My Day Job

Most of the crafters I know have one, a day job that is. I would love to be able to support myself by selling my creations, but at least for the present time that just isn't happening! So I manage a high end flooring showroom in the Seattle Design Center. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Design Center it is basically two large mall type buildings in the Georgetown area of Seattle. Each space in the two buildings is occupied by vendors who supply a variety of home decor items to be sold wholesale to interior designers and architects. The items are then resold to their clients. Showrooms specialize in everything from exquisite furniture to unique lighting fixtures, fabrics, accessories, and flooring.

I have a background in graphic and interior design. Having worked in the interior design field since I graduated from college I decided last year that I wanted to try something a little different - and a little more steady - income wise. Becoming manager of the Rubenstein's Showroom back in July has allowed me to broaden my horizons and learn another specialty in the design field. Flooring is sometimes an afterthought for some designers, and homeowners for that matter. I have learned a lot in the last couple months, but I won't bore you with all the details. However, if you have any questions I would be happy to try and answer them. I don't claim to be an "expert" just yet, but I do know a few.

Anyway, last week was the yearly NORDEX conference at the Seattle Design Center. I'm still not sure what "NORDEX" actually stands for, but it is basically a two day event. During the two days there are different speakers, showroom open houses, and product introductions. I spent the week leading up to it trying to ready the showroom - cleaning, reorganizing, and reworking our displays. I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff including planning the flowers and food for our guests. I was really pleased with the way everything turned out. However, this being my first NORDEX event, I was disappointed with the turn out. I believe the lack of visitors was due to our current economic situation. These types of events target designer in the far reaches of Washington and beyond - not every state has a great resource for designers like the SDC. It seems those targeted might have decided to stay a little closer to home. Anyway, maybe next year will be better. It was a lot of work, but in the end I was happy to have put forth our best effort.