyle that we weren't anticipating. I was closing out the end of the year sales as a textile representative in the commercial interior design industry. It was a nice job that provided me flexibility, but came with the challenges of late night events and travel that took me away from the kids. I ended the year on a really good note. My sales were the best they had been in over 3 years, I was 20 weeks pregnant with our third child and looking forward to some down time during the holidays. Little did I know our company was making changes to boost the bottom-line that was hit terribly from the pandemic. My position was cut and with little over 4 months until this third baby arrived, I was left without a job. In all honesty, my husband Matt and I discussed the idea of me staying home with the kids once the baby arrived. We just weren't expecting it to happen so soon. Thankfully, with a supportive husband, I wrapped up my sales position and began the 'stay at home mom' role.

Prior to the four years I spent in sales, I worked as an interior designer in the commercial workplace world. I designed and oversaw construction of office spaces for law firms, big tech, and multi family clients. It was a workhorse job, but I learned so much from working with CEOs, law firm partners, and big execs. The pressure and stress it brought benefited me in learning project management skills and high stakes decision making that made all jobs that follow seem like a summer lifeguarding job - easy and breezy. I had no idea that the stay at home mom job would be the hardest of them all. Managing and regulating temperaments (including my own), multi-tasking like I had never imagined, all on sleepless nights with no break from work in site. Not to mention our loving, smart, hard to keep alive 2 year old having a hard time in his newly designated middle child role. It's been a crazy past year and half but we're all finally settling into our grooves and enjoying the good moments. And with that brings me the opportunity to get back to pursing what inspires and motivates me.

I missed the creative thinking my previous interior roles brought me. The best part of interior design, which most may not be quick to think of, is the problem solving. I love being presented with a problem that may seem impossible to solve. I always hated the questions you had to fill out on performance evaluations or a 'get to know you' session with coworkers - "what are you most passionate about?" Blagh! But really, problem solving is my favorite thing, and with some deep thinking in how to answer such a broad question, I guess that's what I'm passionate about. There are so many problems to solve in Interior Design - how to make a space function for it's use, how to solve a need for a client that needs more space then what is physically there, how to work within a budget and still obtain a curated well-thought out feel. It's all the things that are so important in delivering a product that creates an over-satisfied client.

After being in sales and experiencing a taste of flexibility, I couldn't go back to the 9-5 desk job. I had a desire to finally go out on my own and work for myself. Over the years, I spent some nights and weekends helping family and friends with new homes or renovations and in doing so, I found a piece to the interior design service that is sometimes missing with the full-service interior design companies. Sometimes, people just want inspiration or ideas to help them solve their own problems.

And so, the passion behind aDesignGuide came from just that. A place for you to obtain a thoughtful curated space that fits your needs, design aesthetic, and is executed by you. It's set up so you can decide how involved you want me to be. Let's say you are moving to a new home, you have some furniture you would like to re-use but you also need to plan for some new furniture. And what about the décor, the paint colors, the layout of the living room? That's where aDesignGuide can provide you ideas and inspiration. With the pandemic and rising costs, it birthed a new wave of DIYers, and why not embrace that? A lot of people want to save costs and do it themselves. And, there is a place for interior design in that as well. aDeisgnGuide became the solution to the problem.

Now if you're reading this and think, I don't even have time to do it myself - we can do the full-service thing too. It's where my own expertise lies - working with contractors, yielding all the project questions, floor plans, elevations, lighting, power, 3d visualizing, buying the furniture, managing the project from start to finish so you can sit back and enjoy the fun part - approving the design. aDesignGuide is truly a one-stop shop for all your design needs.

I will leave you now as I'm off to embrace this crisp fall day and get back to another skill I haven't mentioned - snack distributor for my old coworkers getting home from school. Until next time!

Nicole

Owner, aDesignGuide