This is part of our ongoing series where clients tell their personal stories. Here is one from Kammi Reiss.
Lisa and I met last year at an event hosted by our mutual friend, Dr. Amy Wechsler. When Amy happened upon us chatting she said ,“You two have to get to know each other.” But we didn’t need any coaxing. We had hit it off at hello. Lisa told me about Imagine It Done, and while I am a fastidious organizer who even folds underwear, what I was most excited by was Lisa’s commitment to creating function for her clients. I am an interior designer, and I frequently have people come to me with a vision of what they want, but that has nothing to do with how they live. I understand wanting to turn your dream into a reality, but if that reality is impossible to maintain it will quickly morph from dream to nightmare.
I loved everything Lisa stood for, and while I had built my apartment to function beautifully for my husband and me, I am not an expert at organizing. I can manage renovations, help you understand why you should use small scale tiles rather than large ones in your kid’s bathrooms, and make a layout for a living room that will optimize intimate conversation and a sense of luxury. That’s the value I bring to a client. I knew that Lisa had a very specific skill set that was outside my wheelhouse, and that she could make my great space even better.
Lisa and her staff dazzled me. Prior to their organizing my apartment, we had lengthy and thoughtful discussions about all of my stuff. I work from home, so this was not only about my clothes and kitchen, but also my fabric swatches, stone samples, client folders and everything else it takes to run my business. I had no idea why or how she was going to use some of the items she ordered for me -- I thought I had a pretty good system. Turns out, pretty good is a far cry from fabulous. Lisa and the girls made it fabulous. They categorized in ways I hadn’t considered, stacked, folded and rolled in ways that were logical and could be easily maintained by my staff. And they did this while referring to my assessment of how I use things, meaning they gave me solutions to my unique challenges -- not cookie cutter solutions.
In these times when we are all under stay at home orders, the kind of work that Lisa and I do is more important than ever. Lisa makes sense of her client’s things in a good-looking, thoughtful and personalized way. I design spaces that are beautiful and comfortable but are also highly functional. Recently I got a call from a client saying she was so glad that I had insisted she put pocket doors between her living room and den, because the den has now had to turn into her husband’s work at home space. She also said, “Thank goodness you told me about Imagine It Done. If I didn’t have Lisa’s system in place every drawer and closet in my apartment would be a disaster."
Read more stories like Kammi's on our blog.