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Photo by Robin Victor Goetz, gorvgp.com THE DESIGN BUREAU 100 / WORKPLACES

1 Know your audience / target clientele. When deciding on the location of your space,

choose a location that your clients will see and be able to access. When you decorate your space with the ultimate look that you want to achieve, also remember their tastes.

2 Understand your costs upfront. Even if you are in the business of building, properly

budgeting for yourself can get away from us designers. Don’t underestimate your total costs, including the cost of acces-sories. Creating a beautiful space can be expensive, and properly allocating funds will alleviate a lot of stress when those bills start coming in.

3 Be efficient in your design. When it comes to getting up and running in your space,

you want to get it complet-ed as quickly as possible. Start planning your product selections well in advance and line up your contractors even before you have a location.

4 Plan for expansion. If you plan on adding more employees and product lines due

to your increased exposure, you’ll want to make sure that you have enough room to grow without breaking the bank. With the investment that it takes to design and decorate a stunning space, you don’t want to be moving in a year.

5 When looking at po-tential spaces, mea-sure and space plan just like you would

for a client. Make sure that the space has affordable potential to be designed around the way your firm works and interacts with clients (think private offic-es, common work areas, confer-ence rooms, lounge areas, etc.).

6 Ask your vendors for a showroom discount. Many furniture companies

are happy to do this in exchange for the exposure.

7 Make your space a cutting-edge reflection of your personal style. Show

off the most current prod-ucts from lighting, furniture, flooring, wallpaper, tile, and rugs—just to name a few.

8 Create great visibility. Ideally and practically, it’s nice to have a space on the first

floor, even if you aren’t a retail store. Make sure to have attrac-tive and clear signage. If you have a front window, decorate it with window treatments, art-work, hip lighting, accessories, and smaller furniture pieces.

9 Market your new space! When it’s finally completed, the work is not over. Send

out press releases and utilize social media and your website to leverage your new space. You need to get the maximum ex-posure for all of your hard work.

10 Host regular or semi-reg-ular events at your space.

Whether it’s a fundraiser, design-themed event, or opening party, getting new faces into your showroom only helps promote new business.

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A designer’s showroom is the face of the firm—it gives potential clients a little taste of what they’re in for if they decide to put their home, office, or commercial building in the hands of that designer. Cincinnati-based designer Amy Youngblood Schuermann turned an ugly, damaged space into a chic, eclectic office/showroom when she decided to go into business for herself. Consequently, we de-cided that she was the perfect person to share the most important tips to consider when undertak-ing a showroom design of your own.

Ten Tips for Designing a Showroom By Amy Youngblood Schuermann, ownerAmy Schuermann Interiors

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Photo by Josh Beeman Photography, joshbeemanphotography.com and Robin Victor Goetz, gorvgp.com

There comes a time in an interior designer’s life where a fork in the road presents the choice to continue work-ing under someone else’s firm or branch out and create a solo venture. In 2009, Amy Youngblood Schuermann took the latter path after years of working for others. “I decided that it couldn’t get any worse to be on my own, so I made the move,” she says. Her company has since grown from a one-person operation to a staff of four—marking the second time that Schuermann has redirected her career track.

After graduating from college with a communications degree, Schuermann slowly realized her love of design as she

“did the corporate thing,” which even-tually pushed her to pursue a degree in interior design. She is drawn to the way that the work engages her on two levels. “I love the mix of creative work and client interaction,” she says. “There are so many professions where one of those aspects is predominant, and it’s not a nice mix. I have a strong sales and business background, so I love dis-cussing design and listening to clients.”

Schuermann places particular em-phasis on the latter aspect. “We strive for a creative, usually clean-lined, sophisticated look,” she explains. “But I hesitate to say that we have a certain

‘look’ because each project we do is customized to the client. Plus, I never want to do the same thing twice.”

Of course, for obvious reasons, in-terior design is not a field where the old truism “cobbler’s children have no shoes” tends to apply. Unsurprisingly, Schuermann receives copious com-pliments for her charming

Featured Company AMY SCHUERMANN

INTERIORS

Location CINCINNATI, OHIO

PROJECT type SHOWROOM/OFFICE

PROJECT NAME AMY SCHUERMANN

SHOWROOM

Branching OutAFTER YEARS OF WORKING FOR OTHERS, THIS INTERIOR DESIGNER ESTABLISHED HER OWN FIRM, COMPLETE WITH AN ECLECTIC SHOWROOM/OFFICE

By Saby Reyes-Kulkarni

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The owner of this show-room/office created a front sitting area with a mix of post-modern and contemporary furniture and refaced the old transaction counter toward the rear with a metallic textural solid surface, complete with cool pendant light-ing and bar stools.

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showroom/office, which is located in a brick-façade building that once housed a bank and, on first glance, now looks from the outside like a cozy first-floor apartment.

“The space was honestly very ugly,” she recalls, “and damaged from the previous tenant’s décor. So I laid the space out on paper and went to work! I created a front sitting area with a mix of post-modern and contemporary furniture, as well as a meeting/work conference area with a vintage white Parsons table and regency-style chair—very eclectic.” Schuermann also hung a mix of elegant and industrial-style chandeliers and created a gallery-like space in the back with an integrated kitchen for entertaining. “And I turned the old safe into a hip private office for two,” she says. “Of course, we have lots of cool fabric racks and bookshelves for our product binders. And we host a lot of events and clients, so we took the old transaction counter in the front and refaced it with a metallic textural solid surface and added cool pendant lighting and bar stools.”

Schuermann expects her firm to take on at least two more staffers this year, and she seeks to diversify the projects that it takes on. “Eventually,” she says, “we’ll organize the busi-ness into two specialties: high-end residential and commercial. I also see us venturing into fabric and furniture design. And yes—I’d love to host an interior-design television show!” aZ

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Photos by Josh Beeman Photography, joshbeemanphotography.com and Robin Victor Goetz, gorvgp.com

This interior designer’s office/show-room boasts a mix of elegant and indus-trial-style chandeliers as well as a gal-lery-like space (above) in the back with an integrated kitchen for entertaining.