Helping people get it right
IT’S BEEN there for three years, though many don’t know it.
Maybe that’s because, from the outside, Turkstra’s Designer Showcase just looks like part of the lumberyard that surrounds it. Walk in the door at the centre of the Stoney Creek complex though, and it opens on to something entirely different.
Inside, rooms open on to rooms open on to rooms where windows, handle sets, baseboards, moulding and doors (including one disguised as a shelf ) are all on display. If you’re design-savvy, the showcase is a dream. If not? That’s why Thea Kraus is there.
Kraus is a sales associate at the showcase. Her job is to guide people through the process of making decisions about all the little things they’d never considered when it comes to a new build or a remodel.
“It’s overwhelming for people when they build a house,” says Kraus. “You don’t know where to start or what to do. There is a process. Being in custom home building, I can figure out how to put it in order but to the average person that comes in, it’s a lot. Got to pick a new floor, got to pick a new kitchen, got to pick new cupboards, they have no idea. So that’s where, again, we have to look at the whole picture.”
The goal with the showcase is to make it easier for people and the designers with which they may be working.
Rather than going from a trim place to a door supplier to another place for windows, the showcase brings it all together.
Sometimes Kraus works directly with homeowners. Sometimes she works with designers. Other times she works with contractors.
She says kitchens and bathrooms still command the lion’s share of the focus, but there’s more and more attention being paid to the little things as people are realizing they can update the look of their homes with small touches.
A beautiful front door can set the tone for the house. Changing the door knobs from Colonial-style to lever-style can modernize the feel. These are big among people looking to sell.
Even trim, which people usually forget about, can have a huge impact.
“You can put the same trim in 17 different houses and make it look a little bit different just by adding a few extra mouldings here and there,” says Turkstra trim specialist Ryan Corkilo. “So people are just looking to be different from the next door neighbour.”
So f ar it’s working out. Kraus says the company is considering a second location in the future.