A Feast for the Senses

The Senses Gift Gallery offers a haven for epicurean customers.

By Matthew Kalash -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 1/1/2001

After 20 years on the front lines of the advertising industry, first as a graphic designer, and later as the owner and creative director of her own ad agency, in 1995 Laurie Carver decided that the time had come for a career change. Specifically, she wanted to reclaim her life from the rat race.

Her plan was to open a gift store close to home, a place where a sense of warmth and community would be the ethos of daily life-a place that would be an expression of herself. However, as an advertising veteran, she knew well that, in order to be successful and keep customers coming back, her retail venture would need to offer a memorable concept. Her solution was a three-dimensional design scheme that would appeal to all the senses-in her words, "a high-concept store filled with beauty." She envisioned a gift shop that would provide a sensual experience for every visitor.

On Mother's Day 1996, Carver opened the original Senses Gift Gallery in Wilmette, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago. The store's first location was an 1,800-square-foot space in the middle of a block on Wilmette Avenue. However, Carver knew from the start that the ideal location for her gift store would be the corner shop on that block, which had been home to four different pharmacies over the past 100 years. So, even as she opened for business, she kept an eye on the corner shop, staking out the space where she hoped to one day create a bigger, better Senses Gift Gallery.

The New Location

Early in 1999, Carver's patience finally paid off. She learned that the owners of the corner pharmacy were ready to sell. She quickly leased the space and enlisted the services of Image By Design, the Chicago-based interior design firm that had helped her create the first version of the Senses Gift Gallery.

What Carver and the design team found inside the building at the corner of Wilmette Avenue and Central Avenue was a space that had been renovated into lackluster dump. In Carver's words, the interior had been "vanillafied" into a colorless muddle that, while perhaps fitting for a modern pharmacy, was not the right kind of environment for a store that emphasized beauty and sensuality. Making the space suitable for an "earthy chic" gift store would take a lot of work, and a little bit of luck.

Serendipity

Carver, who acted as the general contractor on the renovation project, and a team of some 20 subcontractors tore away the bland fixtures that had been added to the pharmacy over the years. In the process, they were delighted to find some hidden gems from the original decor. Sections of tin ceiling and mosaic tile floors, as well as walnut millwork and apothecary cabinetry, were still salvageable after decades of neglect. With these wonderful discoveries in mind, the designers from Image By Design conceived of a strategy that would incorporate those fixtures from a bygone era, rather than trying-as others had-to create a contemporary appearance in the old-fashioned store. Thus much of the pharmacy was reclaimed, and, in many cases, restored to its original condition.

The renovation, which had been expected to take ten weeks, involved a lot of late nights and a hectic pace, but it was a labor of love for the owner. The team actually managed to finish ahead of schedule, completing the project in just six weeks. Carver closed the old shop in the middle of the block and opened a new and improved Senses Gift Gallery just two days later, coincidentally on Mother's Day weekend, 1999.

Carver's instincts about the new location have proved correct. Since the move to the corner shop, store traffic has tripled. In addition, sales figures for the first quarter of 2000 showed a 75 percent increase over sales in the first quarter of 1999, and her yearly sales for 2000 were up 55 percent over 1999.

A Feast for the Senses

The finished Senses Gift Gallery is as eclectic as the merchandise it sells. The restored areas contrast appealingly with the new architecture, which was kept clean and minimal. Broad planes of rich color combine with the wooden accents to fully realize the warm ambience that Carver had always wanted. In lieu of commercial store fixtures, Image By Design helped the owner select furniture and cabinetry with a vintage appearance that would complete the antique feel of the store. The "new" look of the store has been applauded by the community, which appreciates the celebration of its heritage.

The layout of the new 2,200-square-foot Senses Gift Gallery takes advantage of the irregular wedge shape of the shop. In order to regulate traffic in the store, and to maximize buying potential, Image By Design created a floor plan that allows customers to follow the flow of their senses through the gallery. Visitors are led in a counterclockwise circuit through a series of half-wall alcoves devoted to sound (cuckoo clocks, windchimes, and water gardens), sight (glass vases and tabletop pieces), scent (bath products and candles), touch (personal care items and massage oils), taste (gourmet gifts, candies, soups, jellies, and jams), and finally to the area reserved for Carver's sixth sense, thought (chess sets, stationery, journals, and books on spirituality and personal wellness). The tour of the senses ends at the cash register, adjacent to the store's entrance, where, hopefully, customers feel reinvigorated and ready once again to face the rat race of their daily lives.

The layout of the store was carefully calculated to enhance the customer's experience. "For instance," explains Carver, "we didn't want the scents too close to the door, because then people would be overwhelmed when they first stepped in. We put that area in the back of the store, so that customers could ease into it."

Indeed, the store's philosophy, as reflected on gift cards included with every purchase, emphasizes ease and comfort. The motto reads: "It is our hope to have created a haven in which you feel free to indulge your senses, leave your daily troubles behind, and enter back into the world refreshed."