Last Fall, we decided to give our High Point Market Showroom the ULTIMATE makeover. Months of researching, shopping, measuring, planning, packing, rearranging, taking things out and rearranging again, product production, and (what feels like) hundreds of 30 oz coffees yielded our best showroom yet – with the BEST behind-the-scenes stories.
Originally, our trip was scheduled for a month before the 2018 Fall High Point Market. We were packed, stacked and ready to go; nothing was going to stop us.. except Hurricane Florence! Safety first, we postponed our travel for TWO weeks, which meant rescheduling everything from our UHaul, our reservations for Walker House, as well as our contractor and signage appointments! Thankfully, there was no damage and our friends in the surrounding region were safe!
Fast forward those hopeful, fingers-crossed-we-can-pull-this-off two weeks and we’re loaded, locked, and stocked up on snacks mapping the route on our mobile. A half-mile down the road, we started feeling the humps and bumps in the road – it was like the back of a school bus. We were in for a treat. Seven hundred ninety-one miles of road ahead should be a breeze, right? We started out ultra strong with sunshine and good spirits, audiobook on, Michigan expressways, into Ohio, opting for a Jimmy John’s lunch (not sponsored), as we traveled south through the midwest onto winding roads. We made a pitstop for coffee, then then came the rain in the mountains, dewy and beautiful. Spectacular road trip sights to say the least.
Pictured above (left to right): The monstrous UHaul we drove, the winding roads of the South, and our EXIT SIGN (we’ve never been so happy to see an exit sign in our lives).
We have Arrived!
Sixteen bumpy hours later, it feels great to say HELLO High Point Market – WE MADE IT! The behind-the-scenes team at the High Point Market Shipping Dock was friendly, fast, and so helpful. They carefully loaded our perfectly handcrafted floating shelves, table, miscellaneous supplies, and our 40+ boxes of product onto carts, wheeling everything masterfully through the hallways to booth G-3019. We were excited, and exhausted. Ready to take on… a good night’s rest.
The Beginning
FIRST STOP: Coffee, from the most perfect little coffee truck, 83 Custom Coffee company.
Bright and early the next day, we dove in. To help give you an idea of what we were working with, here’s the before image:
Not pictured: PILES of boxes, products and showroom embellishments scattered all across the hallway. Did we mention we were basically the only ones there?
Prior to our arrival, our contractor team, Holbrook & Associates build out our custom closet (below left), and installed electrical lines (after all, a closet charging station and a mini fridge are top priority)! Our contractor showed up bright and early and got to work to install ALL of our goodies that were sourced in the MONTHS leading up to High Point Market.
Honestly, the biggest takeaway from our early-bird experience was all the space we had to maneuver around the hallways and all the 1 on 1 time we had with the Holbrook team – they were the real MVP’s that made the magic happen. Because there were hardly any other vendors there setting up, or scooting around High Point, it felt like we had full range of the space and quaint city of High Point. We didn’t have to worry about traffic or parking, that’s a huge win for Furniture Market!
Next, we called Habitat for Humanity of High Point to pick up some old cabinetry and we TORE the showroom apart. A team came in to paint and help build our custom cabinetry while we got to work building chairs, organizing product, running errands, and doing anything we could to cross some items off our list. Would you believe we made a total of 4 Home Depot runs? We were stoked when we got to the key pieces of the showroom – the pillow wall, and the duvet insert display – read on to see what we’re talking about!
The Great, Glorious Pillow Wall
The intent behind this display was to find a hands-on and practical way to arrange our pillows so that our partners could feel the plushness and fabric of our many, MANY, pillow combinations.
This custom shelving unit was built using our precise measurements to fit three standard-sized pillows perfectly, as you’ll see below, each section has the label of the collection, which tells you the fabric, firmness level, and construction of ALL the pillows!
Speaking of Holbrook assembling our custom pillow bar, and floating shelves, here’s some behind-the-scenes shots of the beautiful handcrafted chaos.
The decorative pillow filler wall (below) was just as glorious, floating shelves stained to match the cabinet and stacked with our catalog fill and shape options. The only thing we couldn’t fit are the hundreds of size combinations for these beauties.
Shameless plug: we offer custom decorative pillow fillers, Trade Partners can request a quote on our website by clicking here.
We’re obsessed with the functionality of this wall and the collective feeling of our new space. This project started out with the talented Christine Lilley‘s help. As a Grand Haven, MI designer, she is located nearby our office in Grand Rapids Michigan. Christine provided the initial design and layout (think color matching and maximizing space functionality). She gave us the guidance and freedom to customize & source our own design elements and made our custom pillow cabinet dreams come true by drawing and facilitating production with a local fabricator to make our work as sweet and smooth as southern pie.
Duvet Wall Construction
Question: How do you even begin to follow the genius of a Pillow bar??
Answer: Upcycle blanket ladders into a chic, functional, bright, fluffy duvet wall (see below).
Just like our little information cards on the pillow wall, the duvet display has the collection name neatly printed above the respective ladder with collection details (thread count and box construction/size). We worked with Fast Signs out of High Point, NC to get these tiny decals and gorgeous white-on-white DOWN inc. logo sign, as well as a decal on the front of our booth (you’ll just have to come visit us to see this element)!
It’s ALL the details
Our favorite part of the entire showroom remodeling experience was the finishing touches; we loved seeing our vision of textures, patterns, elements, and accessories come to life. With all the hard work, it felt just like magic to see the headboards assembled, picture gallery hung, and our linen curtains/woodsy light fixtures attached to the ceiling. We took special care to think through the showroom as somebody might if they were visiting us for the first time, creating two entire racks of sample combinations and making a very conscious effort to label everything we could. The pillow cabinet and duvet wall explains our collections including the thread count firmness/weight, and construction. It feels surreal to see it all in place.
Can we get a drumroll, please?
Would you believe we accomplished this all in FOUR days? We’re thankful for the Suites at Market Square team’s help, and our obsessive strategic planning – getting there a few weeks earlier was a real game changer for us!
Quick refresher of what our “before” looked like…
And here’s the after – can you believe it’s the same place? We’re still not convinced it is!
If we’re being honest, it was exhausting but exhilarating and totally worth it to stand in the space at market and to see all the kind reactions to our showroom, and our customers loved it, here’s what our Trade Partners had to say:
“The new showroom is simple, stunning, and eye-catching. The most important part is that it’s not overwhelming.”
– Kelly, Village Design Group
“Everyone is SO visual. The side-by-side comparison of the deco pillows is so helpful.”
– Hannah, J Banks Design
“Using downinc.com to get deco filler quotes is easy & fast. Kudos to DOWN inc.!”
– Randy, Nicole Norris Design
Let us know what you think of the revamped showroom in the comments and maker sure to check out our Exhibitor Portal here.
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