Week 3

This week really taught me that I am going to need a lot more patience than I thought in this business! I worked in the restaurant business for 6 years and I thought that was the industry that you needed the most patience when dealing with people. I think I was wrong. At the beginning of the week me and Anya had to go back to that apartment that is on the same floor as Denzel Washingtons to supervise the chandelier installation for the second time. This time was even worse than the first time. Anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. The crystal leaves were made wrong, they lost the knob to keep the light up, blah blah it was a huge mess! All of this while the client was sitting in the living room reading his paper. The designer was unhappy about how they made the new leaves they weren't replicated to the rest of them and stuck out like sore thumbs so he said take back the leaves and re-do but put the chandelier up so we know its safe! The electricians refused to put the chandelier up, they said they are not going to do something if they are just going to have to come back next week to take it back down again. Anya called the manager of the electricians to discuss this only to have her throw sarcastic remarks, yell, scream and hang up on her! Wow what happened to professionalism? Any how that whole installation went down the tubes. The electricians left with the chandelier sitting on the clients bedroom floor! this is a 20,000 dollar antique light fixture people you cant just leave it on the clients bedroom floor! o gosh what to do now!?! The clients wife was out of town for the whole summer so the designer suggested to put it in her walk in closet and tell the whole household that no one is allowed in there NO ONE! and then we left very apologetic of course!  The next day I was at the office following up on a few things I was in charge of, including the shipment of a few lamps going directly to a clients home. I called the company to order the lamps the week before and was told whatever I do in this business I have to get in in writing. So of course I requested some type of reciept, proof of purchase or order confirmation email when I initially ordered the lamps. She said she would send it right away. Towards the end of the day I never got that email and decided to call her back maybe she forgot or something. When I asked her for the confirmation email again she gave me attitude and told me she doesnt send it until the items are shipped so I was like ok thats fine thank you and hung up. Now back to the day I started talking about, I called her to follow up with the shipment of the lamps and of course.. the confirmation.. or receipt. She told me they went out yesterday, so I said thats great can you send me over a reciept or proof of purchase of some sort and she said uhhh NO why do you even need one? and completley went off on my like WHOA wth woman, usually in all businesses when you purchase something you get a flippin reciept! Oh and suprise suprise she was the OWNER of the company what a way to treat your customers how unprofessional again!  Eventually we let things cool off and Anya got her to send over a reciept and didnt give her any problems about it... whatever. Ok now for the best story of the week! I was going to a clients home to supervise a rug installation it was an all day thing and the designer had bigger and better things to do so I had to stay there all day by myself kind of boring but I did learn a lot. The day started out with the designer basically running things over with the installers and I about where everything went and bladdy blah ok no prob bob then he left. One of the rooms with a new rug being installed had an existing rug in the room and the designer told us to move it into the dining room under the dining room table ok done and done. The installation was underway when the nanny walked through the door. I smiled at  her because I met her a few weeks earlier and she just looked away, I was like O.K...nice woman. Anyway she comes stomping in the room we are at and starts yelling in a thick indian accent " why is this rug over there? he told me put that rug in reading room or bedroom in third floor!!!" The installers thought she was talking about the designer but I caught on that she must have been talking about the owner. Which she was. So I said ok no problem where are these two rooms he wants the rug in? she pointed to a space and said "over dere, that crap over dere!" ok then and she then went on to scream about how to find the 3rd floor bedroom because she was not climbing no stairs to show me.  I decided to move it into the reading room becasue it was just easier. I then realized that there was an existing rug in that room as well so I went into the kitchen to ask her " the rug that's in the reading room right now, where would you like me to put that? and then she proceeded to scream "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?" I said "yes.." and she screamed again "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?" and again I said "yes..." then she said " I TOLD YOU TREE TIME HE WANT THE RUG IN THE READING ROOM OR BEDROOM IN 3RD FLOOR!!!!!!" so then I said in a very calm voice "I understand that, I'm pretty sure you're the one that is misunderstanding me, I asked you about the rug that is ALREADY in the reading room, where would you like me to put that??"  so she just said " i dont care, roll it up and put it dere" and didnt even apologize for screaming at me like that when she was obviously the one having the damn english problem not me! I was born and raised in this country honey, you dont have to question my english, now yours?? is VERY questionable. what a week!

Week 2

This week I did a lot of neat things the designer rented a car and took me to greenwich connecticut to see one of his biggest clients homes and to also take some measurements for him to continue work there, it was huge and beautiful. Before we got back to the office we stopped by at another clients home to take some window measurements there as well and then headed back to the office. The next day I when i got to the office the designer was all dressed up so i asked him if he was seeing a client today and he said no we are going to the most prestigious apartment building in new york to supervise a lighting installation at one of my clients homes and you are coming with me. When we got there he informed me that A-Rod from the yankees lives in the building when we got off the elevator he pointed towards an apartment door and informed me that DENZEL WASHINGTON lived there!! Literally right next door to the apartment we were going into. How awesome is that!? The apartment that we went into was something out of a magazine I have never been in such a beautiful space in my life! He really does amazing work! For the rest of the week I organized the resource library and ran errands around the city. Such as dropping off photos to be re touched for a client and picking up packages at his old office address.

Day 4

Today Anya wasn't working so I was there to assist the designer by myself. She left me a pile of stuff today which consisted of checking voicemail, calling fabricut to re reserve 10 yrds of fabric, printing out sticky numbers with this little device called p-touch so I can number the fabric in client binders and then type up fabric resource sheets to correspond with the numbers. I then had to type up and print tear sheets for a lot of furniture being used for a project. After that I called restoration hardware for two samples to be sent to the office and before I knew it it was almost 6! Time flies when your having fun!

Day 3

Today I was coming from another part of Manhattan in the morning so I calculated my travel time bad I ended up showing up about 10 mins late, but Anya is usually 15 mins late, even though that doesn't make it an excuse to be late for me, I just figured he might be a bit lenient with tardiness. He didn't say anything so it was fine. I started off today basically on some of the stuff I was working on yesterday I finished the Glenn residence fabric schemes for all the rooms in their project binder. I then sorted through rug samples that were to be kept and ones to be returned to the showrooms, I took photos of the ones to be returned in case he wanted them again for an upcoming project since he loved them so much, Anya told me to take a picture of the front and then also the back so if needed he can find the information right there if he wanted to order the sample again. He then asked me to organize his closet a bit more. I then got started on the designers personal design binder since he is doing a lot of decorating in his own home, I copied pictures of some furniture pieces he would be using as well as put together some of the fabrics in a fabric scheme that he is going to be using for his living room. After lunch he asked me to assist him with taking off hardware off his new chest of drawers so they can be sent to a brass company to be re-plated with a polished nickel finish. Since I had to go uptown and drop off the hardware and pick up some lamp harps for his bedroom lamps, I figured by the time I did that and came back Anya would be gone for the day, since she is not going to be there tomorrow she wanted to explain a few things that I would be doing tomorrow when she wasn't there. Basically she showed me how to create tear sheets on the computer, and how to create fabric resource sheets for the binders. So I went on my way to the Brass company explained what he wanted done with the chest hardware and then called him to tell him they aren't sure if they can get a sleleton key to match the hardware he has and if they would it would be customized and cost anywhere within the high hundreds! for a KEY ppl! wow. He told me he would call the company and discuss it with them himself. So I stopped by the home depot to grab those lamp harps he wanted and they didn't have the size he was requesting so then I walked uptown 10 blocks to Gracious Homes and they had it so I purchased those and left with the intention of returning to the office since I got everything done pretty quick, but then realized I  left my phone and notebook with all of tomorrows errands in it and had to go back that took 20 mins when I looked at my watch it was about 5:20 so i decided I would just go home and give him the harps first thing in the morning, they left the option up to me whether or not I wanted to come back to the office afterwards or just finish up my day so I did. and that was my third day!

My First Day as an Interior Design Intern!

Hey everyone, I started this blog to track my 2 month internship at an interior design company in Manhattan, NY. When I first started looking for internships I was always curious to know what exactly I would be doing during that experience so I would always look for "a day in the life" type of stuff through the web of an interior design intern but would always come up empty handed, so I basically started off with my eyes closed. I was initially nervous that I would be doing silly stuff like coffee, mail, etc. Of course these errands are part of every internship but I was hoping that I would somehow get involved in the whole scheme of things and really learn  how the business worked as well. So I am starting this blog for those out there who are in the same position I was in when I was anticipating the interior design internship experience. I will be posting the events of my internship each day so you guys can get a feel of what it was like for me.

*Day 1*

I found the building easily since I am from the area and showed up about 10 mins early to make a good impression when I rang the bell of the suite I heard the sound of barking dogs.. I was like ok... dogs? When my boss opened the door I can see he was in gym gear and got even more confused.. he must have seen the confusion in my face and said "oh I never told you? I work from home! Ok that's awesome right? He let  me know I didn't have to show up to work wearing professional clothing that it was a laid back atmosphere etc. Even better! After getting acquainted he started me off with helping him clear out his hallways of boxes we broke them down and put them into the recycle bin, then he asked if I could unpack his new Ikea shelving unit and he would have that put together during the week, I offered to build it for him right there since I am familiar with Ikea furniture and he said ok great! It took me about an hour to finish it, at that point he showed me to put it in his closet so I organized his closet and stocked the new shelving unit with books, and catalogs.We coversated a little bit, I asked him if he has ever worked with interns before he said yes I was his third and that he usually ends up hiring his interns..he then got a thought and said "Oh, by the way, my assistant is going to be out for 2 weeks in August, would you be able to fill in for her? OMG did I just get a 2 week job opportunity at an interior design company on my first day as an intern???! Yes I did!!! I said Absolutley! He was busy so I just basically remember some of the things he told me I was going to be doing during the week and just got started on it such as organizing a huge tub of fabric samples. I then shredded up some documents, when to lunch and came back to return the huge bag of fabrics to the D&D building which is a massive building  with a bunch of showrooms. And that was my first day!


*Day 2*

When I got in today I remembered some of the stuff he told me to do the day before that I never got to and got started on that, I dropped off a bag of fabrics to the mail room to be returned to the sender, and stored his newly organized closet hangers away to give him more space. I then met his assistant who is there 3-4 days a week lets just call her Anya, she is actually the one who I would most likley following around and doing favors for since she has so many things to do and she does them so thoroughly and amazingly, the girl is superwoman! She told me to call fabric vendors to check on price and availabily and to also put some fabrics on reserve for upcoming projects. She then went ahead and showed me how to use the design business software which is a software that creates business proposals and invoices to send to the clients and it also accepts payment on outstanding invoices. It was about lunch time then so I headed out but made sure to be back in time for me to accompany Anya to a client's home where they were getting a delivery of a piece of furniture for the third time since it kept getting damaged during delivery she explained to me its good to be there to accept delivery to make sure everything is ok with the furniture and to supervise. When we got there she checked the table for any damages which is when I picked up on what looked like two dents and we established they were not damages from delivery because the dents were underneath the finish she decided to leave it and check in with the clients later to see if they have a problem with it. I picked up a package from a building to be returned to sender so I called UPS to have that arranged. I then started working on a client binder that consisted of putting the fabric scheme together on each page according to room. That's where I finished up my 2nd day and it was awesome!