Condo Spaces Are Small

Our family home in southern Oregon is a spacious, ranch-style with a lot of space. So we have had no experience with small spaces.

We learned in short order that the scale of everything needs to be smaller. Slender legs, non-bulky designs and no clutter. That means not an extra piece of furniture or whimsey to make it really work.

After visiting too many furniture stores and facing daunting choices, we engaged the services of a designer. Another lesson, that. Our first experience was not a satisfying one. The designer turned out to be more accurately a window-covering specialist - though she professed to deliver the whole nine yards. We paid her for an hour or two and parted company, after she revealed she couldn't draw and offered some suggestions that did not fit with our expectations. In retrospect, our interviewing process was flawed. Real interior designers have degrees in design, professional certification, and most can render their ideas in some sort of draft layout.

With that ephiphany, we went back to the data; did some more interviewing, and hired Amanda Klash & her partner Emma Davis at Montgomery Kalsh. We have developed a good relationship with these two professionals and our project is moving forward at long last. Amanda helped us select and order the appropriate window coverings, a woven-wood product, and her installer just got them up a few days ago. Working with Amanda, Emma designed a layout for the space, speced-out some furniture pieces and deisgned us a sectional for local manufacture when we couldn't find an appropriate retail product. We'll have that piece in about three weeks, with any luck at all.