Anyone who knows me knows that I love Nate Berkus and Jonathan Adler more than anyone else in the design world (although I have sizable girl-crushes on Sarah Richardson and Candice Olsen) so when I got an email asking if I wanted to hop on a phone interview with J-Ad (as I like to call him in my head since we’re besties) well, I momentarily lost my mind.
I debated saying no (I’ll definitely get awkward and squeal-y and make him think I’m nuts) but after chatting about it with John, he convinced me that a 15 minute call with Jonathan Adler might end up on my highlights reel of this whole blogging “career” when we look back on this crazy ride of ours. Hubs was right, I had to do it. Clamminess and too-loud-laughs be darned.
So I emailed back a response that I hope came off cool and collected (as opposed to hyper and maniacal) and was given a Friday at noon time-slot for my call. I hardly slept on Thursday night thanks to getting all of my questions ready and second guessing myself a million times, and I even asked you guys for question ideas on Facebook. Then fifteen minutes before my time-slot for the call on Friday I got an email asking if Monday would work instead. Ahhhh! Half of me was relieved to put it off for another few days, and half of me immediately went into a bigger tizzy (the anticipation of more days of planning/waiting/second guessing every question sufficiently loosened more marbles).
And then I heard his voice. And all was right with the world. Turns out I still was too giggly, talked way too fast, and generally just couldn’t help myself (as interviews go, I’m sure I was far from the smoothest or the most professional) but he was so nice. And I didn’t know this was possible going into the call, but when I hung up the phone, I loved him more. I couldn’t stop talking about it with John, and I’m SO GLAD I did it. It was definitely highlight reel material.
I’m terrible at taking notes while talking, so I recorded the interview on my phone (after asking J-Ad’s permission of course) and as laughy and loud as I am, I thought you might like to hear it all go down in real life, so here’s the clip. Update: Click here to be taken directly to the sound clip if it’s not showing up below.
Is he awesome or what? You guys. My design idol said I got his CHAKRAS TINGLING. I’m floating on air. And we exchanged I love yous. Hello? Is this real life? My favorite discussion was the whole “just start with the vibe – not the walls or the curtains – and define how you want your house to feel in three words and use those as your guide. SO SMART.
My only regret is that I didn’t make John snap a picture of me while I was on the phone. But this is pretty much what it looked like:
So I hope you enjoyed that little brain-picking session with one of my favorite designers ever. Have you ever met or phoned someone up that you’re crazy about while half worrying you’d put your foot in your mouth (or just start babbling incoherently)? I’m telling you, it can be pretty amazing, even if your heart’s beating out of your chest the whole time.
Psst – For anyone who can’t listen to it right now, or would prefer to just read the interview, here’s a general recap for ya (there’s a little more banter in the recording, it was just tough to write every line out since we overlapped sometimes, etc).
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