Saturday, August 14, 2010

What I do now.

It's not complicated work, but I like it. I was hired as an administrative assistant, essentially, but I think I quickly proved that I could be used beyond that realm. So besides general offices duties (you know, phones, filing, organizing projects, etc.) I also interact directly with our clients, many of whom are interior designers, some of whom are direct clients (those are mainly the restoration jobs). I love it.

I love keeping a handle on the various stages of a project. I love watching a custom sofa being made from the woodshop straight through to the upholstery - it's amazing to see how precise and exact a job it is. The owner of the business is a fourth generation furniture maker, who still does things the old school way. And he takes the time to explain to me exactly what is being done in various stages, and why.

The fabric we use is not the same kind of fabric I was used to dealing with in my business. Most of what I worked with was quilting weight cottons and (what I now know is, low quality) home dec fabrics. In my new job, we are working with linens that wholesale from $75 to $150 a yard; silk velvets at $400 a yard. That's wholesale!

We did a set a of 14 dining room chairs for a very high profile client in that silk velvet! The fabric alone was $10,000. I died. So far, that has been my favorite project. We did an entire house for this [celebrity] couple - all the window coverings and much of the furniture. The kicker was when my boss had to go there one afternoon for a meeting before the final turnover and invited me along. It was by far the most spectacular home I have ever seen (even if everything was covered in moving blankets!).

So, as you can see, it's quite a change from what I was doing, but amazing. Seriously, I have to pinch myself. Often.