Every project is different. Not all designers approach their projects as such and have a formula or a look that they strive to stay within. We have a process that we like to work within for our projects but sometimes you have to be flexible enough to chuck it out the window and just go with it. Our Unionville project has been very well planned but there have been a few areas that we decided to leave until more of the pieces were in so that we could assess. Specifically, the family room. The space is open to the eating area in the kitchen but as you have seen, we have dramatically changed the kitchen overall so that meant seeing what sort of transition spaces we were left with. I had originally specified some recliner club chairs for the space but pulled the plug on them after the island was positioned. I felt they were too big and were going to seem even bigger in the space given the insanely amazing fabric we've chosen to go on them. We've had a hell of a time finding a suitable replacement to fit the space mostly because there are few of them to sit in. We have catalogues galore but the clients want to be able to sit and try them out. We are hoping we've found a solution but that's still to come.

The Family Room is a small but big space. It's long and narrow but because it is open to the rest of the kitchen, it doesn't feel oddly shaped. Put two sofas on either side of the fireplace and voila it's really awkward. We can't pull the sofas in to be closer to the coffee table/ottoman in the middle because that will cut off being able to put chairs in and reduce the seating. So we have to keep them as far back as we can to allow for entry into the space. This means however, that we need a coffee table or ottoman that is over 6ft if both sofas are going to be able to reach it. A 60" long piece still leaves 20" from the edge of each sofa to the table/ottoman. I'm now thinking we need to do some sort of ottoman/two tables or two stool option to fill up the space. Finding all of these pieces and having them work together is proving trickier than I thought. Adding in the need to do so with a nod to our budget, more so.

Here's what we are toying with - nothing in stone I've just thrown out loose concepts to the client to see where the ideas land.

I'm fiercely loyal. Call it the red hair or the fact that I was born on the cusp of Leo going into Virgo it's one of my defining characteristics. I take it very personally when a brand refuses to do business with me even more so when the decision is made by someone who hasn't met me, knows nothing about my business or doesn't even have the courtesy to reach out to explain their position.

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And then I fixate on it. I'm trying to get over it. A brand that I was fiercely loyal to for almost a decade to the point of exclusivity at some points committed an almost unforgivable sin once and I stopped doing business with them. I'm sure if you looked at my sales with that company four years ago and then in the last year, it's a remarkable change. Remarkable being - worthy of remarking on. I think we went from in the hundreds of thousands to $0. I'm actually looking to mend fences with this supplier but it's taken me almost two years to get to this point. I suffer from extreme guilt which is the yin to the yang of my ferocity. A brand that falls under the umbrella of the Wing that I purchase through is what is leading me back. I love and adore this brand and I want to be loyal to them so I'm making the effort to reconsider my position.

It's amazing to me that in this day and age, brands would still be so dismissive whether intentional or unintentional it really doesn't matter. It's a dangerous game to play. When I was at High Point in April, I had some very insightful discussions with several different company presidents who acknowledged that since 2008, High Point showrooms have courted designer accounts openly because they were desperate to stay afloat in a terrible economy. What's most galling is that now as the economy has started to recover, brands are once again protecting their retail accounts to the detriment of their designer clients. Designers who promote and market for them on social media and who choose to specify their products to their own clients. A retailer carries many different brands/lines and they just want the sale. A designer, hand picks your product to present to their client acting as an endorsement/ambassador. A designer will fight for what is right for that project and pull all sorts of strings to make it happen.

Assuming that your product was so great that a designer would go and buy it from a store is just bad business. Especially when said stores are notoriously horrible at offering good customer service to a designer. Once they know you are the middle man and not the end user, many retail establishments cease to show you anything resembling customer service let alone GOOD customer service. You are at their mercy. Client wants an update on an order? You have to contact said establishment and hope your contact or someone who knows something about your order is actually working that day and is able to return your call. Most often, they have to put in a call or send an email and wait for a response. A simple update can take a week to get any sort of information on. Who looks bad then - the designer NOT the retail establishment. I won't even talk about the pathetic discounts and how clients can often get a better discount than a designer - I'll have to start drinking something stronger.

I'm passionate and I'm blunt. Not going to pull any punches. I will say though, other designers and people who follow my blog and our portfolio are noticing that we don't use a particular company. It's not for lack of effort on my part. I am however, trying to square my shoulders back and do what a redhead does best. Beat them at their own game. Meredith Heron Design Bespoke Furniture has a nice ring to it....

I firmly believe that all Camo is bad, wrong and well patently fugly so you don't have to worry that I'm suddenly coming out with a new design show or some such thing involving war paint on my face beyond my signature lipstick. However, experience has taught me many valuable lessons and has emboldened me to start "dictating" designs to clients more than I ever have before. In fact, in the last month, I've basically told clients outright what we are going to do in their homes with little to no consultation. I've pulled together plans and presented them to clients with no other options. Heck in a few instances, the clients may or may not have been even expecting a design coming their way. Hence the Guerilla Designfare...

Now in half the instances that I've taken this approach (4 in total) two of the clients I know very well. Okay, one I know VERY well, the other I totally have her taste pegged so I feel like I know her very well. The other two - were educated guesses but I guessed right. This is a strength of mine. It doesn't usually take me more than a few minutes to appraise, assess and assign look/taste/style and then choose a plan of attack. I occasionally will revisit my initial plan but mostly it's only to build on or layer in. Rarely do I toss out a vision in favour of something entirely new/different. I did work with someone once that had me do that for a master bedroom. The finished product was gorgeous but talk about an uphill climb to get there. I'd never let that happen with a client now. If something is taking too much effort to find a rhythm, fish or cut bait - put it on a shelf/walk away and come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes.

So as we were leaving the office on Friday, we sent off a quote for a new family room to our #Thornhill client. She hasn't seen anything beyond a few pictures but I knew in sending it, we'd nailed it. She's only reduced the pair of sofas to a single sofa in favour of working with one of the existing sofas. We knew that this was probably what we'd end up doing, but hey, when you are being bold already, why hedge the bet???

We're so close to finishing a few projects but our walls are bare. Art is so personal but I'm beginning to stretch my own wings and insisting that I be more involved in the selection of the right pieces. Here are a few contenders I'm currently looking at for several projects.

Of course my eyes are always on the look out for pieces for my own abode. It's a hazard of the biz...

You know when you just KNOW the perfect thing for the situation at hand and you fixate?

I'm doing just that with the barstool selection for #Unionville. They are trying to go with something more modern in the house than they are used to. I want to keep a nod to traditional. I'm obsessed with the idea of using this barstool now. Like gnashing my teeth obsessed. These fabrics would be amazing on it but I'm also partial to it as shown.

The paisley wallpaper I'm toying with for a ceiling. I haven't really met a paisley I didn't love but I only wish it were red background and a lighter paisley. That would be perfect. Thibaut, you want to run a special colourway just for me?? Pretty please? I'd take it with a dark blue background too if that made it better but a blue red would be PERFECT. I am VERY fussy about the right colour of red. I mean for like OBVs reasons right??