Barbo Furniture Adds Home Design Studio to Floor

April 17, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Store Openings on April 18, 2010 Bellingham, Wash.-based Barbo Furniture is converting a section of its store into a home design studio where consumers can find specialty eco-friendly flooring, countertops and glass and stone sinks and other items for the home.

ENVISION€”An Elemental Home Design Studio also offers door and drawer refacing, customizable area rugs, hardware and will soon incorporate storage and organization solutions.

Holly Barbo, co-owner of the store, said the company's reputation has been built on eco-friendly home furnishings and it made sense to expand into other areas of the home.

"We have always made custom case goods for clients who wished them," Barbo said. "I have been designing some of those pieces. I have also done room plans and acted as a color and décor consultant. This is just an extension of the same theme that we decided to take. We'd rather be ahead of the wave than behind it."

Barbo said the addition to the store's offerings came in pieces.

"Because of our reputation for 'green' we were approached by an eco countertop company last summer," Barbo said. "We took the information but didn't act on it. September in Vegas we saw these incredible stone and glass sinks. The information nestled in our brains with the countertops. Same thing with a few hardware companies."

Barbo said a young couple came into Barbo Furniture looking for flooring for a studio apartment renovation. The couple couldn't find the flooring, so Barbo contacted the company and things started to fall into place.

"I've done my homework," she said. "My prices for the things offered in ENVISION are price competitive for my area. Not everything is here yet. It will probably be early to mid-summer before all arrive."

Barbo plans to offer complimentary classes on home renovation elements by late summer.

"What we are offering is more of a total concept," Barbo said. "A one-stop shopping, as it were. Our main business is still furniture but our goal has always been the focus on the whole home. Now we are doing that."