i+D - March/April 2019 - 46

Living by
Design
Designers
in Retail

Why Bother?

Where To?

When it comes to why these ambitious designers decided
to deliberately add to their workload, each has a unique stance
on the subject. For avid collector and globetrotting designer
Caroline Rafferty, her recently launched Palm Beach, Florida,
shop, The Grand Tour, pays homage to her wanderlust spirit
inherited from her mother, Julie Fisher Cummings (who
also happens to be her business partner in the shop), and
her grandmother. "I wanted to create a place for all of our
discoveries to live-where we could bring finds from all around
the world and introduce them to Palm Beach," explains the
designer, continuing, "my grandmother, Dearie, has been our
muse all along, as she was the matriarch of our family and
our guidepost for design, wanderlust, and curiosity."

With intentions set and a game plan in place, it becomes time to turn
attentions toward the more tangible: bricks and mortar. Like picking the
perfect partner or finding your dream house, the process is anything but a
straight path. The owners of CLOTH & KIND passed on several locations
due to lack of natural light, unappealing ceiling heights, or for one reason or
another relating to a facility's bones. Ultimately, they settled on a new and
previously untouched space, which was a beautiful blank canvas-that's
where the real fun began. "We had a total blast designing our retail space
from soup to nuts, starting with the architectural plans all the way through to
the tiniest of details in the final design," expresses Krista Nye Nicholas.

Far from the dotted-luxury coastline of Palm Beach, designer
Chrissy Cottrell, the Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
proprietor of Curated Home by Chrissy & Co, founded her shop
out of necessity. "All too often, the retail market is comprised
with retail primary and design secondary. I wanted to up the
ante and bring something special to the table, [to] elevate
the retail experience from being a place where you go to buy
a sofa and a piece of art to a respite that can help you curate
all the right pieces for your home," she explains. Cottrell
launched Curated Home to fill a gap in the luxury marketplace,
while presenting a wow factor to the client experience.
In contrast, Annapolis, Maryland, designer Gina Fitzsimmons
opened the doors to her shop, Details of Design, for the sake of
brevity. "I opened Details of Design in 1991 to have accessories,
lamps, art, and accent furnishings available for completing a
client's project," she notes. "I usually know when I will be
needing navy blue lamps, so I make sure that I have them in
stock. It saves a lot of running around just before install day!"
And, for the dynamic duo that comprises Ann Arbor, Michigan,
interiors firm CLOTH & KIND, it was a natural extension and
opportunity to show off their tastes and finds. "It's nothing if
not a labor of true love, designed to inspire everyone from a
pillow buyer to a full-service interior design client," muse the
designers, who also have offices in Athens, Georgia.

"[Our shop is] nothing if not a labor
of true love, designed to inspire
everyone from a pillow buyer to a
full-service interior design client."
-KRISTA NYE NICHOLAS
AND TAMI RAMSAY, CLOTH & KIND

46

Rafferty echoes the sentiment, stating, "Finding the right location was
paramount. It's different [in Palm Beach] than in New York because it's not
about foot traffic; here, everyone is driving around. We found the perfect
place in The Royal Poinciana Plaza because it is a destination that people
drive to and the plaza is experiencing a renaissance, attracting longtime
Palm Beachers as well as the next generation."

What's the Problem?
As the paint dries and light fixtures nestle into their mountings, the shape
of a shop begins to take form. But, certainly, not without challenges and
questions of execution. Fitzsimmons admits that the internet continues to
create hurdles for her business. She combats the immeasurability of the
internet by becoming a mainstay in the community. She explains, "The initial
challenge was to create a design store that would service our design firm,
Fitzsimmons Design, and also be available to the public. Our store is now a
destination in Annapolis for many clients tackling their own projects, as well
as serving as a great source for new clients interested in working with us."
Cottrell, on the other hand, encountered another set of complications.
"Some of the largest challenges we face are logistical and bureaucratic,"
she states. "Tariffs, duties, and shipping [are] not something that you
automatically know how to account for-especially with constantly changing
policies and fluctuating rates."
For the CLOTH & KIND team, who just recently opened their retail doors, the
learning curve is in full swing. "We're very much in the midst of our infancy-
still learning to crawl, so to speak," shares Partner Tami Ramsay. "We've
mastered the inventory management and POS [point of sale] systems and are
now building out our CRM [customer relationship management] tool, which
will allow us to maintain and continually grow the right audience for each line
of our business of which the shop is just one part."
In Palm Beach, the issues lie more with decision-making and space allotment,
as Rafferty expounds. "We have found many things we love, spanning
across many different styles and periods, so our biggest challenges are fitting
them all into the store in a cohesive way, editing them down so the store
still feels curated, and making sure we're constantly rotating our inventory,
offering fresh products, and staying on the cutting-edge." Rafferty also hints
at an occupational hazard: "[I've] become so personally attached to all of the
pieces, so something I didn't expect is that I've been having major separation
anxiety when anything sells and leaves the store."

i+D - March/April 2019
i+D - March/April 2019

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