Ode To The Shiny Red Baller
Is there anything better than a interior design client who is a quick-study, has a good eye, and understands what a realistic budget looks like? Yes - the shiny red baller. The shiny red baller is someone who possesses all of these qualities but also brings to the table the ability to see beauty everywhere they look. When the worst sin is that your client throws too many beautiful ideas over the fence and it’s making it tough to choose, you’ve found a shiny red baller.
I’ve had a few clients like this and I can tell you that they are a delight to work with. They are energetic, participatory, eager, and relentlessly open to seeing and appreciating new and beautiful things for their homes. They usually have good taste and appreciate different periods and styles and they get very excited when they find cool new things. On more than one occasion the shiny red baller has introduced me to a new resource because they spend a lot of time looking at decorating magazines, websites, and social media and they often have favorite stores that they like because they are actually closet decorators. It’s like having a design partner who’s as inexhaustible and into it as I am. Also known as design nirvana.
There’s a downside of course. The shiny red baller can inundate you with so much input that you’re not sure what you’re supposed to be looking for anymore. And they are notoriously difficult to pin down and can become easily overwhelmed, which is why they hired you in the first place – so the project will finally get done. While the presentations are a great, big, mutual love-fest, it can be tough to get them to commit and pull the buying trigger. You also spend way more time on their projects because you’re busy going through tons of their design porn and they’re prone to changing their minds because, well, there’s another shiny red ball over there. It’s the best and worst of interior design ADD.
But I’ll take them every single day of the week and twice on Sunday. Their energy is contagious and they validate your excitement like no one else, especially when your husband can't bear it anymore as you blather on about that cow print chair that you are losing sleep over. The shiny red baller is that trusty design companion who is always up for an email or two on the latest in cool and groovy. They are super brave when it comes to considering new things and are immensely teachable, and when beauty is your common denominator it’s pretty impossible to fail. Here's to shiny red ballers everywhere!