Special Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Becky Miller

Improve Your Retail Space with Christopher Lowell’s Seven Layers of Design

Concert pianist–Broadway set and lighting designer–marketing maven– retailer– interior designer–self-esteem guru Christopher Lowell has a wealth of business wisdom to share. Futon Life & Living Spaces got to pick his brain at the recent High Point market. Here are some of Emmy Award-winning Lowell’s top tips for improving the look of your store and selling to the new consumer as well as his predictions for coming trends.

Lowell developed the Seven Layers of Design while he was an interior design teacher for homeowners in his community. While helping them through the process of decorating their homes, he realized that choosing paint colors wasn’t the biggest issue paralyzing people: “We began to realize that it wasn’t about interior design, it was about self-esteem,” he said. “No one was talking about self-esteem, which has always been my message. We have always been about connecting people with their personal creativity.”

“The seven layers are the ‘freak out’ areas,” he said. “Each one of those seven layers is a place people stop. We tell you in advance, if you freak out when you get there, you’re right on track, congratulations.”

The seven easy-to-follow steps simplify the décor process and reduce anxiety. Lowell’s “You can do it!” attitude has encouraged countless people to improve their homes. He believes the same advice will work for furniture retailers as well. When we sat down with him in the Flexsteel showroom (Lowell designed the showroom and has a line of furniture with the company), he talked about how retailers can apply the seven layers of design to their stores, increasing aesthetic appeal, consumer comfort and, ultimately, sales.

Layer 1, Paint and Architecture

“Every year we poll 2 million people [who visit christopherlowell.com], and fear of color is still the number one issue,” Lowell said. When he chose the colors for the Flexsteel showroom, he used bold colors to excellent effect. “Go ahead and put a chocolate brown wall as a backdrop,” he encourages retailers. Consumers are afraid to use bold colors in their homes, he said, but when retailers show them how great it can look, the consumers can visualize the strong color in their own homes, and it gives them courage to try it. “The more color you can introduce, and the more you're up on color trends, the more they're going to respond,” he said.

He also advises retailers to try new paint colors for every new collection of furniture they bring into the showroom. A tip from Lowell’s book Seven Layers of Design is to choose the most neutral shade of the color you want. To do this, select the middle paint strip from the range of strips in that color. Then pick the middle colors from that strip. Paint
the wall the darkest of the medium shades.

His website offers a color selection tool that can help with this process. “If you walk around the (Flexsteel) showroom, you’ll see the wall colors that are all from this great little tool called Color Courage. Every single color in this palette is of the exact same hue value–which is where people make mistakes–which means any of these colors you put together will never clash…So this is a great tool for the retailer. These are designed specifically as background colors.”

What if you rent your space, and the landlord doesn’t want you to paint? Lowell says just paint anyway, and then paint the walls white again before you leave. “Have a ball. Paint everything in sight. Because the reality of it is, your landlord shouldn’t be holding you hostage. [A retailer] who’s rented, and they can’t paint, they got a very bad deal.”

Layer 2, Installed Flooring

Lowell reminds would-be designers in his book that “the floor is in effect the sixth wall of the room. Best to keep it neutral, since there are five more layers yet to be added.”

“I’ve seen people do a great job just with polished concrete,” Lowell said. “Keep it as neutral as you possibly can. If you lay a wood floor throughout your entire space, everything you put in there is going to have the same look even though you’re only seeing it here and there, so keep your floors neutral.”

Layer 3, Upholstered Furniture

He also says that upholstered furniture pieces “are the basic furniture blocks of your room and should be in a neutral palette; patterned accent fabrics can be added in the next layer.” The furniture addressed in this layer includes sofas, love seats, club chairs, fully upholstered dining chairs, settees and large ottomans.

“In your fabric areas, keep your covers solid,” Lowell advises. “Show the accent colors in pillows and in a small side chair that’s easy to reupholster.”

“Make that showroom feel like a place these people want to live in,” he said. “Keep your covers neutral. Don’t feminine it up, because he’s not going to respond to it. Use covers that are not gender-specific.”

Layer 4, Accent Fabrics

“Keep accent fabrics where they’re supposed to be and not on the actual big ticket items,” Lowell said. His book lists great places to use accent fabrics: curtains, pillows, table runners, seats of dining room chairs, lamp shades, small ottomans, fabric-covered boxes, tassels, table skirts and throws.

This is the layer in which to incorporate area rugs, and Lowell suggests an innovative way to do that. “Develop an inventory of area rugs, or go and negotiate with an area rugs manufacturer that you like. Let them put the kiosk in, and in exchange, you get to use it for display. It’s terrific, it’s easy, it’s a win-win situation.”

Layer 5, Non-Upholstered Furniture

“Case goods is the next layer. The non-upholstered. Understand and teach scale. I can’t tell you how many showrooms I’ve walked in with this gigantic couch that looks like a float and a little glass table full of accessories. Who’s that for?” Lowell asks.

“When in doubt, go bigger. You know, understand that four club chairs around a gigantic coffee table, that really works. And the human form only needs 18-20 inches to comfortably move through spaces. Teach them how to arrange their furniture. Keep the sides of your furniture low and show multiple settings within your spaces. Try to get as much furniture in that room that works. Keep all your profiles low. Keep your color intense. That color on those walls will bring all of that furniture together.”

Layer 6, Accessories

“Then there’s accessorizing. We’re moving into an area where people are purging for the very first time. The Baby Boomer is purging to clean the slate, because life has changed that radically,”
he said.

Lowell briefly addresses clutter in Seven Layers of Design: “After fear of color, our greatest resistance is to parting with our stuff. Most people are drowning in clutter, which can create visual confusion, rob a room of its allure and kill the atmosphere.” (He details decluttering further in his new book, Seven Layers of Organization, which was just released in December 2005.)

He calls small accessories “room dandruff,” and says in his design book that if you can’t identify an object from across the room, it’s too small. “A collection of few, larger accessories beats a shelf full of dust gatherers,” he writes, and “accessories are the jewelry of a room.”

In a retail space, don’t just add accessories for the sake of adding accessories, Lowell said. “If the bowl isn’t for sale and doesn't work with the collection, get rid of it.”

As with the rugs, he suggests working out a partnership with an accessories vendor: “Give them a couple of bays, let them change out your accessories. You’re not going to make a profit on it, but it will show what you do best.”

Layer 7, Plants & Lighting

Seven Layers of Design says, “Plants and lighting work together to create shadow and texture.”

Lowell worked as a set, costume and lighting designer on Broadway, so he understands using lighting to dramatic effect. “Lighting is really key. The more theatrical your lighting, the better off it’s going to be. Unless you have spectacular windows and beautiful views and you’re doing the natural light kind of thing. Indirect lighting makes all the difference in the world. Keep your ceilings dark if you don’t have windows and you have to create a mood. I mean, I’ve seen produce sections in supermarkets that look better than some furniture stores that I’ve been in. They’re all indirectly lit. You’re trying to create an ambiance. You’re trying to create intimacy in a big space. And the best way to do that is to understand that shadow is as dramatic as overall lighting.”

Don’t accessorize with lamps just for the sake of doing so. “If you don’t sell lamps, don’t show them,” he said. “Instead, use track lighting. Because all you’re doing is saying, ‘I don't offer this. I'll show it to you, but I don't offer it.’ And if you do, again, gang with somebody who will supply those for you and make those available to your customer.”

The biggest lighting secret he emphasizes in his book and in person is, “Understand that as much light should come from the floor as from the ceiling, if you can.”

And what about plants–are silk ones okay? “Yes, absolutely,” he said. “Technology’s advanced so much today that you can get pretty darn realistic-looking plants. Nobody cares if they’re living or they’re not living, because it’s not their home. It’s your showroom.”

•••

More Tips From Christopher Lowell

Tips for Selling

• “Really intense wall color, covers that are not gender-specific, keeping accent fabrics where they’re supposed to be and not on the actual big ticket items…these are all ways that you can talk to a customer about interior design, and they feel like they’re getting information as a result of being with you and not being sold something.”

• “You shouldn’t be a shop owner unless you take on the general maintenance part. Dust makes people feel like it’s been there a long time, you know. There’s no curb appeal to dust.”

• “Make sure that what you have throughout your whole showroom is pre-coordinated. Take one collection, put it up against another collection. If you’re able to say to these consumers, ‘Everything here goes with everything else,’ BAM. Anxiety level drops. Fortification and esteem level raises.”

What the NEW consumer is looking for

• “Today’s young couples are hypertasking. They are primarily now dual, equal income for the first time in the history of this planet. Men and women are co-partnering every
decision in the home. This has never happened before; this is the very first time. So this brings up a lot of other issues. We cannot sell furniture traditionally as we have been before.”

• “We’re watching women become a little bit stronger, and we’re watching men become less macho. If you look on college campuses today, you don’t see muscle guys in letter sweaters. That’s just not cool. So what’s happening is, there’s a tremendous amount of androgeny happening within the species, and yet we’re not seeing that at retail. The people who are doing a really good job of that are people like Crate & Barrel. You walk in that space and it’s non-gender-specific.”

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