I Became an Interior Decorator and Saved a Dysfunctional Family from Ruin

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from becoming an Interior Decorator in this game, it’s that you’re not just an Interior Decorator. Sometimes, you’re also a marriage councilor, personal therapist, part-time nanny, and even the saviour of a completely dysfunctional family on the brink of being torn apart.

Yes, that is what my first day on the job as an Interior Decorator was like.

My first gig was for the Lobo household, who wanted a new walk-in closet. They had a whopping §7,400 budget for just a closet but hey, that’s good news for me! I head out to my gig expecting to arrive at Diego Lobo’s swanky Uptown apartment in San Myshuno. Instead, I end up in the dingy Spice District in a cramped, one bedroom apartment. Apparently, Diego married Katrina Caliente and instead of her moving in with him, they downsized. A lot. Okay then…

The moment I arrive, I am bombarded by a small army of cats. I guess Diego and Katrina are cat people. Me too! They also have a baby girl in a bassinet next to their bed whom I didn’t even notice was there until I received a notification informing me that she was starving and about to be taken by social services.

At this point, I start questioning Diego and Katrina as parents. Not only did they have an extra §7,400 to spend and decided a walk-in closet was more important to have than a nursery for their newborn baby, but apparently they don’t feed their baby, either. They… do remember they have a baby, don’t they? I mean, it’s an honest question! Maybe they mistook her for one of their seven hundred cats. Mistakes happen, is all I’m saying!

So even though they hired me to be a decorator and not a nanny, I go over there and feed their baby for them, then get to work. I find out Diego and Katrina are into cosmolux decor and the colour orange. Okay. Kinda weird, but doable. I can work with that. I do my thing, shoo the clients away and now I have to make some big decisions about how to redecorate the space.

Even though they wanted a walk-in closet, I wasn’t permitted to add any walls and the small apartment only had one bedroom; however, it was a pretty large room that could easily have a portion of it sectioned off. Since $7k is an insanely large budget for a closet and since they obviously were struggling to find a place to put their daughter, I figured I’d redo the whole bedroom area for them. I used a divider to separate the walk-in closet from the rest of the room and made a quaint little nook for the baby in the small octagonal section of the room. Maybe if their daughter had a more prominent place in the house, they’d remember to feed her.

So I work my magic and give Diego and Katrina the orange cosmolux bedroom/walk-in closet of their dreams. When they return, they are both so happy with my renovation that they burst into joyful tears and hug me. The baby even seems pretty happy. It felt like one of those moments on those feel-good design shows where the clients reveal how much their family has been struggling and tearfully exclaim that this renovation has changed their lives for the better.

All in a day’s work, friends. Not only did I give the client what they asked for (and more), I paid attention to the family’s needs and areas of life where they might need some extra help and sought to solve those problems for them with my design. Now Diego and Katrina have the closet they wanted, a more appropriate place for their daughter to sleep, and a place for themselves to enjoy in their favourite style.

Will my design inspire Diego and Katrina to become better parents? Who knows but for today, at least, I saved a family from being broken up and gave them a new environment to help them foster a fresh start, which to be honest, is way above my pay grade as an Interior Decorator.