Interior designers are unique people.  We often take notice of things that others do not.  We are very detail oriented, meticulous and imaginative (sometimes to our detriment!) We often have unexplainable behavior that baffles our friends and family.

Here are my top twenty “you know you are a designer because…”

(But let me first preface this list with- I don’t do ANY of these things! (wink wink ;))

1) You spend forever picking out things that have a pattern- wrapping paper, paper plates, thank you cards, scrapbook paper.  When shopping at Party City for a graduation party, you choose the “geometric patterned” paper plates because they remind you of a cool fabric.

{La Plates patterns}

2) Craig’s List is your best friend.  Things you purchase for your home end up on it faster than you can say “I’m over it”.

3) When you used to go on vacation as a child, you’d pack up your room’s belongings, take them with you, and “re-decorate” the hotel room that you were staying in for the weekend (complete with Mike Modano and SBTB “wall decor”- otherwise known as posters)

4) When you ask your family and friends what they think about your newest pillows or home accessory, they refuse to give their two cents because “it will be gone tomorrow and replaced by something else next week”.  (90% of the time, they are right!)

5) The key players in your dreams at night are people in the industry and your last nightmare had something to do with a client’s project going awry.

6) You can go to someone’s home and pinpoint exactly where each “new” furniture or accessory piece came from as well as offer up where they sell the piece (or something similar) “to the trade” for less.

{Hello, Pottery Barn}

7) You find yourself ending many conversations or outings with “this would make a good blog post”.

8- When looking to purchase a car, you focus more on the interior than the exterior and get a lil nit picky about the seat fabric and interior color (please bring back gray, Volkswagen!)

9) You notice when the undertones of the paint and tile at a restaurant are not meshing well together and comment about it to whoever is eating with you (your design rant always makes the meal TONS of fun for the other person with you!)

10) At friends’ house parties, you walk in and immediately say “you have to give me the tour!”

{Photo via The Red Room}

11) You speak a different language (acronyms mostly).  Terminology like CFA, RID, and COM often come up in conversation after-hours (and more often than not, require a translation)

12) You go out of town to visit a sibling and the first thing you notice upon seeing her home is how one sconce is lower than the other and how her china cabinet isn’t centered on the wall. (sorry Cath!)

13) When selecting bridesmaid dresses for your wedding, you take into account the carpet at the wedding reception venue.

14) Fabric swatches start turning up in unexpected places all over your house- in the cracks in your sofa, in the laundry hamper, as your pet’s chew toy…

15) People are always commenting on how heavy your purse is.  Just like Mary Poppins, you start pulling strange objects out of your “carpet bag”- tape measures, fabrics, paint fans, tile samples, you know the usual….

16) You get blank stares from your friends when you tell them what kinds of things Kelly, Suzanne, and Bunny are up to.

17) When Nate Berkus launched his line for Linens and Things five years ago, you waited in line for hours to meet him.  Even worse, you were devastated years later when the vase he signed broke and you tried to super glue his signature back together.

18) The top debates with your significant other are- whether custom throw pillows are made for sleeping, whether the recliner is a necessary piece of furniture, and why it’s crucial to re-paint the dining room the “same” color it already was.

19) You can divide any number by twelve, and come up with the answer off the top of your head in feet (ok I admit, we’re still working on that one…)

20) You carry around “shopping bags” from fabric showrooms so often that you could be a walking advertisement.  In addition to this, you start to get compliments on the cute bags and people ask where they can purchase them.  (Schumacher, did you hear that one?)

Just to re-iterate, I’m not fessing up to these, this is just what I “hear” that other designers do! 😉