Deaf Interior Designer Creates Comfortable Home Environments

Have you ever looked around your living room and wished that you could wave a magic wand and turn it into something that looks like a picture out of “Better Homes and Gardens”? Have a few ideas but don’t have the time to carry them out?

Want to hire a designer but feel that they are completely unaffordable, and too hard to communicate with? If you answer yes to any of these, Anita Kroll Interiors (AKI) might be an option for you!

But first, what exactly does an interior designer do? Anita Kroll, owner and head designer of the Chicago-based firm, defines an interior designer as someone who is “qualified by education and experience to identify, research and creatively problem-solve issues related to the quality of one’s environment.”

This includes the basic fundamental design, design analysis, planning and use of the space, the psychology of colors and other related aspects of the environment and surroundings. Designers also plan, order, develop, design and produce each idea as it best fits the client.

“Designers are not to be confused with interior decorators,” states Kroll. “Interior decorators simply decorate. Designers do everything for you.”

Anita Kroll is the deaf entrepreneur who established AKI. She currently lives in the Chicago area with her husband, Kent, who is also deaf. Kroll has a deaf daughter, Trudy, who lives in Minnesota. She left a nearly 20-year employment with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to pursue her interest in interior design. During her career with the IRS, she received the “Commitment to Excellence” ACS (Automated Collection Systems) Employee of the Year award in 1993.

Kroll looked into interior design during the time her agency was downsizing. She was offered another position within the agency, yet she was hooked by the first few classes she took in interior design. She eventually graduated with her BFA in Interior Design from the International Academy of Design and Merchandising in Chicago.

Kroll is an Allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers and is a Window Fashions Certified Professional at the Associate level. Despite her past experience working with firms, Kroll decided to give in to her sense of adventure and develop her own business. “It is much more rewarding to be able to freely work with the clients without having to worry about others (in the firm) opposing or changing your creative ideas.”

AKI works with all kinds of people and with their diverse budgets. Although Kroll has ties to the deaf community, she currently has more hearing clients. “This is only because of the idea that many deaf people — and hearing people — have that you must be ‘rich’ in order to hire an interior designer. A big misconception!”

Kroll emphasizes that a good interior designer will work with the client’s budget, whether it is $20 or $20,000.

An important concept is that one must work with the client’s budget as opposed to the designer’s budget. One way to budget for interior designing is by planning the project in stages to be implemented over several months or years. This helps the client save up, yet see results of the plan as it progresses.

Having an interior designer do one’s home can save a lot of time, stress and perhaps even money in the long run.

Kroll states that she spends a majority of her time getting to know the design preferences of the client, then hunting down specific fabrics, colors, wallpaper and unique accessories. This allows people to have input into the design of their home, yet does not tie up their valuable time.

Hiring an interior designer also saves people from making common, costly mistakes. Without guidance, one may pick the wrong colors or choose a theme they will be unhappy with after a year. Kroll emphasizes the importance of having a focus point or theme that one can live with five years from now.

For example, using bright red paint on the wall “is an almost guarantee that the client will be sick of it within a year.” Buying furniture that is not durable for small kids will wear out within three years. And furniture that is not properly measured can crowd a room.

Kroll predicts that there will be a resurgence of family-friendly or traditional styles. Most of the families she has been working with have small children and prefer a place where they can be comfortable, yet be stylish.

She also notices a trend in the growth of home offices. “It will be interesting to see how this changes over the next two years and see how people develop taste or need for a comfortable home with a productive home office.”

When asked to share her most challenging project, Kroll recalls working with a client who bought a new house that had doorless, connecting rooms throughout the house.

This was difficult to work around because “the kitchen was connected to the dining room, which was connected to the living room and the entire house was built that way”, Kroll states.

In addition, the client was unable to decide whether to go traditional or contemporary. Kroll was hired to do window treatments, but had to work around brand new furniture that the client had purchased prior to hiring her.

“The family room was very casual while the eating area had one contemporary pattern and the kitchen had another contemporary pattern and then the dining and living room were very traditional. Normally, in this kind of situation if there are no prior design or furniture in place, a designer will try to make the rooms coordinate by way of colors, patterns or time periods. But she had already bought all these furniture pieces.”

Kroll states that she made the situation work by selecting one solid color to utilize in the eating area that tied both the kitchen and family room together. She did the same for the dining and living room.

At the same time, she used a contemporary fabric for the kitchen and family room. It worked by toning down the harsh mixture of the furniture. “I felt really good when I saw the final result and the client was very happy with it. Designing is a lot more challenging than people give credit for, especially in situations like this where nothing matched!”

To find out more about Anita Kroll, AKI, or to see some of the work Kroll has done for her clients, go to the AKI website at http://www.akinterior.com