Behind the Scenes: The Essex Project
we loveee a good project reveal on instagram. Seeing the professional photos of a final design is almost as rewarding as a happy client! But this time around I thought it would be helpful to share some behind the scenes and the snowball affect of one. single. item. for the sake of transparency. We all know the industry has been turned upside down with product delays, inflation and quality control.. but here’s a (slightly humorous) insight on what that looks like… now that this project is all done and we are able to look back and laugh (a little)!
design
late June of 2021, during our on site walk through our client said she wanted lots of games… ping pong, pool table, foosball and a tv lounge area. So we came to the inspiration meeting with TONS of game table styles to get a feel for her style (no metal folding ping pong tables here!). We showed inspiration images with a variety of ping pong, pool and foosball tables. We had a walnut parsons style, a mid-century modern, a super modern/slightly delicate white one, but what caught her eye was one with colorful stripes and a clean net detail. Our client was hooked, and it quickly became the focal point in the design. All the other elements were going to be a neutral blues, wood and white, which was similar to the style in the rest of her home. At this point, the ping pong table was not just an inspirational element it was THE element that was going to tie everything together. (ps - we love a discerning client!)
TIMING
As we pulled together all of the other elements in the space and made final design decisions we knew the timeline was going to be a bit wacky. The client was in no rush to have the space finished but none of us expected it to take a year… yes one furnished room took. a. year. to be 100% complete. Everything besides the ping pong table was due to arrive prior to the holiday season. The ping pong table was the only element with a long lead time… a whopping 6 months+… WHAT?! yuppppp. It’s made in the US so unlike items coming from overseas, we knew we weren’t going to run into ‘it’s stuck on the container, on a cargo ship, that is now estimated to be offloaded in 3-4 months, but we can’t guarantee that’. So we felt fairly confident that 6 months would be pretty accurate. ha ha ha…boy were we wrong.
SURPRISE!
The table did arrive within the 6 month window, it actually came early and in time for the holiday season!… but it came damaged. YUP! This was right around the time the cargo ships were starting to get a bit better, but, the quality control in transit went out the window. The table had a big dent, we aren’t talking a little paint chip, but a dent that damaged the wood base. After about a week or so at the clients (and having several people point out the dent to the client as if nobody noticed anddd we weren’t in communication to repair it) the table was picked up to head to the repair shop.
REPAIR
Not so fast… as I’m sure your’e already aware, we are still in a global pandemic with an unraveling labor shortage. The repair was slotted to take two weeks, but weeks turned into almost two months as the repairman got sick, and was out of work for almost 5 weeks. Feeling defeated, but understanding.
Let’s walk you through the repairing process in order for it to look brand new (because it was!)…Start by removing splinters and sanding the area down. Then use a filler, let it cure 24-48 hours, and sand to square off the edge. Repeat until the surface is perfectly level. Lastly we finish with the custom color so it took a bit of time to color match. It was also a semi gloss, which shows any imperfections like a little ridge from the paint thickness to create a clean stripe (that could totally mess with a heated ping pong tournament and we cannot have that!). Anyway, they paint, let it dry, sand, paint, let it dry, sand, etc. until it’s perfectly even. Keep in mind, each ‘let it dry’ was another 24-48 hour period. A week before delivery, panic sets in with my repairmen that the finishes on the two tops won’t match perfectly. He’s a perfectionist, which we love, but damn we wanted this done. So he picks up the other half of the table, refinishes that with the resin, etc. and then we were FINALLY able to install this beauty…
VOILA!
if you thought there was going to be another plot twist, you’re wrong, unless you count the screws to install the table being left behind and having to come back again the next day to complete the install, then you were right! But at last we have a perfectly even and undamaged ping pong table that is as good as new, gorgeous, and did we mention it doubles as a dining table?!
So what was the point of this story? For starters, transparency in the industry. Two, the aftermath of covid has hit the industry so hard it makes getting one single item a massive headache, patience is a virtue. Three, this is why you hire professional designers! Yes we make spaces functional + stylish but when we manage the project we also take care of all the details, big and small, for you. Sometimes it’s back and forth communication with vendors or managing the snowball effect of delays or damages in transit, but then everything falls into place, and you are left with a custom curated home that is uniquely yours, but none of the headaches!
