Marengo Avenue
Imagine you’re in your early to mid 30s. You just finished paying off some whopping amount of some crazy student loans. Hellllll yes, you feel on top of the world! But then you come home from your super accomplished career that you studied your ass off for, to realize you’re still living like, or literally with the furniture of your 20s from your undergrad days. Does this sound familiar? It probably does because apparently 45% of millennials with student loan debt (or us, I should say), will most definitely feel this way.
What’s that you say? You’re ready for some grown up looking furniture but still can’t quite splurge on really pricey stuff? You can’t even think about spending any money on an interior designer because discretionary income just doesn’t go towards things like that for a majority of the population. Where do you even begin? This is what I like to call, the “design disparity.”
Exhibit A: A few years ago I went to an interior design conference and remember one of the speakers tell a story about a client who thought “Restoration Hardware was high end.” She scoffed and laughed at the idea, which shockingly seemed to be the general consensus in this giant conference ballroom. That’s when I realized: most of the people in this room seem to be so far fetched for the average design lay person. You know why? Because yes in that moment, I, myself already thought RH was high end before that comment.
In my mind, I knew that RH was considered high end for most people. If there is such a huge disparity with how designers saw your average design lay person and what was “high end,” how then, can great design be attainable for most without such a hefty price tag?
Since embarking on this design journey my philosophy has always been to try to make design more attainable for people, especially my peers who have worked so incredibly hard to get their healthcare degree. I guess my design philosophy doesn’t come as too much of a surprise since I feel a similar passion about the pharmacist’s role in medication accessibility (but I digress).
This is why this project meant so much to me. I was so happy to be able to bring affordable design to one of my healthcare peers and create a room that my friend could be proud of, and that in itself is something I can be proud of too. Restoration Hardware, or not.
