Today we’d like to introduce you to Zachary Colonna.
Hi Zachary, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been obsessed with design and fashion since I can remember but always thought of it as a hobby. When Covid struck, I decided I needed to follow my passions and I started my own design business in October 2020. The first project I tackled was re-designing and laying out my friends two car garage. She wanted to turn it into a studio for her business all while keeping it a working garage for one car. I quickly realized one of the biggest hurdles in home design is layouts. It’s like a puzzle and there are so many ways you can piece the puzzle together but the two most important parts of that puzzle-solving are form and function. These are the principles that I started my company on, making sure the space is as functional as possible all while ensuring to meet the client’s design esthetic (the form).
Since then, I’ve had over 20 clients and recently just re-branded the business which is now called “Zachary John Creative Home Solutions.” I felt like just calling it Zachary John Design didn’t capture everything I do. So instead, I call it creative home solutions which I feel encapsulates more than just interior design.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been a fun road! Smooth? No, haha. But fun! Starting your own business definitely has its ups and downs. As someone who was very unfamiliar with what it took to run one, it took me a while to figure out different elements that pop up in the job, but I’m happy to say each time I’m faced with an obstacle, I’ve overcome it and learned from my experiences.
One obstacle I faced early on was sourcing materials needed on the job. With Covid, timelines for furniture deliveries has really grown exponentially. So there will be times where it would have been easy to take a client to West Elm and pick out a new couch and have it in the home within a couple of weeks, now we are looking at lead times up to 1 year until bigger furniture items arrive. I can’t tell someone we will have things done in a year when the furniture arrives so it requires me to have a bit more hustle. Finding more unique vintage pieces throughout the LA area that are ready to go or scouring stores for inventory they do have available. It’s made the job harder at times, but also a bit more creative and fun.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I call my business Creative Home Solutions because I like to say we do more than just design. Sometimes the solutions are already in the space. Things just need to be re-arranged or re-purposed. My favorite thing to do, and something I specialize in is restoring old furniture pieces to make them work for the space.
For example, one of my clients was looking to re-design their office and garage. For the office, they were looking for a cabinet they could keep their files as well as some office supply storage. While we were in the garage she showed me an old desk they were looking to get rid of. It was a neon green and would certainly not have fit the design esthetic we were going for inside but the client felt a connection to the piece because it was her first-ever desk. I asked her if I could use this piece instead of hauling it away and she gave me the green light. I took the desk stripped it of its old neon green color and painted it a deep navy. I also kept the top unpainted and re-stained and primed it to make the wood shine. Then just to add a bit of design flair, I painted a flower design to wrap around the desk to add some unique qualities and dimension to the piece. The client was overjoyed! Not only did we save her first-ever desk but we had the perfect solution to her office storage problem.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Walking to the local mall with my grandmother and going shopping 😉
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Zacharyjohnhome
