Safety. Function. Beauty.

Robin Pasley is an interior designer and owner of her own design firm: Pasley Commercial Interiors. She emphasizes the importance of considering safety, functionality, and beauty when designing interior spaces. She works collaboratively with clients and engineers to prioritize these elements in her design process and help businesses grow through strategic interior design.

Transcript

Randi Lynn Johnson 00:00

Welcome to design to help your business grow. I'm your host, Randi Lynn Johnson. Each episode will bring tips and insight into how to make sure your interiors are working for you and growing your business.

Randi Lynn Johnson 00:20

This sort of surprises me that you say that because I've seen your designs, and they all look so beautiful. Like, I'm not looking at it thinking, wow, that is so safe. That's really functional.

Robin Pasley  00:37

But so I am intrigued to learn that you put that much thought into that there are these three things to consider you have more examples or more of like that? Well, you know, it's to me life safety falls into a general code compliance, you know, so, I mean, there's even codes as to help, you know, when a window is next to a door, is that window tempered, and where does the door swing and, and then the other parts of ADA compliance and you know, the approach of a wheelchair to a door, whether it which hinge side it's on, I mean, you know, there's just numbers, it's just a myriad of calculations and numbers that we have to have in our head when we're designing a space.

Robin Pasley  01:16

And those things, I mean, because we want our spaces that we designed to be accessible to everyone. And so we never want anyone Well, first of all, nowadays, you can't even get space approved through permitting if it's not. So that's the good part is that we're making sure that this doesn't get held up. And that's the biggest thing is if you have somebody working on the project that doesn't understand this, then your project could be shot back from, you know, the jurisdictional authority saying no, this doesn't pass, nope, this doesn't pass and you lose time and time is money. Yeah. So if you have somebody working with you going in on the front side that understands all of that we get it right the first time. Yeah, I don't want to see what happened in a recent project I was a part of I didn't actually specify the cabinetry that was going into this area, it was specified by another colleague, and it did not comply. It was one inch off, they had to stop the opening of that location, rip out all the countertops and take out the cabinets and cut them down by an inch. I mean, we're one inch, one inch. And I guess so what we're talking about is that was just some dissonance in that communication. And it costs time and money. A lot of money on the cabinet side.

Randi Lynn Johnson 02:32

So can you explain to me a little bit more about functionality and design, just like we've hit safety? Yeah, I understand that a little bit. Yeah. What does it mean to be functional? Absolutely.

Robin Pasley  02:45

So functionality means I can really address several things. One is one of the first things I think of when I walk into a space is do I know where to go? As a user of that space? Do I know where to go?

And I think this is something that's lost sometimes.

Especially because interior designers, that's, that's our wheelhouse. That's what we're thinking of is in the interior, where where we come in? And where do we know to go from there, I was working on a project that was this public space building. And it had been, you know, worked on by an architect, great architect, friend of mine. But because they think about the spaces differently, when you walked in the door, the first thing in front of you was a hallway. So as a user, you would be like, do I go there? Do I go down the hallway, when actually there were multiple meeting rooms that you could be going to, and there was no way to know where to go. So what we thought about first was creating a wall that meets you tells you where you are, what's the function of this location that I'm in? Because this company had a mission statement and why you were there was super important to them. Yeah. So we wanted you to know, you're here, because you're a part of this idea that we have, yeah. And then the next thing was a directory to tell you well, if you want to go be a part of this thing, you go to the left, and if you want to do that thing, you're going to the right, and you're going to the other thing, I would go around this wall. But so the function of that space was completely lost without that wall. Because you would have just kind of walked in and turned in circles until somebody saw you.

Robin Pasley  04:17

And that's, I mean, Wayfinding is what we call that, you know, being able to find your way through a building, we do that multiple things, sometimes we do it in materials, we will make certain areas, a different color flooring, so that you know, while you're in here, this is what we do in this space and your you know, sometimes we'll even connect the flooring to a directional thing, you know, so that it helps them find that direction. Signage is a huge part of this, obviously. And there's also codes around that, like, how high does it have to be How big do the letters have to be? Because again, we're trying to make these spaces inviting and friendly to all users. So thoughtful, I love just that holistic approach really, to your design. And you know, for me as a designer and being a bit. As an owner, I'm always thinking about how to squeeze functional square inches out of every space, never wanting to leave pockets that are empty.

Robin Pasley  05:11

Weird, you know, have you been into one of these buildings before that you see weird insects or shapes in rooms that now I can't get a piece of furniture over there? Because it's this weird inset and I can't do anything. So it's like, unused space. So we really work to frame up interior spaces so that they're highly functional for everything, including the use of that, like, are we having a meeting? Are we just, you know, is it a huddle room for us to have a short conversation around a small table? Yeah. And we think about things like, where is that thermostat gonna go? No, we always have to comply and work with our engineers who are making these spaces work. But I always find that they have the thermostats in the worst places, because we're thinking about where's Brandon gonna go where his artwork gonna go? I mean, this is then dip unknown to the beauty side of things. Function, they sometimes intersect, and so haven't understand. Like, we have to think about that now, because we're gonna get down to construction, and they're gonna put that in the wrong place. And that's going to be a change order for me to move that to another location, asked me how I know: We've made mistakes learning on the job, too.

Randi Lynn Johnson 06:21

So I think just to wrap it all up to make sure I'm understanding correctly, when you go into a designer discovery, where you're talking with a client, and you're making this fabulous new design for a space, you're going to first take into consideration safety. That's your number one goal to make sure everyone utilizing that space are going to be okay, if the worst should happen. Yes. And then you're really intentional about the functionality of the space, can people find their way around? Is it serving the needs,

Randi Lynn Johnson 06:55

but then you also do such a great job with beauty and aesthetics, and you don't compromise the first two? In order to do that. So it's right, you have your priorities in order, and you hit all three very well, if I might add

Robin Pasley  07:12

Yeah, I think then it's super the end, you know, we always want to come to that third piece, and try not to make it suffer, either, you know, because of the first two. Right? So I think that's part of that puzzle thing that I talked about, you know, problem solving, how can we get, you know, the beauty side of this with the fact that we had to leave that door where we didn't want it to be, but you know, we still want to incorporate it and solve that problem to make it look great. And just to be clear, when I say beauty, I was just using a general term to mean, what is appealing to the user or the person who's in the space. And for me, that goes back to the brand and the narrative and the story of the business itself. And so we have to understand that we never want that narrative to be compromised, but we just want to make sure it's in the proper order that it has to be after we've addressed safety and code compliance and the function of the space. But for us, I mean, it's not just about being pretty it's about telling the story, so that the dollars that that business owner is spending are invested into their brand and making them famous for what they do in the community.

Randi Lynn Johnson 08:21

In an increasingly competitive market, the merits of using interior design as a strategic growth tool can make all the difference in not just surviving but thriving, passively Commercial Interiors designed to help your business grow