Antiques: Investment & Fashion

Irwin Weiner -- We were taught in design school that it's easier to sell an expensive piece of furniture if it's described as an investment piece. The idea was that when showing a client their floor plan, the designer would casually say something like, "Oh well, I guess we can look for the investment pieces after construction," and then breeze ahead.

The seed would have been planted.

Investment pieces typically refer to antiques. In a more contemporary interior, these might have been Art Deco pieces, Biedermeier, or Asian items. In more traditional interiors, these would have been 18th Century French or English antiques. The point was that no matter what a client spent, the piece would increase in value and, at the very least, maintain its original cost.

Even if a residential design client wasn't keen to "invest" in furniture, it was good to know that in addition to its value, a piece of furniture could be passed down from generation to generation. It contributed to your net worth, but it also had the sentimental value to become a family heirloom. Many of us have fond memories of growing up in our family homes and seeing an object that might have been in our grandparents' living rooms. Seeing familiar pieces in fresh surroundings is a joy.

Times have changed, and it's easier to shop for investment pieces -- and to sell your investments. Antiques and Mid-Century furniture, all incredibly stylish, are now showcased on sites like Bond & Bowery and 1st Dibs. They're teriffic websites, and I think their selections must be supervised by the Decorating Police. Their ability to group items in various categories is tremendous. When looking for a daybed, I was able to enter the word daybed, and an enormous selection popped up. It would've taken days of shopping to have seen such a selection without this electronic resource.

Websites like eBay, Bond & Bowery, and 1stdibs make purchasing antiques incredibly easy. Plentiful sourcing and the ability to compare styles and prices take the usual anxieties out of the selection and decision-making process.

But these sites have fostered new dilemmas. What if my selection of daybeds on 1stdibs this week might not be as stylish as next week's inventory? With an easy parade of merchandise on the web, we're seeing antiques in the same terms as fashion. We've come to terms with spending $1,000 for a nylon designer bag that we can only wear for a season or two, so why can't we purchase, then resell our antiques in the same way? Antiques may still be expensive, but all of a sudden, they're not so precious.

This trend makes me miss the old investment piece and family heirloom mystique surrounding antiques.

Twenty years ago, Art Deco was hot. Now it's Mid-Century Modern. This makes sense since the latter period furniture came about twenty years after the former, and the trend curve left one period behind and buoyed up another. At a recent Modernist sale at Rago Auction in Lambertville, New Jersey, Art Deco pieces fetched much lower prices than the Mid-Century (www.ragoarts.com).

I'm left pondering two questions about antiques:  

1. The first issue has a kind of stock market investment theme. If I would have bought Mid-Century when I couldn't afford Deco, I'd now be able to buy the Deco and sell the Mid-Century at a profit. With this kind of hindsight, what should I buy right now if my primary interest is in collecting antiques as  investment pieces?

2. Biedermeier isn't so hot now, and neither is Art Nouveau. (Of course, premium pieces of any period are always collected and therefore, expensive.) Why don't I buy exactly what I love and not be swayed by furniture fashion?

The answer to question 1 is: Stick to your day job! It's hard to predict interior design trends with such accuracy -- and furniture storage can be expensive.

The answer to question 2 is: Absolutely! Buy what talks to you. 

What's your personal approach to buying and selling antiques? Thank you for your post . . . .

Don't Try This At Home

Irwin Weiner - The first design project I ever did - now over 20 years ago - was helping decorate the home of friends of my parents in South Africa. Financial difficulties forced them to scale down. Using their good-quality furniture and art, I created an interior that was a lot better than what they had expected. It was so successful, in fact, that they were able to feel that their move was not as much a "social decline" as they'd anticipated.

I did for them what I still maintain a good interior design project should do for any client: create a stage set to live in that is so beautiful, that it enhances your life.  It's a little grandiose, I know, but it's a worthy goal nonetheless.

My first design project was a great opportunity for me, too. Even though I wasn't being paid, I realized that it was a good chance to gain my first referral. When I asked the wife what she thought of the interior I'd completed, she said that she particularly loved that it didn't look like it had been "decorated," and she was happy to know that her friends would feel the same way.

When I pressed her on that remark, she confided that hiring a designer made her feel inadequate, both in terms of her taste level, as well as it being somewhat of an unnecessary luxury. One could say that it was like the extravagance of hiring a trainer at the gym when all one needs is self-discipline and a bit of research. And most people think that they've got good taste, so why hire an outsider to design your home?

I'm often confronted with similar thoughts from people who express a disdain for the interior design industry. There are many people who don't have good taste, they can afford to hire a designer, but they elaborately  justify not using a professional. One of my favorite Why I Won't Hire An Interior Designer rationales is "Interiors are like Art, and I don't need to know much about it; I only need to know what I like." 

Now that I'm older and more exerienced in my profession (of which I am very proud), when I meet people who profess the reluctance to hire a professional, or demean interior designers as a whole, I now have a few stock responses. These are the remarks I have reserved for those people who will never hire a pro, so they will never be on my list of prospective clients: 

1. Knock yourself out.

2. You're on your own, 007.

3. Have you ever thought of making your own clothes, too? 

4. Have fun with your decorating project.

5. Have a nice day.

6. Good luck to you.

I find that people who are secure about their taste and sense of style tend to be more trusting with hiring a professional interior designer. They know that going to a designer is not a sign of weakness or decorating surrender. They are purchasing the skills and abilities that a good designer possesses, the professional expertise that we acquire through years of experience in a variety of residential settings and years of study, training, and certification. It's like going to a doctor for her expertise, a tree surgeon for his special knowledge, a vet to cure your sick pet, or a realtor to help you find and negotiate the best deal on a new home in a neighborhood you know nothing about.

I have a fine arts, architecture, and interior design background. Here's how I (and many of my design industry colleagues) can assist clients in a professional way that puts us on a par with any other professional you might want to hire.

• I can step into a bare room and visualize an interior that first starts out with architectural enhancements to get the "bones" right before decorating begins.
• I can sketch the room so you can visualize how the drapery treatments look and where to put furniture and artwork to enhance the final effect.
• I can draw detailed schematics showing where electrical elements go, from recessed lighting to lamps and sconces and electrical sockets and dimmer switches.
• I can help my clients make small rooms look larger, sunless rooms look bright and cheerful, and help inject the owners' personality and verve into each aspect of a room.
• I help educate my clients and bring them up to a higher level of understanding and appreciation for their surroundings. They learn about colors in different lights during different times of day. They understand about different periods of furniture and what features make a piece great or dreadful. They learn how to mix scale and other elements in a room to achieved desired effects. They learn how to make a home beautiful rather than turn it into a page from a Pottery Barn catalog or make it look like a hotel lobby.
• My resources can help clients invest their decorating budgets wisely, and the people I work with will work hard to ensure satisfaction. If something goes wrong, a professional is better equipped to remedy the situation. Believe me, this is a godsend to clients! Imagine what can be damaged during transit, the juggling that has to happen to choreograph a complex remodeling project that requires numerous vendors and permissions. The list goes on and on, and we have the experience to problem solve.

What's intersting is that I find my experienced clients are much more relaxed about their projects. They understand the process, and all the expenses and patience that goes into a profesionaly designed project. They also know the rewards.

Sometimes first-timer clients can be very difficult. In many first meetings, they pour out their design frustrations and dreams, and by the end of the meeting they're quite breathless. These are the clients who have difficulty "letting go" during a project. They second guessing and micro manage and don't enjoy the process of working with a professional decorator to make their home beautiful. It makes me ask such people if they would treat Giorgio Armani the same way if he were desisigning their wedding gown. As the question begins to sink in, I inform them that Mr. Armani would fire them on the spot for insubordination.

Here's the question: If money were not an issue, why wouldn't you hire  a professional interior designer? Please add a post . . . .