Why Alex Papachristidis doesn't gatekeep vendors

27:36Oh, my God. So I find this amazing console. And you know how the auction houses get you, and they give you a low estimate, and then you go in. And this is the one time that I went and bid on it, and I bid in the room. And it was such a beautiful console. It was everything I liked. It gilded legs, sort of Louis XVI legs with this beautiful frieze around it with a Greek key. And the table itself, they thought, was 19th century, but the stone top was 18th century. And the stone was incredible. And it was two different stones, and it was inlay. It was the perfect size for her entrance hall. Her entrance hall was stenciled wood with a grass paper that Ralph Lauren made that was grass paper that was chocolate brown branches and leaves painted on it from Ralph Lauren.

28:28It's the chicest wallpaper. Of course, it doesn't exist, discontinued. And I wanted this gilded console. So we had set a budget on what I was going to spend on it. I went to the auction room and actually bid for the first time. Of course, if you've ever been in an auction room and other people are bidding, you get a little carried away. Well, I got the console, but we overpaid for it. And I called my sister and brother-in-law, and I said, you're going to be upset with me, but I've been looking for this console forever, and we got it and I think it's the right thing. And they were like, you know what?

29:01It is what it is. We did it. It's ours. So they're delivering the console, the padded wagon's delivering the console and it's coming. And of course, my brother-in-law was a little irritated with me because we'd spent a lot of money on this console. They drop the top in the back of the building as they're coming in. It falls off the dolly, the stone top, ruined. The whole value of the table was in the top. Well, padded wagon was unbelievable. The insurance covered. They gave me the base. We had a new stone top made. There was this incredible man named Charles Lindblom, who was like in Harlem on the Upper East Side, who made these incredible stone tops to look like 18th century, but they were content brand new.

29:53He made the top for me for$1 ,500. I remember this, like it was yesterday. He made this beautiful stone top and basically the console was free. We still have that console, that Giltwood console table in our Hamptons living room. It's set up like a bar. And the insurance paid for it. So it's even better. So anyway, so a crazy story that ends up actually working out. So, and this is your, and this is your first big project, right yeah and it sounds like the birth of i don't want to say a signature look for you but we we certainly got a sense of your style right and what you loved well as i was telling you before also yes and that's like that apartment i have the pictures of it i still love it and it still totally feels current you know i wouldn't have redecorated that apartment ever i would still be living in that apartment happily or having them living in but just to get to backtrack a little bit.

30:52So I needed help when I was doing that apartment because it was a big apartment and I needed help doing it. So I went to... Well, my first account in the D &D building was a wonderful woman. And I don't know if you knew her by the name of Brigitta Williams. Oh my goodness, of course. Yes. She was at Brunswick. Yes. And she was amazing. And I adored her. And she was the first person to open an account for me, even though I had no credentials. And I got my friend who was a lawyer, who was one of my other first clients, a young couple who I was friends with. They hired me to decorate their apartment on the Upper East Side.

31:29And he, as a favor for me, got me the ID number so that I could open accounts. Got you a tax ID number? Yeah, a tax ID number. So could I go open an account? Brigitte told me how to do it. And Brigitte was one of them. And in those days, Brunswick and Feed was such, it was everything, right? Clarence House in Brunswick. So once Brunswick had opened an account for me, then everybody followed. So then I met this wonderful woman who worked at, what was Aldo Netto's company called? It was called... Travers. Travers. And Lili Brown worked for Travers. And she said, Alex, you're going to need some help.

32:09And I said, Lili, that's amazing. Thank you. who do you think? She said, I've got the perfect person to introduce you to. So she introduced me to this amazing woman by the name of Leslie Patrick. And Leslie was just divine. And she had worked for Frederica Biggs for many years. And she had been her assistant. And I said to Leslie, Leslie wanted to do something on her own. I said, Leslie, you're amazing. We liked each other right away. And she said, I said, let's be 50-50 partners, because to me, that's the only way. If you're going to be partners, it's 50-50 or you can't be partners. I mean, unless somebody is a junior partner nowadays, it's a different thing.

32:55But if you're the same age and you're the same thing, and I had no experience, she had the experience. Maybe I had the clients at the time. I brought in the business, but we worked it together. and Leslie said, great. And we just had the best time together. So anyway, Leslie leaves me. And I guess that was probably, we were together six years. In that interim, I meet a couple in the south of France who are moving to New York. They move to New York. They live in a Trump building. We decorate that for them. Then they buy a townhouse. We got and renovate that townhouse. not through them, but through somebody else, I then meet this lovely woman by the name of Tony Rainmaker, who owns a silver store on Park Avenue, ADC Heritage.

33:42I think I met her through my friend Lisa Jackson. We're having dinner one night at Mortimer's. Leslie has left me, and Tony says to me, you know, I'm closing my silver business. I want to try something new. I'm thinking about being a decorator. You know, can you tell me about it? Tell me what you think. and I said, absolutely, happy to help. I'll send you a copy of my contract so you can, because again, Dennis, I've always been, you know, in all my first book, I give away all my sources. I tell who my upholster is, my curtain maker, my decorative painter. It's good for them. It's good for me. And if somebody wants to do what I do, let them.

34:20I mean, what can you, you know, you can't. So does anyone give you a hard time about that? Because I was having that conversation recently. Are people tight with their resources? Yes. You betcha. I'm not. Right. Because again, like everybody needs to make money and work. And like, if we don't all support these people, they're not going to stay in business. Right. Right. And you and I have seen all these people go out of business because they weren't. Oh my God. Right. I mean, yeah. I always recommend my people all the time. I'm like, because if somebody, you know, people call me and say, you know, Alex, I'm having a tough time.

34:53me i'm like i'm gonna send an email to all the decorators i know recommending you why not no no i i hear you i'm i'm struck i mean sometimes there's a debate and some people feel like oh that's the value of what a lot of decorators have is their resources and that's and they want to keep that close so they don't if if i have that somebody else has it if somebody else doesn't have it then how successful is that person and i mean like we all use the same people i mean no we don't There are a lot of upholsters and there are a lot of curtain makers, but I'm not ashamed to recommend my people or shy to read.

35:28First of all, we all have our own take on stuff and there's so many people aren't going to copy. And if they do copy, well, there's nothing you can do about that either. Right. Yeah. No, have at it. No, no, no. I'm glad you mentioned that because I was wondering where you came down on that because I know sometimes, especially in this day of Instagram, I feel like if you post a picture, everybody says, oh, who made this and what pink color is that and what's that light fixture? Honestly, if I can remember and I know and I'm happy to tell them, you know, I don't care. Right. Okay. Okay. So let's get back to Tony, though.

36:03Let's get back to Tony because Tony. Tony, so Tony, we have dinner at Mortimer's that night. She asked me about business. And I had this, again, I know I keep saying this, but I'm really not that hokey. But somehow this white light shines on her. I go home that night and I'm like, she's asking me about decorating. I think she's my next partner. So the next morning I wake up and I call her and I say, Tony, do you want to have lunch? I'll give you the contract. She said, absolutely. And we sit down at lunch and I said, Tony, I know you were interested in my contract. Are you interested in becoming partners?

36:42She said, I can't believe you said that to me because it crossed my mind, but I never would have said it to you. And I said, well, it's meant to be. And that was it. And then we were partners for six or seven years. I mean, I cannot tell you, Dennis, how much fun we had. And both women, we had the best time, the most fun. And really, I'm still friends with both of them. I still love them both. And I learned from both of them. We shared so much. And now my third partner in my tabletop business, also I adore, Lisa McCarthy. We work together in Everyday Elegance. And again, I'm like, don't tell me like me doesn't strike three times because it's happened for me.

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38:18And now, back to the show.

38:25So what happened with Tony? Why does Tony leave? Well, Tony leaves because stuff happens with her family and business, and they have to leave the country, and they move, and she moves to Europe. And it happens very fast, and we are just devastated. And, you know, both women had such a strong business sense, and both women were creative and amazing. and you know i guess after the second time in the decorating business i thought you know i don't think i can do this again because people leave because they have their own lives and i get it you know i guess it's like having kids i've never had kids all i've had is dogs so my dogs never leave me but my partners move on and they have other lives and i guess you know it it hits me hard because I'm so attached to these people because we're together all the time and I miss them.

39:21And I just thought, you know, I don't know if I can do this again because, and the other problem is, you know, you get nervous because you hear all these stories of partners having these horrible relationships. So you also become a little bit like neurotic. Oh, how many times am I going to be lucky? How many times is this going to go well? But again, you know, the lesson to me is, look, I'm on my third partner in a different business, but we love each other. We get along. We're such good friends. She's being honored at ARF. We met on the board of ARF together. Well, and tell people what ARF is for those - Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons.

40:00And it's really an amazing, it's a shelter in the Hamptons. It's a no-kill shelter. We're on the board together. So that's how we met. And Lisa was sort of looking for a new business. And she said, you know, we would do the dinners for ARF, and we would style it and put it together and make the evening beautiful and the whole maison scene of the evening and the flowers and the decoration. And that sort of led to the conversation of, you know, let's start a tabletop business. And we started online, and now we're making our own dishes and selling them. And, you know, it's turned into a very successful business.

40:35And we have a lot of fun doing it. We do trunk shows and, you know, We sell online. My goddaughter just came this weekend and shot videos of us for Instagram on our website. And it's, again, super fun, super positive, and just another nice thing to do, and a very natural, creative thing off of decorating. The tabletop business relates to the dish business and the setting of the table, what the flowers go in, what the plants go in, you know, the whole story, the linens, the napkins. And this is what I've been doing for clients for years. So why not turn it actually into a business? So talk to me, Alex, about this business of yours today.

41:21Tell me about the challenges of transitioning away from having a partner to running it yourself. Who did you need to hire? What did you need to have around you as a result? Like, how did you how did you figure it out? I think, you know, look, you have to have a good bookkeeper, good, you know, accountant. And I think you have to pay attention to business. I'm super involved in everything. An invoice doesn't go out without me seeing it. A trim isn't chosen without me approving it. If you happen to be in the neighborhood of 57th Street, you very often see me with a project manager standing on the street with a tray of fabrics, trims, and cutting samples looking at it in the daylight, because that's what we do here.

42:05We take everything outside to the daylight because now with these light bulbs, God knows what they are and God knows how they change the color of things. I still don't even understand them. I'm always like, what? I liked an old incandescent bulb, that I understood. This lighting thing is like, again, like a scientific thing I don't want to know from, I just want to know that it looks pretty. So I always was involved, but I left a lot of the business side of things to my business partners who were very, very business oriented. And now, look, I had to become more of a businessman, which is fine.

42:44Necessity is the mother of invention and you do what you need to do. And hey, if there's nobody there and the client's coming and they just put the carpet down and I need to take out the vacuum, I don't do it in my own house, but I'll do it in yours. Who cares? You know what I mean? You got to do what you got to do. So you have to figure it out and fend for yourself. And yeah, I mean, it's not always fun. But for me, Dennis, the most important thing, and this is our motto in the office. We all have to work together. We all have to help each other. There's no such thing as it's not my job. There's no such thing as a dumb question.

43:22And there's no such thing as a mistake that we don't all stand behind and deal with and figure out the solution to the problem. That's what we do. That's how we work. And we've got to be nice to each other. And we've got to be kind to each other. And we have to have a smile on our faces. And we've got to have a good time. Because if we're not having fun, why are we doing it? You know, life should be fun. I'm not saying all the time. And I'm not saying there aren't bad things that happen. And of course, I'm not saying I'm not grouchy and snappy sometimes. Of course I am. We're real. It's a real place with real people.

43:58and I can solve whatever problem I need to. There's always a solution to the problems in decorating. And remember, this is decorating. We are not operating on people's brains. We're not going to kill anybody. You know, it's decorating. So we'll make it work. We'll figure it out. We can solve it. And we have such great relationships with our vendors that they are behind us and they are supporting us. and if there's a problem or a mistake, they help us. We all work together. And again, the same with them. We protect them and we help them and we don't throw anybody under the bus. It's just not, I don't throw anybody under the bus.

44:43I just, it's not what I do. Look, I'm being hired. It's my problem. It's not theirs. So the point about having the great relationship with vendors, is that one of the core? I'm trying to, Alex, I'm trying to think of the NYCED students coming out of the New York School of Interior Design and thinking about what this industry and what this life as a decorator, as a designer is really going to be like. What are some of the core principles? What are some of the things that you've learned from your years of experience that they should be mindful of as they set out in this career? Well, I think And you should find people who you have a rapport with working together.

45:26And I think you should build a relationship with those people. And, you know, I started with my upholster. So my upholster, you know, everything's a story in this business. My upholster. So I used to use a man by the name of Luther Quintano, who I got from Brian O 'Rourke, who worked for Mark Hampton, who was my architect at the time. He then became a decorator. He introduced me to Luther. I used Luther. Luther was my upholster. I was a small-time decorator. I used him, but I didn't have as many big projects, or I had a few, and then they'd go through, and then it would be smaller. So Luther had a nephew named Jose Quintana, and Luther and Jose somehow had had a falling out.

46:11But I had asked Luther to do my bed for Kipps Bay the second time I did Kipps Bay. and he couldn't do it. He was too busy or whatever. So he said no. So I had to look for another upholsterer. So again, I found Jose, who I knew was Luther's nephew and they weren't on a good relationship, but what did it have to do with me? I was going to use Jose because he said yes. I had a lovely girl working for me at the time. By accident, she called Luther's office and called Luther Jose. He found out that we were using Jose and said, if you're working with Jose, I'm done with you, and dropped me as a client.

46:57Oh, no. So I moved to Jose, and Jose became my upholster, and that's probably more than 20 years ago, maybe 25 years ago. And Jose became my exclusive upholsterer. And Jose and I, I think we have that relationship that we know each other so well. Because, for example, you know, we're using this big Schumacher fabric for a client right now. And we're using it on dining room chairs. We're using it on some pillows. And we're using it on chair backs. And, you know, I love to cut up a big fabric and make it my own. So the pair of chairs will have something on the back. but the seats of the dining room chairs will have a different flower on it, and the pillows will have a different element of the fabric because it has a huge repeat.

47:45And I think it's more interesting and more economical to cut the fabric up. And so it's coordinated, but it's not paint by numbers, where you're seeing the same print repeated all over the room, but you're seeing elements of the same print repeated, and it looks more interesting and collected. And to me, that's more modern and more fun than everything looking the same. And again, that's what you come to me for, to cut up and paste a fabric and make it different than somebody else uses that fabric. I love that. And Jose understands all that. And he gets taking the border off and reusing it and how we do things.

48:24So you can't teach somebody all those things without having that relationship of all these years. So you can't trade that for anything in the world. You stand behind each other. You have those relationships that are just so important. You get to know each other. It's like a marriage. You can finish each other's sentences. And that's the kind of relationship I have with my vendors. The thing that I would say to young people is decorating is a lot of work. It's a big job, very expensive. It's a lot of responsibility. And it's not something to be taken lightly. Don't think that a decorating career is any kind of easy, fun way out.

49:13It's not. It's a huge commitment. And it's something that you need to be passionate about and pay a lot of attention to. If you want to be a good decorator, you really have to pay attention. because there's so many things that can go wrong. And you need to be very buttoned up and you need to be a real problem solver and a good troubleshooter. So that's really what it comes down to. And is there an added pressure? You and I have talked about how expensive everything has gotten today. Is there an added pressure because things are so much more expensive than they were even five, 10 years ago? It's not an added pressure.

49:56It's a little depressing. It's just like, oh, really? And it's not an added... Look, it's always the same pressure because at the end of the day, it's always been the same pressure. There's always deadlines. People always want to move in. They've got children going to school or they've got other things to do. They don't want to hear about it. They want it done. And I don't like to say no. I like to say yes. My office gets crazy with me. They're like, what? I'm like, look, we're in a service business and we got to get it done. I don't care. I said to the contractor today, I'm not interested. Figure it out.

50:37Said to the carpet layer, I'm sorry, this is construction. I know you don't have time for me. I know the elevator's broken in the building. It slowed the construction down. I know now you had these dates for your carpets to install. I give you business all the time. I love you. I stand behind you. Figure it out. Squeeze us in. Make it work. I'm not taking no for an answer. I just am not. And they know that. They know that there's no such thing as no. No doesn't exist. I don't say no. And we know that these problems are going to happen. This is the nature of our business. You know, do I lose sleep over this stuff?

51:17No. Otherwise, I'd permanently be sleepless. I mean, I've seen it all, Dennis. I mean, there are so many moving parts, and so many things can go wrong, and they do, and you have to stay on top of it, and you have to have a contingency plan and you got to work around it. And truthfully, if you're loyal to your vendors, they're loyal to you. And they go that extra mile for you when you need them because you've been there for them when they've needed you. And that's what you do. You know, I mean, I've had people call me and say, Alex, I need business. And I'm like, okay, I'm on it. You know, I'll help you.

52:10and they know that they can call me and say, Alex, we need you to pay your bills. We're having cash flow issues. We do it because that's what you do. That's what you do. You help each other. You stand, and that's what good business is, and that's what good relationships breed, and good relationships breed loyalty and mutual respect, and when you need them, they're there for you because you've always been there for them. You have to be a reliable citizen, and if you are, the people around you are reliable, and they're there for you when you need them. Well, so to that point, Alex, as we wrap up the conversation, recently there was an article that came out.

52:54Unfortunately, a woman on the West Coast, a decorator, got a bunch of money from the client and ran off with it, allegedly. And apparently, according to records, this wasn't the first time this had happened. And the design community sort of came together because the reactions online and the reactions out there in the press were, oh, yeah, those decorators, you know, you got to watch them. They're not always so trustworthy. And everybody suddenly came forward and said, oh, yeah, I've never felt good about them. And I feel like our industry has always, well, it's one of those things that our industry, I feel like the design industry is always having to prove itself again and again in terms of trustworthiness.

53:40And I wonder, to your point about being there for people, being reliable, being somebody that people know they can count on. You know, look, Dennis, I'm a born and raised New Yorker. I grew up in New York. I have a ton of friends in this city. I have a name, I have a reputation, and I stand behind it. And I treat people in my office with kindness and respect. I treat my vendors with kindness and respect. I treat my clients with kindness and respect, and I stand behind my product. And as I say, if somebody doesn't like something, we figure it out and we deal with it. So are Are there thieves in the world?

54:21Of course there are thieves. There are thieves in every form and everything. In every business, there are thieves. But that doesn't make decorators thieves at all. I mean, we work very hard for our living. And if anything, you get more value with a decorator than doing it yourself because you make less mistakes. And mistakes are expensive. And I can't tell you, if you have somebody who knows what they're doing and cares about what they do and cares about value, because yes, there is value involved. A decorator should care about value. I don't know if I told you that story, but we have a client of mine, a very good client, sent me a picture of a Lean Votrine mirror that was coming up at auction that they wanted to bid on.

55:02Said, no problem, I'll bid on it at auction. It was coming up at Sotheby's in New York. I said, let me, you know what, on the side is, let me send it to my French dealers and see about this mirror. So the client said that the amount they wanted to bid on the mirror, we put the amount on the mirror. We were going to bid on it. While we were doing that, I sent it out to my French dealers and I asked them for prices. I got prices back. The mirror sold for more than we wanted to pay. We ended up buying the mirror from a French dealer who had the mirror in New York for$50 ,000 cheaper than the price that sold at Sotheby's for the same exact Lean Votre mirror.

55:43So if you have a good decorator. They know what they're doing. They know the business. They pay attention to things. And I actually save them money,$50 ,000 cheaper with my commission, with my 25 % commission on the piece. And that's what I do. I do it for myself. I do it for my clients. That's how I pay attention to things because that's what a good decorator should do. They're giving you value. They're giving you quality. And they know the industry in a way that you don't. Because yes, Yes, it is a very expensive undertaking, decorating, even in the best sense. It's expensive. Everything's expensive in our lives.

56:22I mean, New York has become very expensive. Yes, but you'll never leave. I don't want to leave. I love it. You know, it's still worth it. It's still exciting. And it's got so much culture. And I love the grit and the glamour. You know, it's all good. It's all good. Alex, we've got to go, but it's been such an incredible pleasure getting to talk with you. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening. If you'd like to keep up with the latest design industry news, visit us online at businessofhome.com, where you can sign up for our newsletter, browse job listings, and join our BOH Insider community for access to online workshops, a free print subscription, and much more.

57:06If you have a note for the podcast, drop us a line at podcast at businessofhome.com. If you're enjoying these conversations, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps others to discover the show. This show was produced by Fred Nikolaos and edited by Michael Castaneda. I'm Dennis Scully. Thanks again for listening, and I'll see you next week.