Jane Lockhart is an award-winning interior designer, popular television personality, author and spokesperson. Her career is an inspiration to all home designers and she has continued success with her well-known brand, Jane Lockhart Interior Design.
This past November, Jane spent time answering your questions about the home design industry and what it’s like to have a career in interior decorating. Here’s a roundup of Jane’s best advice!
Q: I love black and white. How can I incorporate it into a design? Your black and white bedroom was awesome!
A: Start with black accents and paint your walls white, or consider an accent wall in black. Remember, contrast makes a room look smaller so think about how much of each color you want in the room.Q: What do you think about hard wood floors in a kitchen? Our living room/dining room/kitchen is going to be all open concept and I’d like hardwood for the rest but I’m not sure how it will hold up.
A: It doesn’t always hold up, but it will definitely do reasonably well if you’re careful with it. It will never perform as well as a tile; however, it will give you a continuous look.
Q: How do you approach a client who is not satisfied with the final outcome of the project? From a professional standpoint, how should you handle this situation?
A: This is a difficult situation and you have to assess whether the client is truly unhappy and you just didn’t deliver on their expectations—or if the client is looking for some kind of discount and being unhappy is their way of convincing you to lower the price. Be honest, ask direct questions, take the criticism if it’s warranted and find out what will make the client happy.Q: What is the most important thing(s) to focus on when just starting our new businesses in design?
A: Doing a good job and completing the job fully so you can learn from it! And getting a referral is also a major key to success.Q: If you were to pick one book that every designer should have in their library what would that be?
A: That’s a hard one. If you do architectural design I’d say DK Ching’s Architecture: Form, Space and Order. Travels Through the Paintbox by Victoria Findlay is a great book on the history of color and Home: A Short History of an Idea by Witold Rybcyzynski is an excellent book, too. An old classic is The Hidden Dimension by Edward Hall which looks at spaces that work from an anthropological viewpoint. Yes, I’m a nerd and I can’t pick just one book!