Lucy Painter reflects on her book ‘In with the Interior Design Crowd’

“I didn’t think that I would get emotional seeing two boxes of books, not in the way that I thought anyway.

In January 2020, 5000 copies of the book ‘In with the Interior Design Crowd’ arrived at my office in 340 brown boxes (4 x crates worth) with 15 copies in each, to which I realised I had to carry every single one of them up a flight of stairs upstairs; not only was I physically exhausted I could barely clamber to my desk with the sea of boxes around me.

At that time I could not  bring myself to look at a book, let alone face the prospect of trying to sell them. However, after a few weeks, my motivation returned. Events were booked and I visualised the time I sold the last copy celebrating with a glass of vino in 12-18 months time.

With events planned and booked in London where I could sell the book, Covid then hit and we all went into lockdown.

I had to rethink my strategy, little did I know that the journey to selling the books would be a lot longer than I would ever have imagined but I also had no idea how fulfilling it was about to become.

Universities started showing an interest in the book. In turn this then opened up opportunities to guest lecture at universities around the country. I discussed topics such as how to find work in the industry, CV and portfolio tips, hints on developing your network and what industry leaders are looking for in a graduate.

I am forever grateful to the universities for giving me the opportunity to speak to our future generation of designers, especially when the world had gone on hold.

As humans, we naturally think in the past and look out at the big achievements / events that have happened in our lives – graduating, a wedding, finishing a marathon, moving countries etc. I was listening to a Podcast by Steven Bartlett, on my way home from posting out the last few  boxes of books; he was discussing how we easily overlook the small successes and achievements we do on a day-to-day basis to get to where we are today. By visualising where we were 2-5 years ago, at this particular time, how we felt, what we wanted to do, we realise how far we have come.

I thought back to the mountains of boxes 4 years ago that engulfed me and reflected on how the journey that proceeded, receiving those printed copies of books has been one of the best and wholesome experiences of my career.

To have the opportunity to link interior design graduates to industry leaders and pass on advice about finding work is a huge privilege and one I’m very humbled by.

So I wanted to use this opportunity to personally say thank you to everyone who has contributed to the book: the readers who have kindly written recommendations, designers who have brought the book, people who have recommended the book to friends and colleagues, and to the universities who have shared the book on their reading syllabus.

Thank you – this journey has been awesome!”