Hot Young Designers Club | Interior Design Business Podcast · Hot Young Designers Club

147: Let's clap for custom! How to elevate your business with bespoke furnishings

·1 hr 4 min·1 clip

I unlocked a new level in my use of AI for design that makes me feel stupid I didn't try it before.

Custom is the flex here. Rebecca and Sean start loose, laughing about the bits they should have recorded before the episode and how the best material always seems to happen off mic. Then AI drifts into the conversation. It has the usual Hot Young Designers Club feel: chatty, quick, and a little sideways before the actual topic lands. The main thread is custom choices. Rebecca talks about contractors second-guessing a color even after the designer and client have already worked through the approval. Her take is pretty direct. If the swatch is right and the client signed off, the contractor can paint it and trust the process. Tile gets plenty of attention too. Cement tile, especially custom colorways, gives a room a more specific point of view. Villa Lagoon comes up as one example. The hosts treat that kind of customization as a design choice and also as a client bragging moment, because people like being able to say something was made for them. The catch is time. Custom tile may not cost much more, but it needs more planning. Rugs get the same treatment. J. Poor Living's custom rug program, with tufted swatches and website color selection, becomes another way to make a project feel less off the shelf. The appeal is bigger than novelty. Custom choices can make a portfolio stronger, get clients more excited, and push projects somewhere cooler. They do not make it sound effortless. The closer is a nudge: expect some problem-solving, then keep going, because it gets easier.

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