Why yes, I make house calls

 

 

Occasionally I get a request to go out for a visit to a customer’s home.  Often times, they have a new home or are remodeling and just overwhelmed by all the decisions that need to be made.  Early this week I had a call from a customer.  Her daughter is having a birthday this month, has a brand new house AND a brand new baby and she wanted to treat her to a dining room centerpiece.  She asked if I could come to her daughter’s home to see the room and make suggestions.

 

First I wanted to talk to the daughter.  I like to be prepared when I arrive, so I have a checklist of questions I always rattle off such as:

 

 

 

 

 

 

* what is your decorating style or taste?  This young wife and mother thought she liked more contemporary

*what colors are you using?  None at the moment.  The house is brand new, the walls are Sherwin Williams Latte but nothing else so far that dictates a color

*what colors do you want to bring in?  She wasn’t sure yet.  So then I went on to say that reds are still very much in, and are leaning towards an orangey red.  She thought she would like that.  Then I told her that true orange is very much in vogue right now if she might like that.  She loved that idea as she really wanted to bring in a vivid color.  She also shared now that we were deeper into the discussion that she didn’t want the arrangement to be super flowery.  I assured her that I had many interesting pods and fillers to take up the space and it wouldn’t have to be overly filled with flowers

*what size is your table and what is the stain of the wood?  The table was handed down to this young couple from the husband’s parents.  It wasn’t what they would have chosen, but it certainly was nice and worked for now.  The table held six chairs and the wood was a darker mahogany

 

 

So now I felt I had enough information to get started.  I went down to my workroom and pulled oddles and oddles of stems ~~ orchids, proteas, interesting pods, a variety of greens, berries, even fruits and vegetables in case she didn’t know until I brought them that she liked that.  That is the case sometimes. A person doesn’t really know til it’s brought to their attention something that might be interesting in their designed piece.  Artichokes and pears are very good transitional/Pottery Barn types of fruits that work well.

 

 

 

oh yes, it is a very messy business!

 

 

 

Oh wait~~  I see an arrangement already in my inventory that actually might have great potential.  The colors are good, the look is right, the price is in the range of what the Mom told me.  Only trouble is, it isn’t quite long enough for the size of table.  No problem.  I just grabbed a few more stems to lengthen the arrangement. 

 

 

 

Before….

 

 

A close up of some of the detail in this arrangement…. click to see the entire picture

 

 

I had one more in mind that could be quite stunning.

 

 

 

Rather than overwhelming this young mom with my basket full of goodies, I decided to bring in the arrangements that just might work for her first.  Well guess what?  I sat it on the table and she loved it immediately!  She liked the other one with heavier poppies but was afraid her husband might not care for the peacock feathers.

 

 

After…. this is on my table before I took it to her  ~~  Pretend that fabric isn’t sitting beneath this, okay?  ;)

 

 

I love a happy customer  ~~ and her new home is absolutely beautiful.  I think we’ll be seeing more of each other as she is in the beginning stages of decorating.  It’s so nice to be able to bring something in and the customer can actually see it made up and know that she likes it. She is having me make something for the back of her toilet to match two pictures she just purchased.

 

 

Now I have a lot of things to put away. :)