Lifestyle by Design – VIE Journal

A Brand Tastemaker Leads the Way

By Katie Ogletree | Photography courtesy of Summer House Lifestyle

When you already know, you already know. And that’s exactly how proprietor and principal designer Melissa Skowlund felt when deciding to open a brand new location for Summer House Lifestyle and additional implement her inside design studio into the guts of the 30-A group alongside Florida’s Gulf Coast. Within every week of her first retailer opening in Grayton Beach twelve years in the past, Melissa met Summer House’s first consumer, Sue Lavin, who has since accomplished over 5 initiatives with Summer House and develop into a pricey good friend. That first challenge opened the floodgates for Melissa’s inspiration and momentum, and he or she by no means appeared again.

Her model’s philosophy: Live merely and encompass your self with lovely objects you’re keen on. That is precisely what Skowlund and her workforce have fostered so deeply into the corporate. There just isn’t solely an amazing ardour for the artwork of inside design, but additionally for the purchasers they help and for bringing their visions to life.

VIE was excited to talk with Skowlund on the opening of her new showroom and Design Bar at Watersound Town Center and what’s arising for Summer House Lifestyle!

VIE: Besides unbelievable climate and architectural design, what introduced you to 30-A?

Melissa Skowlund: My husband and his household had been vacationing alongside the Emerald Coast since he was a toddler, so when our youngest daughter was born, we determined to revisit the realm for a trip. I fell fully in love with the pure fantastic thing about 30-A and the seemingly limitless potential it held. After dwelling in Wisconsin our entire lives, when my husband accomplished his fellowship on the University of Florida, we took a leap of religion and moved as much as the Panhandle. I opened my enterprise upon shifting there and haven’t appeared again!

VIE: How did you determine, after having a showroom for twelve years in Uptown Grayton Beach, that it was time to develop and transfer?

MS: Though we beloved our Uptown Grayton location, I had at all times dreamed of increasing and having a location the place I might have my Design Bar places of work and the retail retailer in the identical house. Watersound Origins introduced itself as an amazing development alternative, providing us the liberty to customise the storefront in an space that was extra accessible to prospects, with higher parking and city middle actions. The plan for the event can be extremely thrilling and one thing that I noticed as a novel enterprise to be part of.

The expansive new house measures 4,100 sq. ft and presents a considerably bigger retail space than earlier than. The new location additionally has extra parking for patrons and an hooked up design bar the place purchasers can select samples, finishes, and furnishings one-on-one with their workforce of designers. The concept was to create a retail house that mimics the look of lots of our purchasers’ properties and offers inspiration to friends and future design purchasers.

VIE: With this new location in Watersound, what can folks anticipate from this retailer?

MS: With this new location, we had the chance to personalize the house and create vignettes of varied rooms, fostering an expertise that appears like strolling by means of scenes of a house. Our stock is high-end and deliberately curated to replicate the Summer House Lifestyle design model, encompassing our inside objects, clothes, tabletop objects, and extra. Every merchandise works collectively to create the effortlessly stylish, elevated, elegant, and chic really feel we aspire towards. We goal to make each go to to our retailer really feel like an expertise that leaves our prospects feeling higher than they did after they walked in.

VIE: How does The Design Bar match into the Summer House Lifestyle model?

MS: Design Bar is our headquarters for inside design providers. The method the shop is ready up, with scenes that really feel like a house, is a illustration of what we do at Design Bar in our purchasers’ properties. The Design Bar is residence to all our design assets, designer places of work, samples, assembly areas, and extra—we prefer to say that it’s actually the place the magic of Summer House occurs.

Her model’s philosophy: Live merely and encompass your self with lovely objects you’re keen on.

VIE: How do you retain your design fashion and concepts recent?

MS: One of one of the best methods to maintain your thoughts open to recent concepts and types is thru journey. This summer time, I’m in France with my daughter, who participates in equestrian competitions and just lately competed on the Chantilly Racecourse. I like all issues equestrian, together with the basic, timeless design inspiration that may be present in that world. I’ve been utilizing this time to discover the realm and draw concepts from the whole lot I see, from the pure magnificence and colours of the area to its historic buildings and antiques. Working on initiatives nationwide has additionally been instrumental in maintaining our workforce’s designs recent and facilitating flexibility in numerous environments.

VIE: Tell us about among the individuals who helped deliver this new retailer to life.

MS: I at all times say I’ve one of the best workforce on 30-A, and I actually consider that. Bringing the brand new retailer to life has been a large workforce effort that I might by no means have completed alone. Each and each member of our workforce, from designers to our warehouse and retail workforce members, has given their all to facilitate this challenge. I really feel immensely blessed to have them. I even have to present credit score to my husband, Chris, who has supported me and my enterprise aspirations from the start of Summer House—irrespective of how lofty they might be (they usually normally are).

VIE: You have initiatives all around the US. Can you inform us a couple of couple you’re engaged on now? Do you intend to develop Summer House Lifestyle with extra showroom areas?

MS: Getting to work on initiatives throughout the nation has been such an important a part of Summer House Lifestyle and our design journey. Projects outdoors of 30-A seaside properties hold our designs recent and convey a wealth of inspiration again to us, permitting us to raise the native properties we work on to the following degree. We at present have some extremely thrilling initiatives—an ocean-front Palm Beach, Florida, property and a lake residence in Lake Keowee, South Carolina, to call a pair. If the appropriate alternative introduced itself, we might positively develop to have one other location for the Design Bar!

VIE: Thank you, Melissa!

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Visit SummerHouseLifestyle.com and observe @summerhouselifestyle and @designbar30a on Instagram to be taught extra or e book an appointment.