IS THE CLIENT EVER RIGHT?

Opinions are like you-know-whats: Everybody's got one. And when a homeowner's emotions run high as budgets swell, decorators are likely to be given some notes

- STEPHEN WALLIS

It's too bold. It's too green. It's too too. There are moments, even in the best designer-client relationships, when doubt and discord take hold and designers find themselves saying some version of "You just need to trust me." Plenty of clients will relent, but others push back, maybe even insist. So, are they ever right?

"Whether you're right or wrong or they're right or wrong, it becomes a gray area, especially with the clients who aren't sure of what they want," says designer Brian McCarthy, who has worked through all kinds of ups and downs with clients in a nearly four-decade career. "When I'm able to say, 'Trust me, this is it,' that comes with deep conviction, and I mostly do it with clients I have a real relationship with." McCarthy says he welcomes debate, especially with those who "have a point of view." 

But things do go wrong. Not only in the second guessing of aesthetic decisions but also with delays and cost overruns, issues that ever-more-demanding homeowners tend to have little tolerance for. "Today you have to run your business like a very tight ship," says designer Ernest de la Torre, particularly if you're working "in the billionaire zone," where clients "don't easily forgive mistakes. They want lots of information. And they want things on time."