Boutique Architectural
& Interior Design Studio

Clapham London

My Life As An Online Interior Designer

It took me what felt like forever to finally be able to live this lifestyle as an online interior designer, working from wherever I want, at whatever time I want, wear whatever I want, work in the way that I want, have dream clients who appreciate me and love working with me (and who are so happy to pay me!)

When I think back to all my mates back in Australia, I am definitely a late bloomer. As I was heading towards my thirties, all my friends seemed to be having babies and getting married, whilst I was just finishing up my 7-year architecture degree and heading back over to England to work for a large international hotel design company.

Besides snowboarding, I only have one other passion in my life and that is buildings. Big, small, old, new, inside, outside – doesn’t matter. I am o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d with buildings. When I work, rest, play, travel, eat, doesn’t matter I’m thinking about or looking at buildings.

My secret obsession is perving at houses on Rightmove and Air B&B. I love seeing how people live, I’m totally fascinated by it. One thing that I have noticed over the years is that architects, designers and councils have less input into housing these days and developers and one time landlords (aka non-professional landlords) are the new decision makers in my industry – which has been hugely reflected in the very low standards seen today in the current housing stock.*

I set up an online interior design business about 5 years ago called “designmyroom” where I did the interior designs for individual rooms for a very low cost. That progressed me to start my company in 2016 called Invent Design Create Ltd and I was working as a freelance interior designer on the side whilst I still worked as an architectural designer for an architectural firm during the day.

In March 2017, I finally started working for myself full time! I started with 4 clients in March and by the end of 2017, l have worked with over 30 happy, paying clients and now, I have so many clients, I can’t take them all on. When I started, I didn’t have any previous projects or a beautiful portfolio of work, I had nothing but my passion and personality and I had to figure out a way of getting regular income and making sure I was doing everything legally as well as making sure my clients got everything they needed and I always tried to exceed their expectations.

Now, my life as an online interior designer is pretty amazing! I get to work with the most amazing clients. I am not sure how it happened, but every single one of my clients is totally rad. They are cool, interesting, kind, pleasant and they all treat me with respect. I get to design beautiful spaces for them, I get to surprise them with the most amazing designs that they never knew they could afford or even comprehend were possible. I get to completely transform their homes and show them the potential in the spaces that they hadn’t seen,, I get to see their excitement and their happiness when their dreams come true.

The majority of the time, I am surrounded by positivity and happiness. It’s not all glam (although it’s not that bad!). The majority of issues I face are with suppliers – online websites that state that they have something in stock and then you get a phone call or email saying “oh – not sure why that is still coming up, we don’t stock that anymore” or delayed deliveries when my client has taken a day off work to collect something that doesn’t show up, or when delivery guys who can’t lift the thing they have been paid to deliver so take it back to the store and try to charge my client for redilivery!

As long as I am organised and have internet access, I can work from anywhere in the world. I have had clients from Australia, England, Egypt, The UAE, Turkey, Norway, New Zealand, Belgium, Finland and sunny California USA.

You do need to know a bit about the climate, local tastes, availability of furniture and a bit about the housing stock in the places you are designing as houses and the way people live really do vary from country to country, although the biggest issues I have come across are simply finding items of furniture that can ship to certain places, especially if we can’t source items locally within my client’s own country (this happens in Egypt, Norway and some rural areas of many large countries).

As an online interior designer, I spend a lot of time shopping for furniture and interior décor items. It is usually my choice what ends up in my client’s house and I am forever grateful that they trust me and are willing to buy things that I tell them they should buy!

It really is my dream job and I am grateful every day for my clients and also to myself for never giving up on my dream, because after what seems like forever, I finally get to do this for a living.

This year I am starting a mentorship program for women who want to follow their dreams of becoming a freelance interior designer.  If you or someone you know, want to fast track your route to becoming a freelance interior designer or just don’t want to follow the usual route of going back to uni or undertaking a low paid internship, get in touch (on m contact page) and I can send you the course breakdown and start dates or my freelance interior designer mentorship program.

*Nothing against developers, I actually worked for some excellent developers (and still do) and have also studied to become a developer myself. But in my opinion this is what happens when there is a lack of building science knowledge or little care for the life of the person having to living in a dwelling which has to meet a certain ROI. It’s just what happens when profit without care drives the standard rather than thought and passion for each project – BUT there is no reason why you can’t have a higher quality result – it just needs thought and creativity (thats what I do!)

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Architectural & Interior Design Studio In London

Invent Design Create Limited trading as Jo Chrobak is a registered company in England and Wales UK.

Company No. 09610117
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  • 123 Harbut Road, SW11 2RD, London, UK
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