A few weeks ago, the Accent Decor creative team locked themselves away for four days straight to talk design trends and discuss showroom display ideas that have been brewing in their minds.

 So what is a showroom story?

When you visit our showrooms, we create different looks to help the products live in a theme or concept. As you move through the showroom, you’ll see a transition in styles. We’ve blogged our stories before. For the most recent looks, check out our Sun-Streamed Rooms story and Exquisite Exile story.

The creative director will come up with four or five broad concepts that speak to current trends and anticipate future ones as well. From her initial ideas, the team will present their versions of how they see these stories come to life in the showroom, and from there, they narrow down ideas the team loves as a whole and brainstorm ways to execute the ideas.

During assembly week, the creative team takes all the ideas that came together during brainstorming week and test out the design concepts to see what will work and what won’t. While most of the ideas the team settled on look like they’ll execute well, there were a few ideas in brainstorming week that didn’t translate for this season’s vision.

“We had a few ideas that may not necessarily be discarded, but used in January,” noted Chris, studio photographer for Accent Decor.

Rest assured, the showrooms will have plenty of visuals to not only inspire, but showcase unique ways to display products.

Showroom Story 1

Accent Decor would be nothing without the beauty of blooms. This story is not only an ode to how much beauty and inspiration flowers bring us, but also an ode to the heartbeat of our company: our customers who design with them daily.

One of our goals every year is to encourage our customers to take the ideas they see in the showrooms and use them to merchandise their products in their own shops.

“The flower posters are something tangible our customers could pull off,” says Margaret, Accent Decor’s Art Director. “Pretty perfect for flower shops!”

Showroom Story 2

Our second story will be showcasing a lot of our newest products. When grouped together, they give a well-travelled and eclectic look with many designs borrowed form different cultures, one of which is reminiscent of African design details. The team was inspired by African landscapes for this one so expect a lot of leaf canopies and play with bold patterns.

Seeing the displays in their roughest forms helps the team visualize how the showrooms will read to customers shopping the displays. For instance, these larger than life leaves wrapped in masking tape will be painted in shades of green to give the look of a lush canopy, and the visual interest will help separate one story from another.

In addition to being more strategic in showroom flow, the team will also be implementing signage and story descriptions to help bring their concepts full circle so our customers can really get a sense for why we chose certain plants or colors to pair with the products.

Showroom Story 3

The team will be using color blocking in geometric structures, fabric, and large graphics to create strong dividing lines and bold displays for product to truly pop.

Showroom Story 4

For the holiday story, the team will be mixing the dark and moody landscape of Scandinavian winter nights with the warm and cozy feeling of being indoors will bring a stark contrast that helps evoke the feeling of returning home again during one of the most mysterious and magic holiday seasons.

The team seems really excited about this one, but it’s also the most challenging to work with conceptually.

“Where the flower story works naturally with our product, I see this story as a bit more of a challenge to pull off,” says Margaret. “Sarah has some great marketing pieces planned though, and I’m excited to get started on it.”

And for most of the team, Brainstorming and Assembly Week at Accent Decor never fails to inspire on a personal level.

“It influences my “why,” Joyce Mason-Monheim, Accent Decor’s floral director, said. “It also interjects to my professional level of presentation to talk about trends and inspirations on the horizon.”