I have a serious problem with designers. It doesn’t matter what kind of designer they are or what they design, I don’t think they live in the real world.

I picture designers sitting in front of a desk – no, they would probably be sprawled out on a floor or deck with pillows all around them and crazy, jazzy music playing in the background. They have a pad of paper and pen in hand, or a tablet or lap top, and they are drawing.

I would wager that most designers are looking at the sky when they do their designing. They watch the clouds go by and imagine that they’re new cars, or dresses, or sofas – or in my case, bathroom furniture – and then they start drawing.

We are redoing our ensuite this week and wanted to spruce it up with maybe a new vanity, mirror and light fixture. We originally had big plans of putting in a new shower, but our shower space is so small there is really nothing we can do that would be different than what we have.

Then there is this empty space, good-for-nothing kind of space. It’s a space that we would like to do something with but can’t find that something that would look right in that space.

Bathroom designers have all kinds of ideas. You can spend thousands of dollars getting your bathroom to look so co-ordinated and luxurious, that you’d want to spend more time in there than the normal time you have to spend in it getting ready for the day.

The problem is that designers have these great designs but nothing is fitting in our bathroom! And for some reason, no designer on the planet has even thought of designing something that would fit in the bathroom we have in our home!

It’s like those fashion designers. They design cloths for fashion shows and models to wear down the runway. But who’s buying that stuff?! A woman would be laughed out of the office if she showed up for work in one of those outfits.

At the bathroom store, they have all these displays that fit together so well, but they are not displayed in the confines of a bathroom that has walls and actual plumbing that pretty much dictates where certain things must be situated.

I’m learning a few things though: your mirror should be an inch in width shorter than both sides of your vanity and your light over the mirror should extend about the same length as the mirror (for long vanities, two light figures).

We have finally been able to make some decisions. It’s not the dream we had when we looked up in the sky and the saw a cloud formation that looked exactly like our bathroom. I think it will look good and it will be functional.

Now we just have to finish the spackling and painting. And that’s another thing … what designer ever came up with towel racks that were literally cemented onto your wall?!  Must have been a crazy, fast moving cloud that day, and he didn’t see it right.

Here’s the thing:  Sometimes we get an idea we think is from God. However, others don’t see it that way. It’s not working out that well; it’s just not fitting. Still, often we remain convinced that this idea, direction, decision is from God. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate, listen to counsel, and seek God further on the matter.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What project have you worked on that didn’t seem to come together as you had imagined? Leave your comment below.