A Typical Day in the Life of an Interior Design Entrepreneur
Heyhey!
I love when people do a typical day in the life of, because a lot of times I have no idea what kind of work they do, and what their day would look like. I also think that there are many different routes that you can go with interior design. Some people solely do space planning and millwork, while others are all about styling and furniture. Personally for me, I'm somewhere in between. I enjoy all aspects of interior design, and like that I am able to do each facet of the industry.
Of course, every day is so different for me. Some days I stack up meetings and I'm gone all day, other times I'm in the office on the work grind. But, that's what makes it so fun!
The first few hours of my day are dedicated to me. I wake up at 6am and don't sit down at my desk until 9am. I start off my day feeding Kona and I, and taking in all the puppy snuggles.
You can shop my looks on my LTK it page! This photo was taken after a CB2 and Domino event which I'm wearing a Reformation jumpsuit, vintage jacket, Aldo block heels and Kate Spade bag.
Probably my favorite part of my day, getting a hug from Kona when I get home!
6am - Wake up
6:05 - Feed Kona, make coffee + breakfast, hang out on the sofa and snuggle up with Kona
6:15 - Do some Italian lessons + read (Mike wakes up sometime in between this)
7:00 - Start working on admin things like blog posts, social media, or other various in-house work
8:00 - Workout (I'll go to the gym, home workout or go for a run. I typically workout somewhere between 30-45 minutes)
8:50ish - Make a post-workout smoothie (here's a blog post with are some of my favorites!)
8:55 - Shower
9:00 Start work (I'll go through my emails, make sure that I have everything set for the day before I leave for my meetings, and work on various items I know I can get done in the 45 minutes I have before I have to get ready to leave for the day.)
9:45 - Get ready for meetings
10:00 - Drive to Boston
11:00 - Design meeting 1 (meeting with contractors to go over some construction, or a design meeting with a client looking at some various design concepts, or a new client consultation)
12:00 - Drive to next meeting
12:30 - Design meeting 2 (meeting with contractors to go over some construction, or a design meeting with a client looking at some various design concepts, or a new client consultation)
1:30 - Drive home 2:30 - Eat lunch (I like to meal prep and have food ready on hand, so I'm not taking a bunch of time to make lunch. Even though I work from home for myself, I still like to have elements where I treat it like I'm in an office, and I wouldn't just be cooking in the middle of the day. I would be eating and then getting back to work)
2:45 - Play with Kona in the backyard (the little derpy dog needs to be tired out!)
3:00 - Start work (this is where I do my more in depth design work like floor plans, or construction document items, anything that requires a lot of focus. This also is a time where I like to put pallets and finishes together. The lighting in my office is perfect at this time, so I like to make use of that natural daylight)
7:30 - Make dinner and eat (again, I usually have some things already prepared, so its more just me whipping them up and cooking them all together)
8:00 - Play with Kona and tire the little pup out
8:15 - Start work
12:00-2:00 - Go to bed
Of course, I'm not on a hard schedule if I don't have somewhere to be, or a meeting in the morning. I've been learning to listen to my body more and be more conscience about what its telling me. If I need to sleep until 6:30, I'm not going to fight it. Or, maybe I'm in the middle of some work related items and I don't get to workout until 9am, thats okay too. As long as I know my tasks that I need to accomplish for the day are going to be met, then I am good.
As a designer, every day looks so different. Some days I'm in my office all day working on projects, and other times, I'm out all day at job sites or meetings. This middle part of my day is what always changes. Most days that I have meetings in the city, they will be from 11-3 roughly. I try my best to schedule a couple of them, so that I don't have to go into the city every day. Most weeks, I'm there about three days a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.
In between my working day, I'll take a couple short breaks to eat lunch, bring Kona for a walk, or play with him outside. He really likes his attention, so if Mike and I don't, he will make it known that he wants to play!
Most people think its crazy that Mike and I both work from home together. But, we don't actually work in the same room! Mike has some of his work in the workshop in the barn, and in the basement. He also likes sitting on a sofa to work, which I have no idea how he can do that! For me, I have my office and I thrive working in that room.
After dinner, Mike and I continue to work, but this time, I like to snuggle on the sofa with him. This is my time to do some more less intense work, like sourcing or blogging. We might put a documentary on or something in the background, and we also love snuggling up with Kona, too! Since my days are so different, I don't have a set time of when I go to bed. I just sleep when I get tired, which is typically between 12-2. Yes, I know that it's not a lot of sleep, but, I've always been like that! I've never needed 8 hours of sleep and I honestly feel more tired when I sleep too much. I wake up groggy if I sleep more than 6 or 7 hours. So, my sweet spot is somewhere between 4-6 hours of sleep.
Again, every day is so different, but this kind of gives you an idea of what I do and how I do it!
xx
-Han