I love showrooms! Everything about them appeals to me, from the beautifully lit and displayed product, to the wings of fabrics waiting to be discovered, it all presents infinite possibilities available to designers.

Holly Hunt - New York

The perfectly sharpened pencils nestled in bins with memo sample request pads handily located next to them, the colorful and imaginative shopping bags full of gorgeous fabrics and funky trims, yours for the taking.

Fadini Borghi Fabrics & Trimmings

Graciously offered space to spread out and work, with water, coffee and snacks readily available. A sales associate ready to offer assistance; pricing and tear sheets swiftly and efficiently proffered.

But showrooms are more than that, they are a designer’s life blood, and designers are theirs’.  A perfect example of a symbiotic relationship.  Showrooms and their well-trained staff should be considered allies, a first line of defense. They are problem solvers, who will go to bat for a customer to help in getting to the bottom of a freight issue, or working with a vendor to push a lead time, or getting a difficult question or problem resolved.

The showrooms I have been fortunate to work both for and with have been much more than the selling, they have been about the relationship and the connection.

Gibson Design Management recently launched a Review Center.  This is a place for the design industry to review showrooms on the customer service that it receives.  We hope for it to be a place for showrooms that are providing great service to be lauded, and for those who are not serving the industry well, to improve from.  The way for this review center to be successful is for you to be candid about your experiences and to share those experiences.  We would love to have you contribute to our review center, and spread the word to your industry partners.

Currently, you can review showrooms in the Denver Design District and the Washington DC Design Center.  Please add your stars and reviews.  Posts can be anonymous if you do not feel comfortable adding your name, and of course, your email address will be kept strictly confidential.

A recent article by TechCrunch.com outlines the foundation and principle behind the interior design and product web site, Decorati.  As someone in the design industry, I was particularly troubled by the last paragraph in the article:

“While the prices for furniture on Decorati aren’t cheap, the site definitely lowers the costs by letting consumers access high-end furniture and design ideas without the help of a costly decorator. And if you do want to hire a professional, the site makes it fairly easy to find one that matches your needs.” -TechCrunch, October 2, 2009

It seems to be a conundrum as Decorati focuses much of their attention, like Ava Living, on bringing interior designers and consumers together.  Based on this article, however, it appears that Decorati will allow consumers to purchase trade-only merchandise directly.  Is this the case?  Decorati, if you’re listening, please chime in.  All other readers, what do you think?

Click here to read full TechCrunch article.

A few weeks ago, after I learned that Tim Schelfe, ASID–of Schelfe and Associates, Raleigh, North Carolina–was chosen to participate in The Nation’s Next Top Model Home competition, I jokingly sent Tim an email saying, “You are a rock star!”  Joking aside, Tim seems to have reached rock star status with this great opportunity as a professional designer competitor on a web-based TV show.

Tim Schelfe, ASID

The Nation’s Next Top Model Home selected 7 ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) designers and gave them 28 days and $5,000 to transform a room in a model home (competitors could spend an additional $5,000 of their own money as well).  Voting then opened to the public for 30 days online (you can still vote!) and the winner will not only win the ultimate rock star designer status but will also win $25,000 for his or her firm.

I sat down virtually with Tim and asked him about his Nation’s Next Top Model Home experience.

GDM:  How were you selected to participate?

TS: An email blast went out to ASID and I filled out the required information, including photos of my work and a headshot of me.  Didn’t think much about it and then two weeks later got a call that I made the top 12 and then the final 7.

GDM:  What made you decide to participate and do you think it will help promote your business?

TS:  Initially I was very skeptical.  I thought, do I have time for this?  But the submission process was very easy to do and I thought “somebody is going to get selected why not me”!  I hoped this would get my name and my firm out to a very large audience.  I also thought it would be a fun competition to be in and a good way to promote professional interior design.  Also, since they were casting ONLY ASID designers I felt they were sending a good message to the public; hire a professional.

GDM:  Were there any pitfalls in participation?

TS: Yes all the designers had to abide by there budgetary rules.  Also the time it took away from my real business and paying clients was huge.

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Time Inc., the publisher of Southern Accents, announced on Thursday that the September/October issue would be the last issue for the 32-year-old publication.  According to Publishers Information Bureau, Southern Accents’ ad pages declined 37%, to 176 pages, in the first six months of this year.

Southern Accents is the latest shelter magazine to face the guillotine.  Earlier this year, Conde Nast closed Domino; others to face the ax in the last two years were House and Garden, O at Home, Blueprint, InStyle Home, Cottage Living, and Country Home.

While the economy is much at fault for the lack of advertisers for our beloved shelter mags, could it also be that the emergence of social media is too taking its toll?  With advertisers opportunities to stretch their dollars farther by utilizing online tools and the online ability to microtarget, could it be that shelter magazines’ only possibility for survival is to also move more substantial efforts online?

We will miss Southern Accents.  As someone who has spent a great deal of her life in the South, it appears to be one of the only luxury design magazines that exemplifies and embraces the beautiful design, ease, and elegance of southern living.