We are all married to style influencers

My wife turns to me and says, “It’s all starting to look the same.” We were shopping for furniture inside the world’s largest home furnishings retailer, and I too was starting to feel the same way. I have been a marketer in the home furnishings industry for most of my life. I am still amazed by how many ways you can make a chair. And, how many manufacturers make the same style of chair with only slight differences.

We are shopping for furniture because we are renovating our house. We inherited traditional bedroom and dining room furniture. Real brown ball and claw stuff. My wife hates the style. Well, she hates the ball and claw. She goes into great detail about why she doesn’t like it. “The claw with skinny fingers and fingernails looks like they belong to a gargoyle perched on a castle,” she says.

Sure, we could get rid of it and buy new furniture, but we are very conflicted by the heritage and costs connected to the furniture. The lines are beautiful and tailored, the finish is exquisite, and the proportions are well done. I also remind her it was made in the US, well before our nation decided to ship the manufacturing elsewhere. But, that’s another blog post, let’s keep going…

My wife is a CPA and a very successful one at that. So, I ultimately convinced her we should keep the furniture we already have based on robust financial considerations. In addition to her day job, my wife grew up working in her mom’s knitting store and has an unbelievable sense of color and style. She can tell you every type of yarn and every kind of stitch. Where she got a sense of interior design style is beyond me, but she has it in abundance.

We share our office building, and if you ever visit us, you can see her talents on display. She works with some clients that have, let’s say, financial elasticity. (They have $$). They enter and comment on how beautiful a blue vase is for instance and how expensive it must be. (She got it at Marshall’s for about $5). Why does it look so high-end and gorgeous? It is because of how she handles the space around it. Her ability to create a theme and then design it with colors and props is a real talent.

Note: She is a CPA, and I am an ad guy, I could never do her job, and yes, she is a far better interior designer.

True to form, she is already coming up with ideas for modernizing the brass hardware of our inherited furniture by changing the color. She is looking at lighting, floor coverings, accents, and centerpieces. I am so excited to see her final design. I have seen her work, and I admire it. As a consumer looking to purchase furniture, I would definitely buy from her.

Of course, it’s essential to make a chair with style, quality, and a consumer-friendly price point but if you want to help sell your product hire multiple style influencers to bring your product to life. I am proud our Home Furnishings clients follow this mantra and put as much effort into inspiring and exciting consumers as they do making a fantastic chair.

Stay tuned, and I’ll post what she accomplished with our brown ball and claw dining chairs.

Photo Credit: ©2018 Crobar | Creative Leverage • Location: In Studio, High Point, NC • Purpose: Asset collection for residential flooring manufacturer