Design Your Dream Home

Speaker 1: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Antoinette Fargo is an interior designer with experience from construction project documentation and management to space planning custom furniture lighting design and 3D rendering she has designed and overseen more than 500 custom residential and Commercial projects and has over 17 years of professional design expertise for Antoinette design is the culmination of over a decade of passion and commitment to her clients hi Antoinette thank you for joining us have you always wanted to be a designer and tell us about your business and the pivotal moment when you decided to have your own business and what gave you the courage to make the

Speaker 2: leap to launch it thank you so much for having me I didn't always want to be an interior designer I sang in high school wanted to be in the music industry two years into my college career I was lucky enough to take an interor design class it was the moment that I walked into the Pacific Design Center and I saw these designers with their clients and taking this first design class I just really enjoyed it and I loved all the spatial aspects of it I started to realize as a kid I really was meant to be an interior designer I was constantly re rearranging my room coercing my friends into painting and repainting my walls painting furniture through the years I I really did love back and realized that I think I was always meant to be a designer that pivotal moment deciding to start my own business it came fairly early for me both of my parents were entrepreneurs so I kind of always had that entrepreneurial Spirit when I was in college and had my own business later after working for family and friends I went into business with a colleague of mine that worked at a a design showroom with me it was a staging company and a home organizing companies in 2011 was when I decided to take the leap I had been promoting myself on social media and in different networking groups and had enough to sustain me and really to take that leap I started Annet designs which was my previous business that I morphed into this one and did that for 10 years and built a really great clientele a great team of commercial and residential designers and then took that and used use that as the foundation for for Dora and I love how

Speaker 1: you took your singing and your creativity and put it into homes you're using all that creativity just in a

Speaker 2: different way it seems yeah I love it

Speaker 1: there's nothing else I could ever do and would ever do and I enjoy it so much I'm glad that I landed here it's through those little decisions and those little moments throughout our lives that until you are looking at it in hindsight you really don't realize that laying the foundation for everything that you're doing and all the choices that you're making and all the things that you're

Speaker 1: going to become with Annet designs I was like all right I've made it I'm done and then my best friend calls me you want to open a furniture store a design firm and a real estate brokerage and I was like hell no and after two months we'll do it Dora is the culmination of of everything I've done in my life and a partner ship with one of my good friends Troy Palmquist we

Speaker 1: wanted to create this allinclusive Trifecta of Home Services that is the beginning buying or selling a property whether it's a residential or commercial property being able to Envision it in a different way maybe you're looking at something and it's a great home except for the kitchen so we really help all of our Realtors to assist their clients and and envisioning a different space again whether it's commercial or residential to have a

Speaker 1: place that somebody could design the home sit on the furniture really experience the whole gamut of what we have to offer a space where somebody can go and have full Design Services a look at all of the furniture accessories artwork lighting and then even work with a realtor to put it on the market if if they're ready to purchase something new or to purchase the home of their dreams and then building it into the home of your dreams Furnishing it and being able to literally do all of that and walk into it and just move in and and we make

Speaker 1: it that easy and it's so important to be able to see things and feel things I'm trying to replace fabric on a banket and trying to look at fabric online is almost impossible and when you're making a big purchase like a couch or something that's going to be a pivotal part of your room you don't want to just take a chance I mean some things you can but some things are just too large of a purchase show up and you don't love it my tip is measure measure and measure again if you have to tape it out on your floor if you have to get good advice five different fabric good advice get the five fabric swatches I know your husband or your wife is super annoyed that you keep going back on the decision but it's an important decision just make sure you love it it is it is I personally love design and could spend hours in marble flooring and construction design element stores what

Speaker 2: is your favorite part of the design process and how does it feel when you design a home that your clients love the

Speaker 1: favorite part of the design process for me is really the design process we have concentrated it to a streamlined process and I think that's what makes us different from all other design firms is we do have a one through seven stepbystep process that we follow to make sure that we have the best possible outcome inside of that design process it's the beginning it's assisting the client to create a budget that works for them to draw out from them what they need and what they want but what is their wish list and what is their needs list what are the functionalities of a room that have to be there getting clients to divulge all of that information working with them through cultivating a design that's them and not me holding their hand through that because so many designers design for their portfolio of course I'm going to lead clients in a direction that I think is most aesthetically pleasing that's my job I love it to be a collaborative process and I don't think that it's a good outcome for anybody unless it's collaborative and you're so right because there can be beautiful design but it's not functional and that is what clients want to hear because they you're right they want to walk into their house and say I love this and this is who I am exactly not not feeling like you're living in someone else's absolutely and you'll see that in our portfolio it's so diverse from a completely traditional all the way to a full contemporary modern and I've done everything in between with the client in mind that's good design in construction

Speaker 2: there are always obstacles as a business owner we Face challenges daily share with us a recent obstacle

Speaker 1: and how you were able to overcome it oh I just went on the longest vacation that I've ever been on congratulations I'm not sure that I'll do it that way again but my team is where did you go we went to Italy France and Spain and it was to be amazing oh it was it was amazing and we had projects going during that time we did really really well however I was

Speaker 2: how about you I met you how did you do I

Speaker 1: was I was on the edge of my seat constantly thank God for slack being in that constant communication thank God but I had one of our clients that were doing a wine tasting room in Loa Leos Santa Barbara area sends me a picture of the outdoor trellis that we designed and he says well I I think the color looks good but it looks a little bit dull and my heart sank and I just thought what happened it wasn't supposed to be painted it was supposed to be stained you have to go to solution immediately it it's not about what happened or how it happened it's the the contractors on the job right now what do we do to mitigate this issue and how quickly can we mitigate it got on the phone with a team called the contractor called the architect called our design team and said this isn't how it was supposed to be but what can we do we decided on a new color and and we fixed it on site essentially within a couple of hours the key is to be to be flexible it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when and I tell my clients this I have this conversation in the beginning of projects and I call them the hard truths right it's things will come and damage things will be backordered things will be wrong we will have to fix things things will get damaged unfortunately we

Speaker 2: try to mitigate it as much as possible and collectively figuring out how are we going to fix it it got fixed and is it the ideal outcome not right now I'll say but usually a lot of those things become what I call Happy accidents if something changes you incorporate that change into your design as if it were always there nothing is perfect no project and no person is perfect and things will happen but I think you mentioned one of the most important aspects of leadership is going straight to the solution and so of being muddled in the details and how it

Speaker 1: happened exactly do you have a favorite

Speaker 2: client success story that you can share with us I have so many we did a really great project for a client whose son was in a wheelchair we were lucky enough to redesign the house completely for Ada accessibility every single square inch of that house opening doorways removable panels underneath the sink so that when he reached an age that he could do dishes we installed a track that ran through the whole house to help with the assistance of lifting and lowering and designing this awesome shower that has all these body sprays so fun that's probably one of my greatest client success stories because the functionality and the the change to our client's life to all of their lives as a family was the most exponential that I've ever

Speaker 1: seen magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one way you can share with us that you find and live your joy each day working with clients

Speaker 2: is my joy for sure and working with my team is my joy design and construction especially is really a taxing job early my career I actually found out that construction management is like one of the top 20 most stressful jobs this is under doctor lawyer and I'm going why didn't somebody tell me this and it's so much to remember so many details it's the little moments and I joke with my girls I do a lot on on Zoom now being back and forth between California and Washington and honestly we celebrate every win we celebrate every little thing oh the chairs came in on time yay you know you don't know how big of a thing that is it's little but it's also

Speaker 1: big it is thank you so much for joining us today Antoinette can you please share with us how and where we can find you oh

Speaker 2: thank you so much for having me it was such a pleasure you're such a doll I can't wait to see all that you do and and I love that you love design you can find us at bor.com and that's b y d o r a.com or at our online shop which is dor collective.com on social media at dora. designs dora. Collective and dora.

Speaker 1: properties thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our shetit website or at shetit on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave