The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Theory Of Decoration

Prices and Profits

General Conditions

The Interior Decorator being both an artist and a merchant, his vocation is both a profession and a business, and his earning capacity depends quite as much upon one of these standards as upon the other. It is usually as the artist and professional man that he confers with his clients and opens up the opportunities to use his means and abilities as a merchant to obtain payment for his services.

With this in mind, it is important to assume the attitude with his clients and establish the inference that his services as the artist are made gratis. His decorative judgment, his eye for proportion and color harmony, and his connoisseurship of what is right in all matters that require artistic knowledge are theirs for the asking. Of course this gift to the client must always be donated as an apparent favor. The assumption of this attitude at all times, and a willingness shown when opportunity presents itself, without undue intrusion, gradually creates friends and clients who come of their own accord to seek the opinion of the decorator. This confidence is the foundation of the decorator's reputation and must be jealously guarded, for self-evident reasons.

The second most important policy to follow is the establishment of a reputation for fair and just prices for goods and labor. Interior Decorators of today are paving the penalty—as a class—for the sins of some of their predecessors, who, knowing little themselves, took advantage of customers who knew less.

There is consequently an opinion among many persons that Interior Decorators have a habit of charging high prices. It is possible that there is a certain basis for this opinion, but it is not due, as a rule, to any unfair profit being added to the cost of the goods handled. It is largely caused by the fact that Interior Decorators deal in the highest grade of goods of their respective kinds. Often, too, the public is unable to distinguish between the cheaper grade and the more expensive grade, because to all outward appearances the resemblance may be quite remarkable, the difference being in hidden qualities. That the decorator is more expensive than the department store if quality is taken into account, is, however, quite doubtful, especially in the larger cities where the competition is greatest. No decorator could endure if he consistently overcharged his customers.

The question then comes up as to what are reasonable and what are excessive prices. There are always two items to be figured in estimating costs:

First, The actual cost of material and labor in making an object— or if the object is purchased, the actual price paid for it.
Second, The overhead charges that are constant in an establishment and must be divided in some way between all of the objects that are sold or labor furnished during a definite period, such as a fiscal year.