The Right Motif

When husband and wife Ken Pooch and Sonia Mott opened Motif Home Decor in November 2000, they knew they'd need to set up shop in an established area with high customer traffic if they were to have any chance to prosper. To their delight, the couple found retail space in a new strip mall in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, a suburb some 15 miles west of Milwaukee, in an area known locally as Lake Country.

Populated by newly built custom homes whose owners had plenty of disposable income to spend on refurnishing and accessorizing, the location was perfect. Ken and Sonia snatched up the space, and prepared to turn it into a retail operation along the lines of New York's ABC Carpet and Home and the Anthropologie chain of stores.

There was only one problem: the space looked, according to Sonia, "like a bowling alley." Transforming it into a stylish retail space presented a considerable challenge.

Motif divided its space between 2,000 square feet for retail and 700 square feet for storage and offices. The retail space is painted a grayish green color that takes on different tones from changing light throughout the day. The store's back wall is finished with a gold glaze that "brings the wall in," minimizing the interior's narrow feeling. Motif's product mix of clocks, lamps, area rugs, wall decor, tabletop, furniture, seasonal accessories, and giftware looks so good against the interior colors that many customers have followed the store's example and used at least one of the shades in their own homes.

In order to give the space a loft-like atmosphere, Ken and Sonia left the ceiling open and installed track lighting. But all that overhead space left them with the challenge of focusing attention on the merchandise. They accomplished that by installing ceiling moldings of weathered barn wood that serve to keep the eye from gazing upwards. The couple got another dividend from the striking moldings: they also anchor large hooks for heavy pieces, such as mirrors. To further the loft feel, the store's concrete floor was stained terra-cotta using an acid-based product called Lithocrome. The finish resembles well-worn leather.

Though the use of color helped bring the back wall closer, one could still see straight through the store to the rear. To remedy that, Ken and Sonia partnered with one of their vendors — a supplier of "made again" furniture and accessories created from architectural salvage. Motif's first find was a collection of 12 old French doors from a supper club in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The owners made moveable partitions by connecting the doors in sets of four. The partitions are used to break the store space into sections where Ken and Sonia create display vignettes. Old window frames hung in the front window also add character to the store.

More doors and windows followed, as well as plank flooring and ceiling tin that double as accents. Columns serve as display pieces for products such as Sid Dickens Memory Tiles. Positioning one of the columns hung with handmade jewelry next to the cash wrap doubled Motif's jewelry sales over the next two months.

Weekly display changes not only keep the store looking fresh, but offer the added bonus of a sense of urgency. Says Sonia, "Customers know if they don't buy it when they see it, there's a good chance it will be gone when they come back."

Motif's annual sales growth has been impressive, rising 57 percent from 2001 to 2002, and another 45 percent in 2003. As if sales figures weren't enough to prove the success of the Motif store design, one of its suppliers, Denali, used three photographs of the shop in their 2003 catalog.