Meet HGTV, The Fairy Godmother of Interior Design

            We have all heard of HGTV if not watched an episode here and there, but do we ever stop and think if what you we are watching is actually real? I can’t sit here and say one negative thing after the other about the shows on HGTV because I’m pretty sure it was that exact channel that sparked my interest in interior design when I was younger. When I was younger and much more naïve I would watch these shows and think how fun and “easy” interior design was, and how “quick” you could re decorate someone’s entire home. The point that I am trying to get at is that many people who are naïve and oblivious to what the profession of Interior Design is do think that it is a “quick” and “easy” profession and that anyone can do it.

            I really do feel that as entertaining as the shows on HGTV might be sometimes they put off the wrong message about interior designers. On most of the shows on HGTV the designer will come in and instantly produce a beautiful rendering of the space to be redesigned as if by magic. The designer will already have the design crew picked out and the furniture ready to be shipped in a matter of hours. In the real world this is by no means possible, and is the exact reason why I think many people expect an interior designer to just instantly produce a design concept for them and have it done within a matter of days.

            HGTV does not show the weeks of hard work that an interior designer has to put in to the project just to gather a few simple components for their client. We as designers are not fairy godmothers and cannot magically turn a pumpkin of a home into a beautiful horse drawn carriage with the wave of our tape measure. As much as I do wish this was true and possible it isn’t. People need to start understanding that all they see on TV is not true and there is a lot more hard work and labor that goes into their beautiful homes and surroundings.  

Designing on a Moral

We all as designers have dreams of what we want to design in the future, whether it be designing for the rich and famous or commercial interiors for the mentally disabled. While both of those are great dreams and ideas of your future career path I got to thinking what wouldn’t I design. There isn’t much I would turn down when it comes to what I was given to design especially in this economy. I would be happy to take what ever was given to me. There must be something out there that I just couldn’t design. The reason I wouldn’t be able to design it would have to be for reasons that went against my morals and beliefs. Some people look at morals as your religion, your political stand point, or maybe even your ethics. I base my morals mostly off of my religion and treating others how I would like to be treated. So when this idea of what I wouldn’t design came up as did the idea of designing an abortion clinic.

            Do I think I could ever muster up the courage to design something as gruesome as an abortion clinic? If my boss told me I had to design this clinic or I would be let go, do I think I could still do it? I think I would really have to look at my life at that moment and decide whether this job and the company I am with is really worth staying with. Is this company and job are really worth me going completely against what I stand for just to make a pay check? Honestly I don’t know. I want to think that I would say no to the job and quit, but we all know that in this economy doing so would be a death sentence. I need to realize now before stepping into the “real corporate world” of design that some jobs I have to work on might not be all unicorns and sprinkles, and that if I want to survive in this profession I better just bite the bullet and do what I was trained to do, DESIGN.