It’s not unusual, when I’m reading an article about an interior design project, for me to find myself chuckling softly, shaking my head, and thinking, “I’ve been there.”
I’m extremely proud to say that at no point during my reading of today’s New York Times article, On the Cheap: Rocky Road Home, did I do any of these things.
Why? Because the designer was a jerk.
Here’s the last line of the article:
“If he had been charming and funny” like he was at the first meeting, [the client] said, “he could have done anything he wanted.”
Give you an idea of what transpired? The article isn’t that long, so I urge you to read it. But here it is in a nutshell:
1. NYT runs ad: free design services to someone with limited decorating budget.
2. Fancy famous designer decides to volunteer services out of the goodness of his heart.
3. Or loads of free publicity in the NYT.
4. Winning client has 550-sf apartment in Chelsea, $10k budget. Moving back to U.S. after completing humanitarian mission in Kabul.
5. First client/designer meeting = love-fest.
6. Designer given carte blanche to redecorate the apartment while client is out of the country for two months.
7. In Kabul.
8. Silence.
9. Client returns home to find apt. in shambles; is distraught.
10. Designer blames mentally unstable assistant. Classy.
11. Client/designer meeting. Client’s cousin attends as one-man fisticuffs prevention force. Mr. Salvatore Rizzo is successful, but barely.
12. Designer leaves client an orchid.
Some stuff happens between points 11 and 12, but it’s not really important. Ultimately, the designer, Richard Mishaan, fixes what he can and and the client ends up liking his apartment ok. The pictures look ok. It’s all ok.
What killed me about this story, Gentle Readers, is that the designer simply didn’t think it was important to communicate with the client. (Even a mentally unstable assistant can send an e-mail. I know. I’ve been one.)
And why was it not important? Because the client was spending $10,000 on an entire apartment. Mr. Mishaan’s regular clients spend that on an umbrella stand.
It burns me up. Another almost-celebrity designer decides that slumming it with a $10,000 client would be an amusing publicity stunt.
Well, the joke’s on you, Mr. Mishaan. In this article, you don’t exactly come out smelling like a rose.
Or even an orchid.
Apartment photo credits appear in the NYT article, which was written by Julie Scelfo. Picture of Mr. Mishaan from Homer Design. Kabul photograph courtesy of Telegraph; photo credit: EPA. And finally, the orchid picture is from a website called, delightfully, happyorchid.com.