Loom Decor
Loom Decor, an online shop where designers and consumers can completely customize soft-fabric home furnishings, got a makeover. 'It's a little bit more sophisticated, a little bit cleaner, a little more high-end,” co-founder Nichole Ocepek says. She, alongside partner Ashley Gensler, launched Loom in 2012 with the goal of offering interior design looks outside of standardized sizes and styles found at big-box retailers.
From duvet covers and window coverings to pillows and poufs, the new website allows customers to handpick everything down to trimand get a live quote on anything while they're at it. Gensler says their clientele is about 50-percent designer and 50-percent consumer, so live quotes allow everyone to stick to their budgets with ease. The site is also more streamlined and visually pleasing, which makes the experience of picking fabrics and styles not only more enjoyable, but also simpler than previously.
Early this year, the co-founders plan to open their first studio space, as well, at the location of their current office, in the ONEC1TY development off of Charlotte Pike. They are also working on partnering with influencers and bloggers on a regular basis, even aiming to develop lines around influencers' personal interior aesthetics.
Loom recently began working with rewardStyle, meaning influencers who are a part of the liketoknow.it platform can promote Loom Decor via their blogs and social platforms. Mary Seng of blog Happily Grey is one of the first influencers to partner with Loom, after recently moving into a new home and working with the online retailer to decorate the space. loomdecor.com
Mattress Bliss
Tucked into a strip-mall off of Cool Springs Boulevard is Middle Tennessee's newest mattress retailer, Mattress Bliss, offering sleeping abodes that are mostly organic and eco-friendly. With a new year often come health improvements and goals, and a big part of that is sleep health, says store manager Lisa Nolan.
A bed made with unnatural or synthetic materials can release chemicals harmful to the sleeper. Among the brands offered at Mattress Bliss are Posh + Lavish, natural latex mattresses; Magnifex, soy- and aloe-made memory foam beds; and Mattress Bliss, the store's private label that offers affordable luxury. Store owner Lloyd Freeman seeks out mattress brands that are a step above, and the majority in stock are naturally made (some, even handmade in London), free of chemicals, and organic.
Custom pillows can also be built in house, taking about five minutes of a customer's time. Someone simply selects their filler of choicenatural latex, memory foam, or goose-down feathers, to name a fewand an employee will fill the pillow to the desired comfort and support level. Lloyd, whose first store is located in Atlanta, recognized that most of his out-of-state orders were coming from Middle Tennessee, so Cool Springs was a natural choice for his second storefront. 430 Cool Springs Blvd, Suite 110, 615-472-8762; mattressbliss.com
Newly
In today's retail environment, it's more about the stories you tell and less about the products you sell, right? For Newly, a Nashville-based eCommerce venture by five local entrepreneurs, it's wholeheartedly about both. Newly is a home goods company, with products in the vein of West Elm or other design-within-reach furnishing brands, in terms of price and contemporary aesthetic, but its mission separates it deeplyeach product sold is made entirely of recycled or repurposed materials. But, unlike much of the marketplace, the 100-percent-recycled aspect doesn't drive the design. Instead, you'll find glassware and acrylic trays, among other pieces, contemporary in form.
'We have this great wealth of untapped resource that we're just throwing away,” co-founder Michael Graziano, a Nashville filmmaker who moonlights as Newly's mission director, says.
The other co-founders include Matt Lehman, a graphic designer; Jessie Sproul, a music industry staple; Joel Griffith, a marketing and nonprofit business professional; and CEO Barrett Ward, also the founder of social enterprise FashionABLE. From inception to launch (a little over two years) much of the time was exhausted curating and creating items that met their mission and, just as importantly, their style standards, which happen to be far from the overly literal representation of 'handmade.”
'There's this crunchy, granola aesthetic with a lot of refurbished stuff,” Graziano says, yet they seek to form a minimalist and sleek presentation without pulling materials from the earth. The company currently sells within four categories: Spanish-made, hand-blown glassware that conserves more than a ton of natural resources for every ton of glass recycled; throw blankets that, while incredibly soft, are each made with 12 plastic bottles; sustainable cutting boards; and beautifully transparent acrylic trays, which were not as easy to find, as most lucite is welded together using chemical solvent. Newly's acrylic is sourced from Italy and assembled by a husband-and-wife team in South Carolina that bends the lucite's corners without solvent welding.
'For people for whom the environment plays into their decision matrix, we have a unique offering for them,” Graziano says. 'But I think everybody can appreciate our product mission and do some good while adding beauty to their home. And, if you're an environmentalist, it's a win-win.” newly.com
RH Modern
If your belief in modernism represents more than a style, but a perspective on life, then you might find Restoration Hardware's new retail concept, RH Modern calling your number. Located on the second floor space of the Green Hills shopping destination and developed by designers from around the world (including reissues of iconic Mid-Century design by Milo Baughman, for example), the new brand taps into modern architecture, furnishings, lighting, and décor for a refined look replete with neutral colors, contemporary lines, pops of brass, rich finishes, and especially fine materials. The options are not scarce either: RH Modern has a 540-page source book to tap in to for design inspiration.
But the new brand is more than such; it's an interior design company, as well. Within the front space of the RH showroom, everything has been reimagined and reformatted to present RH Modern within a dedicated interactive studio (RH Design Atelier) that offers a fully integrated workspace for architects, designers, and customers to collaborate and consult with an RH designer to reimagine a room or home, or to preview samples of fabrics and styles. The Mall at Green Hills, 2126 Abbott Martin Rd; 615-279-9002; restorationhardware.com