Highly Commended

Last year I entered the Dulux Select Awards and got shortlisted. I wrote about it here https://dbarrettdecorating.co.uk/blog/post/award-winning-

Anyway the past 12 months I've often thought about that, how much it meant to me and what a big achievement it was, more importantly should I go in for it again. On almost every job I did this year I was internally assessing whether this one would be one I could enter into the 2023 awards. Come start of October when the entries opened I had two solid jobs, potentially three that  I could enter and decided despite falling short last year I would go for it.

Once more I contacted the homeowners for their consent to be entered and sent the forms off, to my astonishment I was shortlisted again! Same as last year I felt such pride in being shortlisted but I also went to the awards gala dinner not expecting to win. I think the main reason for this is that I often see fellow Select members post their work on various social media outlets and the quality is always sky high. It really does showcase the talents that many have and while it does create a sense of  inadequacy it also pushes the inner part of yourself to want to do better, prove yourself so to speak.

So unlike last year when I was nervous all evening this year I had expected another similar result so felt relaxed. Actually I was that relaxed I had a caricature drawn of me and my partner while we sat and ate until the awards time! Categories got announced and first up was one of the categories I entered. It was said that the level of entries this year was so high they had to have several Highly Commended on a lot of the categories and this one was one of those. First name announced and it was the person sat next to me, another brilliant decorator who's work this past year has been featured on tv and also shortlisted for other awards. Then instead of announcing the winner of main prize they said a second Highly Commended was for this category, then read out my name!

Honestly cannot describe how much this means to me, from pride and amazement my work has been acknowledged by my peers to validation that I have made it. What it has done though is lit the fire back up again to go further next year, and the year after that, to try and win the main award. Of course I have to give huge thanks to my customers who have chosen me to do the work in the first place and to the ones who allowed me to use their homes as entries into the awards, thank you. Also huge congratulations to all the other award winners on the night, the pictures we saw there of the work was frankly outstanding and justly worthy winners. 

Here's to going again next year