I have to say that doesn't shock me..that's fairly typical in most stores. There are no specific requirements for salespeople, so they hire just about anyone. Truth be told, I find about half the professional designers that use my store for product ask ME what they think will look best in a room - and I have no formal training! <laughing>

What I do have is years of experience. And up until the last three years I did every delivery myself. That was twenty-five years worth of going into people's homes, about ten per week. You get to see thousands of room settings that way in a wide cross sections of homes and incomes. I am always observant when I do deliveries and see what works in a room spatially and what doesn't. I had some training in architecture back in college as well, so I'm always keen on seeing what the house designer was trying to accomplish in a room layout and how to use furniture to play off the strengths of a room. I also happen to be blessed with a talent to arrange spaces in my mind better than most, and I can work a layout in my head in a minute or two just standing in a room and that helps a lot as well. I've seen far more bad room layouts more than good ones. A common factor is over-furnishing a room, trying to put too much furniture in too little space. Most the time, less is more. I try to bring that into the plan when I help with layouts.

Yesterday afternoon I had a nice young couple in my store and they said they were shopping for a sectional for their room. And they wanted a chaise on one end of it. They knew exactly what they wanted and I think I managed to lose a sale because I talked them out of it! Whenever I hear "chaise" and "sectional" used together my alarm bell goes off because that works in VERY few rooms. Most the time, its a block barrier. When they further told me they were going to place one back of the sectional up against the windows I said in earnest "You don't want to do that". We pulled out graph paper and scaled their room, then cut out a scale paper template of the sectional and I showed them how it was not going to work as their space wasn't large enough for what they wanted to do. Additionally they had photos of the room and I could see the visual block the sectional would make. After a bit, they left the store maybe a little confused, but thinking a mid-side sofa and perhaps two chairs rather than a huge sectional. Could I have sold them a sectional with a chaise yesterday? Probably....but it wouldn't have been the right thing to do. I don't need the money so bad as to encourage poor choices, so I'm happier that they went home to think about it and plan some more before they make a large investment in furniture they will come to regret buying. If they come back a few more times, we'll get it dialed in and get it right.