Modern Eclectic Interior Design: A Love For Beautiful Things with Nida Risto | Friends of Build Magazine #82

Friends of Build Magazine

Episode Notes

Ted speaks with Nida Risto, founder of Nida Risto Interiors, a Wyoming-based interior design firm on her collaborative design process and her path from Albania to America. Nida shares her process in sourcing materials for clients and how her personal approach can lead to shipping an antique chandelier across oceans. In a wide-ranging conversation, Ted & Nida discuss how failure is always informative, the American Dream and the rise of misinformation.

Despite her highly successful design career, Nida never forgets how far she’s come and her lived experience of the fragility of peace. Today, Ted does a deep dive into Nida’s eclectic world of interior design as she draws from both her European and American roots.

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• [2:00] The American Dream & Nida’s path to the U.S.
• [15:30] What is Nida’s process when beginning a project?
• [17:20] Drawing from a European background & being an “eclectic”
• [20:00] How does your process change when joining an “orphaned” project?
• [22:50] Building trust with clients who’ve been burned by previous designers
• [28:30] The consequences of buying houses site-unseen
• [29:50] An idyllic life vs the life we narrowly avoided
• [33:30] America’s multiculturalism & putting in the work
• [35:50] What are the coolest projects you’ve worked on?
• [39:50] Sourcing furniture & a very special chandelier
• [42:50] How important is the story of the objects you source for your clients?
• [44:40] The importance of the work of Interior Designers
• [46:10] What is one of your biggest failures & how did you overcome it?
• [48:50] Risk & failure in America vs Albania
• [55:40] Repair in a post-communist Albania & the fragility of peace
• [57:45] Do you get nervous with what’s going on here in America?
• [1:00] Green energy & misinformation
• [ 1:03:20] Is it tough to design your own house?
• [1:05:10] Marriage & compromise

CONNECT WITH GUEST

Nida Risto

• Website
• LinkedIn

KEY QUOTES FROM EPISODE

• This is a country that was made of immigrants. And people always say, well, the American dream is dead. And I'm like, it's not. It might not be as what it used to be back in the 80s, but it's still there and we can still work to make it even better for everyone. But you do have to put in the work.
• You're trying to get as much business as you can to build your business. You're more in starvation mode. And then you realize in the long run that even though I had revenue, was it worth it in the long run? Was it worth the headaches? And quite frankly, towards the end, it's never worth it.
• For an immigrant to take risks is very different from someone that was born and raised here to take risks. If I fail, I fail and that's it. And I'm probably going to have to start over from scratch. And it puts a lot of pressure on you, but it also puts a lot of responsibility for you to take very calculated risks.
• When you hire a team of professionals, let them do their job. Because they have the experience and know how things work. Don't try and micromanage. Don't try and tell your builder and architect and designer what to do. Listen to their advice because they know they have done this so many times.