I promised to bring you more small business features/tips so I am excited to introduce the first featured designer:) A new company with a brilliant concept! Welcome Rebekah from Design in a Bag…
About Design In A Bag
Prêt-à-porter for your kitchen and bath projects, Design In A Bag introduces collections of professionally coordinated and proven kitchen and bath design recipes, offering the expertise, access and eye of an interior designer without the price tag. Unlike other prêt interior design services, Design In A Bag allows you to browse online galleries of coordinated kitchen and bath looks – each carefully designed and crafted by Rebekah Zaveloff, an HGTV contributor and the creative force behind Chicago’s preeminent kitchen and bath interior design firm KitchenLab – and delivers selected complete concepts including cabinet, countertop, tile and paint samples, shopping list and hand-drawn renderings direct to your door. Taking the guesswork out of putting together a cohesive look for your kitchen or bath project, consumers can touch, see and experience the materials in their home, bringing the showroom and interior designer directly to you.
What sparked the idea for Design in a Bag?
Carting bags of finish materials around to client’s homes and arranging palettes of different materials on their countertops, encouraging them to live with them for a while before making a decision…and the moment when clients started carting their own samples around as well, whether to show friends and family or to help in finalizing other materials when visiting showrooms.
What helped get the idea off the ground?
A slow-down in business due to the recession gave us the extra time we needed to really get things going in full force. We had conceived and trademarked the idea years earlier, but hadn’t had time to start designing the website and figuring out the bells and whistles. My sister did the logo and helped us with the first version of the website design. Thankfully she started her full time job and finished grad school AFTER we had finished phase one of the website! Also, when we shared the idea, people’s enthusiasm was so tangible that we knew we had to give it a shot!
Where do you pull the inspiration for the color, textile, and detail choices in the themes?
It’s completely organic and stream of consciousness. I’ve always loved hard surface materials…I started my creative career in sculpture and collage. I love the way materials speak to each other when juxtaposed. I don’t look at any one material and think “that would go nice with yellow”. I literally move materials around until I come up with a combination that pleases me. It’s so much fun to come up with different combinations – I can express different sides of my personality and taste. I can be modern, sophisticated, colorful, vintage, eclectic, neutral…the combinations and moods are endless. It’s all about what works together on a gut instinct level.
