After a long hiatus, our interviews with creative entrepreneurs are BACK! We’re super excited to share advice and stories from the best and brightest creatives we can find. This week we sat down with Lauren Stern, a NYC-based interior designer who started her own design firm three years ago. Her work is gorgeous. She walked us through her design process, how she works with clients, and the ups and downs of having your own studio.
laurensterndesign.com

How would you describe your design aesthetic and the way you think about design?

Since I’ve been on my own, and actually when I worked for a firm, I find that my designs are very much dictated by my clients. My clients are very savvy – they have a very strong sense of what they like. If they’re hiring a designer, it’s because design is important to them. The client always dictates the mood.

Which makes sense, because they’re going to be living there!

Of course. And then I put their ideas through my filter, and I help make their ideas more cohesive and functional. If they like this picture, and what it to feel that way, I make that work for them.

Is that what people give you? Pictures from magazines? How do they communicate what they’re feeling?

That’s what I ask them to do. It’s always best to start with pictures. With words, we might be visualizing completely different things, but with a picture we’re on the same page. I think it helps to look at a ton of different pictures and then try to communicate what we like about the pictures.

Could you walk me through working with a client? It starts with bringing pictures to the table. What happens next?

It depends on the scope of the job. I mostly do renovation work. I like to do big projects where we’re really going to change a space. I’ll do decorating jobs here and there, but most of the work I do has been more than that. We’ll figure out how the space needs to function, if there’s a bathroom or kitchen that needs to be updated, or rooms that need to be moved around. Then based on the pictures we’ll do floor plans and pick furniture that meets the mood and the needs.

That’s a nice segue into how I met you – at BKLYN Designs this year. Several of the furniture designers and makers you work with were there.

Right. I do a ton of custom work. I know exactly how I think something should look for my client. Once I get to know them and start to sense their needs and what they like, I find that’s it’s not easy to just go out and buy a pre-existing piece that I think will be right. So 95% of what I buy, I design.

Cool!

I found some really great artisans in Brooklyn – a lot of people that are younger and starting their own businesses, or maybe have been in business for five years. You know some of them – I work a lot with Uhuru and Matthew Fairbank. They are really passionate about their craft, and it’s been great to work with them. I’ll bring them a certain idea, and they’ll bring in their expertise. Those collaborations are one of my favorite parts of what I do.

How did you get into interior design? When did you know it’s what you wanted to do?

When I was in college, I interned at Black Book magazine, and when I graduated I worked there for two years. I kind of floated around there – I started in the art department, I worked in the fashion department… I knew I wanted to do something creative but I wasn’t sure exactly what. Eventually I figured out that publishing wasn’t for me, so I went back to school for interior design. It seemed like a flexible profession, and one where I could either work for a firm, or I could do it smaller on my own. And it was something I could still do if I left New York, whereas for fashion you really need to be here.

Can you describe how you transitioned from working for someone else to deciding to do your own thing? That’s always an exciting part of the story!

I always knew I wanted to start my own business, but I wasn’t expecting to do it so soon. I worked for different designers when I went back to school, but I’d really only been out and working full time for about a year. A friend of a friend called me because she had bought an apartment on the Upper West Side and wanted to gut it. She said, “I’ve met a bunch of interior designers, but they’re all older and they’re completely out of touch with what I want.”

My first reaction was, “I work for a firm and I don’t have time, sorry!” But I ended up just meeting her for coffee, and we got along really well, so I took on the project while I was working. Then I got another client, so I just quit my job! It was a leap of faith, and it’s been good. It’s been almost three years now.

What’s been the hardest part to learn about working for yourself?

The hardest part for me is that I’m not sure how I’m going to get my next client. I’ve worked well and gotten along really well with all my clients, but I never know where they’re going to come from – they come from the most unexpected places. I’m always scared that my projects are going to end and I’m not going to have any more work, but it hasn’t happened yet!

It’s definitely a rollercoaster! Now that you’ve been in this a few years, what advice do you have for creatives that want to strike out on their own?

You need to go into it knowing that it’s not going to be easy. But if your really want to do it, I think you can make it work no matter what. If you stick with it long enough, it will work.

What’s been your proudest moment along the way?

I’ve just started completing some of my bigger projects. I take easily two years to do one job. When you’re working on something that long, having a project wrapped up and photographed is amazing! And seeing my clients satisfied. I know they’re putting a lot of faith in me, and hearing them say that it looks great and they’re really happy is the best feeling.

See more at laurensterndesign.com