Career switch at 47?
Is mid-40s a crazy age to be thinking about a career switch? If you ask this question to 10 people, you will get different answers. And that's okay, too. Ultimately, you make the decision to take such a step yourself. And there can be all kinds of reasons for that. Not being happy in your current job, a deep dream inside that finally has to come true, it just happens to come your way. And is all this age-related? No way! There is no limit and you should do what makes you feel happy, right?
I recently started the Interior Design course. For me it is not a retraining or a career switch, but an additional addition to my current package as a self-employed person. I already work as a photographer in real estate. How nice is it to combine this with interior design? I've always liked interiors. I watched interior design programs and had my own ideas and feelings about them. One appeals to you and the other appeals to you less. I am not the type of person who can change or move something in the house every week. If it looks good, it looks good. I get restless when I drag the couch, move the plants, change the accessories. Or regularly changing the color of the wall.
Before we moved to Spain we lived in Heerhugowaard, in The Netherlands. A nice house, lots of space in the kitchen/living room with an open staircase and with a spacious bay window in the kitchen. I already had an idea: gray floor with a rodeo couch and a blue wall on one side. My husband didn't see it that way yet. But once in the store and looking for gray tiles, something brown and blue, he was quickly won over. We bought most of the furniture online. That can be a risk, but in our case it worked out well.
We soon found out that the kitchen did not have a nice layout and actually made the space smaller. It had an L arrangement. Such a shame when you have a big spacious space and it couldn't be used to its full potential. We quickly decided to replace the kitchen. At the kitchen store, of course, we again chose something that is not usual. A kitchen island that we didn't want to cook on, but a high cabinet wall with a cooktop in it. We could then use the kitchen island nicely for space and where the dishwasher would also go. The kitchen became white, with a gray kitchen top. And it was perfect. It couldn't have turned out nicer. And so it became a beautiful entity: the kitchen and the living room. We also chose a round dining table, the centerpiece of the entire space. Practical? It looks really nice in a space. But when Covid -19 showed up, suddenly we were both working at home. We had a home office room for one, and the other worked at the kitchen table. Then a round table is not really suitable. Eventually we decided to put a desk in the kitchen. There was room and it was stylishly sensible too. We also gave the toilet and hallway a metamorphosis. And at a later stage we also tackled the bathroom. No big changes, but we did change the tiles and the bathroom furniture. The space there was not that big, also because there was a bathtub and a high bathroom cabinet by the door. So you see that even with minimal change you can create something nice. When we put the house up for sale, and the real estate agent walked around the house, I also received a compliment on how beautiful the house looked. The floors everywhere the same, the details, the layout. Nice compliment, right?
And now, decorating our new home in Valencia. Fortunately, in this house we have a lot of freedom for choosing materials. The kitchen, totally different from the one in Heerhugowaard. Here we chose an army green kitchen, low kitchen, without high cabinets. And slightly softer green walls with white herringbone tile. In the living room mustard yellow with deep blue. Our bedroom have the colors gray, blue and pink and the en suite bathroom gray and blue. We have the other rooms in neutral scandi colors. We have received many compliments about the use of color in the home. And that's nice to hear. And especially for here, because Spaniards are quite fond of white, white and more white. No offense, but there is little atmosphere.
And so I made the decision to go into this beautiful profession. Something I have always enjoyed, I am now going to convert to the professional side. I have already done several chapters. And in this course I am working on a complete interior design plan. What I already have in place, I like and I am really very curious about the end result. In another blog I'm going to take you through my interior design plan.
Became curious, what I could do for you? Be sure to keep following me here and on my socials.
Hasta luego,
Bianca