Home Alone house

Have you ever seen a movie where you just love the house or love the design?  I have several movies that have helped me to make a decision about something.  I will never forget sitting in a hotel with our kids (when they were little) and seeing Home Alone.  I laughed so hard at different times that my kids were laughing at me.  I remember that beautiful house with its black door.  I needed to think of a color for my door of the house we were building at the time and guess what?  It became black!!

Another movie that I love and adore the house and design is “Something’s Gotta Give”  with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.  I love the colors, I love the floor plan, I love the kitchen, I love the house.  And I’m not the only one!  I found 20,700 hits on Google!  Here’s a link to one of the fun articles by another fan of the house.

This is the hope that I have for you is that you will love what we design for you.  If you don’t, we have not done a good job of listening to you.  It is important to us that you give us as much information as you can.  We love to sketch with you and find out about your room.  We want to know who uses it.  We want to know if you have a budget.  We want to know what your favorite colors are.  We can give you a beautiful room or a beautiful house—but you have to give us lots of information!!

Let us help you with a beautiful room!!!!

Somethings Gotta Give beach house

I was at a friend’s house the other day and we had so much fun.  We didn’t spend any money— we just changed her furniture around.  We moved a rug from one room in to the other.  We changed her shelves.  We put books, greenery and some interesting accessories on them.  What I have found over the years is that there usually is a BEST way for the room, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t change your room every now and then.  Maybe the traffic pattern isn’t the best—so in the summer, you walk in front of the fireplace—so what?  You don’t use the fireplace in the summer anyway.  Try putting furniture at an angle— angles add movement and drama.

Come on!  Don’t be held hostage to your floor plan.  Change it up!

Spring is a very exciting time in Iowa.  It is a time for renewal and rebirth.  After the winter we have had here in Des Moines, I am thrilled that our spring has been so beautiful.

Marlene and Laura just got back from the International High Point Furniture and Accessories market.  They said everyone was very upbeat and ready to get on with business.  We ordered a bunch of new things for the floor!  About 12 new upholstery groups – sofas or sectionals, chairs, and tables complete with rugs and accessories will be in by the middle of June.   In the meantime, we have many furniture pieces in our back room that are being cleared out at ridiculously low prices.  They really are GREAT pieces—so do come in and check out our back room clearance items.

I do think that by Design is the only way to buy upholstered furniture.  You get to work with an interior designer schooled in (and passionate about!) design who listens to what you say and will come up with the perfect room for you.  It can be one piece or a whole room.  We love to give you something different that will not look like your neighbors.  Our prices are very reasonable.  If you give us a budget, we will work within it.

If you are unsure of yourself and would like some professional input — or if you’re really into interior design and are confident of your own person style — we would love to help.

Give me a call and I will set you up with the perfect designer.  Call me at 515-225-2223.  Let’s talk!!!!  Bonita Clark

Click here to see a very few of the new market items Marlene & Laura found.

I always tell my designers that the best sound that I can hear from the floor is laughter.  It is not brain surgery that we do.  No need for stress.  No lives hang in the balance.  This isn’t to say that what we do for our clients isn’t important.  It can be very important… but it should always be fun!

We do aspire to be great listeners.  Listening to you, our client, and understanding your needs is critical to doing our job well.  And from there, we design a room for you based on your needs — or maybe just help you find a fabric — or talk to you about different things that might work for your room.  (We do not just try to sell something  because we have bought 25 of them and the boss has said to get rid of them).

No, that is certainly not what by Design is about.  We are all about building a relationship with our clients.  If we treat you well, if we both have fun then together we will create more than just a beautiful room (although that is important), we’ll create friendship.

So when I do hear laughter on the floor—it means comfort, trust, and yes, fun!  Because we are all about having fun at by Design!

Maureen just had a neat experience with a customer that I would like to share with you. She was working with a gentleman in the store and he told her that he had been to furniture stores all over Iowa. Our store, he said, had been the only store who had not tried to sell him something off the floor. Maureen said that this client was so appreciative that we wanted to know about the room, how he lived in it and that we really cared about his room. What’s more, he loved that we wanted to do a floor plan for his room.

I don’t think this prospective customer has ordered anything (yet). He may not ever buy anything. But, I love the fact that he noticed what makes us different than other stores!

Frankly, the furniture you see on our floor doesn’t matter at all. It is only there to show you what we can do – to stimulate your imagination. Our floor display is simply a tool to help us help you.

It is all about our clients and what they want. It is not about us or some sofa or other piece of furniture that we got a good deal on and are trying to blow out. Our imperative is to listen to our customer and to create a room that she loves… and it can be so affordable!

I was in Omaha at ccino the other day. A mom and daughter came in to the store, and I got to work with them.

They were in a hurry. I was trying to honor their time yet ask the questions that would allow me to best help them. The mother said that her daughter knew what she wanted.

“Great!” I said, “Then we are the perfect place for her because we can do exactly what she wants.” She found a sofa design that she liked. Then she found a fabric that she loved. We played with buttons and pillows to give more sophisticated, personalized “ccino” look. A look that is different — not one that she will see whenever she visits one of her friends.

I really think that is one of the most important of the many reasons that people like to shop at ccino and by Design. We can get you a unique sofa, sectional, chair, table (in fact a whole room!) for a terrific price.

So our young client is going to get the sofa that she loves.

I had so much fun working with her! It was so cool to see someone that young who cares that much about their furniture and home. And she had great taste too!

It was such a fun experience for me!!!

Bonita

I recently worked with a client who had special ordered a table.  She wasn’t satisfied that the table was right for her room.  Well, you all know that we cannot afford to return special order merchandise.  Nevertheless, in this case I decided to let her make a re-selection.  We emailed back and forth and were having a hard time coming up with the right thing.  So—I finally just decided that we needed to talk and oh, my gosh—it was so much better.  It was so nice to have a human side to it.  We both agreed and we found the right table and she is  thrilled.

She and I both decided that email is nice but sometimes, you just need to talk and hear the voice — and even hear the heart behind the email.  I feel that , if everyone is reasonable, anything can be worked out.

Life is short.  Your furniture experience should be a good one!
Bonita

Hi, I am Bonita Clark!  Kevin, my husband, recently asked me if I would write a blog for our website.  My first reaction was to say no — but as I thought more about it an idea came to me.  As much as I love design, fabric, furniture and all of the things that go into creating a beautiful room — what I really love is meeting our customers and making new friends. And that’s what I want to blog about.

We’ve worked with so many great people in the more than thirty years we’ve been in business!  I’m going to share stories about our customers and our employees.

Visit Bonita’s Blog