Living the Dream

Marta Cullen knows decorating. For two decades she's been creating custom window treatments that help clients communicate their sense of domestic style to neighbors. In 1995, Cullen moved the business from her home (where she started out designing window treatments for friends and family at her dining room table) to a 10,000-square-foot, 125-year-old building in downtown Downers Grove, IL. There, she and her designers expanded from window treatments to interior design, as well as adding a retail segment to the business.

Now, in addition to decorating, Marta Cullen knows retail. Dream Interiors offers a variety of furniture, accessories, floral displays and textiles, in addition to its award-winning decorating services. “I guess we kind of came in the back door to retailing,” notes Cullen.

One of the companies Dream Interiors recently brought through the “back door” is Midwest, designer of Seasons of Cannon Falls holiday and seasonal home accents and Colonial Candle candle brands. According to Cullen, the store stocked 40 percent more holiday product then in the year before, largely because they were “wowed” by Midwest's displays at the 2007 Atlanta market.

Later that year, it was Dream Interiors that did the “wow”-ing; its holiday decorating seminars — entitled “Believe in the Magic of Christmas” — so impressed Midwest sales rep Barbara Edwards that she personally prepared the store's entry for Midwest's first annual “Show Us Your Sparkle” in-store display and events contest. The four (sold out) seminars, limited to 30 participants each, featured four different “stations” where Cullen and her fellow designers showed participants “the designer tricks of the trade.” Stations included tree decorating, railings and wreath, tabletops and chandeliers, and mantels and islands.

Were seminar participants inspired by the tips they received from Dream Interior's design professionals? You bet. “After every seminar, the store became a shopping frenzy,” says Cullen.

The bottom line results were also impressive, according to Cullen, who estimates that 2007 holiday sales increased 30 percent over the previous year. In addition, Dream Interiors was recognized my Midwest as one of 10 winners (out of 300 entrants) in the first “Show Us Your Sparkle” contest. The store was awarded second place in the Best In-Store Event category at the January 2008 Atlanta market.

This year, Cullen and her team of designers continue the effort of offering professional decorating tips for Dream Interior's customers. April will feature a “Customize, Personalize, Accessorize!”, a tutorial on trimming bookcases, accent tables, islands, kitchen cabinets and other nooks and crannies of the home. In May, Cullen and company will lead customers on a tour of four Downers Grove homes decorated by Dream Interiors.

Maybe afterward participants will be inspired to go on another “shopping frenzy.”