Time for New

Have you ever gone to a salon and the first time you walk in you look around at the decor and you're all like, "WOW! This place is so beautiful!"? And you go to that salon, or maybe work at that salon, for like four years and nothing ever changes? And eventually you walk in and you look around and you're all like, "Man! This place is so out of date ... and dingy."

I think that's a common trap salons fall into. It takes a not insignificant amount of both time and money to redecorate and/or remodel a salon. People open up their salons and everything is shiny and new — the furnishings are new, the paint on the walls is new, the curtains, the artwork, everything.

Even if it's just your own tiny studio and you just have a modest budget and you have to get creative with your ideas — it's all new. Not just the stuff, but the concepts, are new.

And then what happens?

Well, if you keep it clean, then it'll continue to look cool for several years. And you forget about the people who've been looking at the same thing for half a decade because every time a new client walks in, they tell you how awesome your salon looks.

It's hard to figure out just exactly when your cool, new look starts looking out of date. But it happens. One day, out of the blue, no one thinks your place is cool, or new, or ingenious, anymore. Suddenly they just see old, dusty, grimy, yesterday.

I've made this observation many times over the years. I have always been of the opinion that if you want to run a salon, you need to keep up with the interior design too, and that means being prepared to redo the interior of your salon every three years.

So here I am, at the two-and-a-half year mark: Two weeks ago I was still in love with my color scheme and basic decor. Then suddenly one day I walked in here and the whole place was AWFUL! How could I keep working here? In this dismal, dark, boring place?! LOL.

And now I sit in my spare time and stare at the walls and envision bright whites and vibrant blues. And all my clients think I'm nuts. They tell me they aren't done looking at my deep reds and espresso browns yet.

Well, I still have a few more months before I hit that three-year mark. In that time I have to decide if a major change is really what I want to do. I do think it's important to take my clients' input into consideration.

What do you think? How often is right for a major remodel? When is too soon to redecorate a salon? And when is too late?