How do you choose the right furniture for your dream space?
You see it. You like it you. Buy it. Right? Just like buying shoes.
Well, we all know how complicated that can become. Let’s say you totally fall in love with a pair of John Fluevog patent toe Mary Janes. But you have to ask yourself: Do they go with my wardrobe? Can I walk in them all day? Will they last through the season? Can I afford them? And most importantly: Do they have my size?
The same goes for furniture.
At revolve furnishings, Calgary modern furniture retailer, they think of themselves as more of a high-fashion store for your whole home and are committed to making furniture shopping a fun experience. They have a simple formula to help you out: Plan. Play. Enjoy.
Step 1: Plan.
Before you start selecting furniture, it all starts with a plan, says founding partner Jeff Stoner. That means a little bit of fact finding is required, an exciting process that begins with measuring your room and finding out what fits.
“The right way of decorating your room is to look at your space, measure it, draw it out and then figure out how it should look. You may have pictures from a magazine or from a show home you visited (which is good because) you can tell us what appeals to you and we’ll help you look at furniture that will fit those parameters,” he says.
Since 2003, revolve furnishings has presented on-trend furniture with clean, minimalist lines. The designers and decorators are there to inspire, not annoy. They encourage their clients to shake up their interpretation of modern, while creating enjoyable, liveable spaces. After all, their motto is, “Think sexy. Be rebellious. Redefine modern.”
The in-house design team leads their clients through the glossy showroom full of modern and contemporary furniture and accessories for every aspect of the home.
They ask questions about everything from lifestyle to moods to favourite colours and translate the answers into the most up to date furniture options. Stoner compares the experience to a doctor’s visit, when you explain a symptom to your physician. And revolve furnishings’ design doctors even make house calls.
“Because of training (the physician) knows the questions to ask. Your answers let them know what to suggest. That’s what we do here,” he says. “We also talk about the feelings or emotions you want to have when you walk into a room and help you translate that into a piece of furniture that will fit. Just like you use a professional to help with your health decisions, it’s advisable to use a professional to help with your decorating decisions.”
The in-person experience at revolve furnishings is refreshing and in-depth, even extending beyond the walls of the store’s two intriguing showrooms, with a service that offers house calls from several professional interior designers and decorators on hand. revolve can help choose the right sized pieces, as picking the perfect furniture can not only be overwhelming, it can be difficult to determine scale in the showroom, Stoner says.
“People look at (furniture) here and think it’s small. But once it’s home, customers come back and say, ‘Wow, it grew.’ A floor sketch is like an X-ray into a client’s home,” Stoner says. “Here’s the space, here’s where traffic flows, here’s where we watch TV. People think buying furniture is easy, but it’s one of the most complicated purchases you can make.”
So, one of the first steps the designer takes at your home is to create a to-scale floor sketch of the room. By visiting your home and seeing it in daylight, or being able to incorporate exterior views and other aspects into their designs, creates a better end product, says Stoner.
For $250 the house call service includes measurements, photos and a 3D rendering. The fee is rebated to the customer with a minimum furniture purchase of $4,000.
Step 2: Play.
For revolve clients Laura Rivera and Matthew Henschke, the results of working with the in-house design team are something they enjoy every day.
After the couple moved to Calgary from Ontario, they needed some help putting their own personal mark on their three-level townhouse in Sunnyside.
“We came in to revolve with this whole list of what we needed,” says Rivera.
The pair, who are in their late 20s, wanted a modern, minimalist look for their home and worked with revolve designer Brenda Cave to furnish each room. That included a room for Henschke, who had envisioned a space based on the futuristic cult film A Clockwork Orange.
“Brenda talked to us about our design esthetic and helped put together an inspired dining set — a teak table with industrial-style legs. Brenda also picked four chairs from across the store to match,” Rivera says.
Cave visited their home and assisted in the design of five rooms with furniture from revolve, incorporating items purchased elsewhere to create a cohesive look.
“She consulted with us each time some pieces came into the house to see what else was needed to tie it all together,” says Rivera. “We had such a great experience.”
For those who like to play on their own, technology is another tool in the revolve experience. A virtual planner allows customers to drag and drop images of furniture onto a 3D floor plan, complete with video tutorials about their favourite pieces.
Step 3: Enjoy.
In the end, it all comes down to what you want and what works for you, your space, budget, time frame, durability needs and function, says Stoner.
It takes the right perspective to truly know what works — and what doesn’t. When it comes to shopping for furniture, Calgary’s revolve furnishings understands how to turn a house into a home successfully. In fact, their main focus is not merely selling furniture but creating whole rooms and complete spaces for clients. It all starts in a place that seems obvious, but is often overlooked, your current home.
“Most importantly, we’re happy when we create a room and you go, ‘Yes — this is me.’ You’re proud of your home and every time you open that door you feel good about yourself.”
revolve furnishings is located at 7070 11th St. S.E. and at CrossIron Mills. Create your own 3D rendering of your home for free using the virtual planner.
This story was produced by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content studio on behalf of revolve furnishings.