For years, my philosophy had always been, “Serve the best coffee and no one will care about the cup.”
But here is the thing, Starbucks serves great coffee AND their cups have become a status symbol. As human beings, we do like a little flash to go with the substance! For example, every lawyer needs an expensive pen to sign the contract, and a successful realtor needs a showy car to chauffeur clients. Until recently, no one had ever asked me about how my office was decorated or if it was conducive to marriage or relationship counseling. I felt that, so long as I provided the best marriage counseling in Miami, no one would care about “the cup.”
Because of that philosophy, I made do with what I had. We tend to resist change. We keep putting on patches until finally, some big event happens that forces us to evolve. But here’s the great thing: once the genie is out of the bottle, we can embrace change and see just how far we can go.
The Big Event
After Hurricane Irma, my counseling office was, to put it bluntly, trashed. A portion of my roof had broken without my knowledge and water intruded into one complete wall and a third of the ceiling. This wasn’t a minor repair job; I needed to gut the entire office.
But sometimes, these kinds of traumatic events can bring about astonishing positive changes. I had no choice but to repair my office, so I figured that I might as well do a complete rebuild! I decided to indulge my ego and went searching for the ideal pieces of office furnishings to host you during your marriage counseling sessions properly.
During this remodel, I put a lot of time, attention and thought into creating the ideal counseling office layout. The palette, décor, and style all work together to create a safe, calm and welcoming space for couples to open up and be vulnerable to me about marital issues they may not have told anyone previously in their life.
In the end, I went with a modern look that is warm and clear of distractions to make it easy to communicate. My contractor was my neighbor and is a big fan of modern style. He came up with the concept of a wood wall to make things more earthy and grounded.
In May, I finally replaced the windows with hurricane-impact windows (boy, did I learn my lesson). With the help of Mr. Doorman, I added a new door for additional privacy and to reduce background noise in the office during sessions.
I even upgraded the bathroom to increase my clients’ comfort level! The new vanity and mirror really open the space up. Feel free to comment below if you were nosy enough to peek inside the shower to see what gets stored in there?
Finally, I put the finishing touches on everything this August when I received my custom furniture from Pottery Barn, in their iconic Manhattan-style. I have always dreamed of having matching furniture for the office, and it was time to go big or go home.
So, now I have the office of my dreams. There is only one problem: I have to hire a marriage coach to deal with my wife’s jealousy because our home isn’t nearly as nice as my counseling office!
But in the end, it isn’t my opinion of my office that really matters. Your opinion is the important one! Do you have any suggestions about how you would like to see this Miami marriage counselor’s office be decorated? Let me know in the comments below!
Sorry to hear about what happened to your office during hurricane Irma. It look’s good. Love how your office is well lighted and sits next to a large window. Now, I can imagine you sitting with your clients and helping them to solve their problems. Your changes, makes me want to change my photo on my website. I need to add the happy clients or people to my site. Now, only if I can solve my marriage problems that easily. Have a fun Halloween. Thanks for the post.