Interiors With Purpose

Interiors With Purpose: Growing A Business In Sorority House Interior Decorating

What is it about sorority houses that feels like home when walking through the door? It’s a combination of a welcoming sisterhood and, arguably, one of the more essential aspects, the visual appeal. Owner and President of PDR Interiors, Liz Toombs, Epsilon— University of Kentucky, has forged a path in the interior decorating industry by focusing on a niche clientele, sorority housing. While PDR Interiors offers a full range of services for residential and business spaces, the vast majority of clients are Greek housing affiliated. With a portfolio of projects spanning 90 campuses in 25 states, Liz mainly attributes the success of the firm to building relationships over the years, starting first with her mentors at the University of Kentucky.

“I went to UK with an interest in interior design, but I had a really great advisor who talked with me about my options. The design program is very architecturally focused, and that’s just not my forte. I’m more of a tactile person, and I’m more about the connections with clients and people.” Liz found her fit in the textiles program and later became a Certified Interior Decorator. Having worked in sales with a countertop manufacturer, contractors, homeowners, and a design firm, Liz found herself at a crossroads in 2009 after the recession hit. “I knew the business I was working for was going to close, so I was faced with a choice of whether I work for someone else — which I thought was my only choice — or do I go out on my own?”

After discussing it with her husband, she decided to give it a shot. “I was 25 and just started pounding the pavement, trying to get the word out there. Then a year or two after that is when I did my first Greek house. It was a men’s facility at UK.”

Liz now has the pleasure of doing repeat houses and even multiple houses on the same campus. While she works with individual chapters’ needs at the local level, she enjoys the longevity of relationships built at the national level, “It’s great to get to work with the housing offices at headquarters. We start to understand what their goals are for the chapter facilities everywhere, and then we’re able to foster that relationship, and they know that they can call us and say, Hey, can you go to this campus?

Every chapter wants to put its best foot forward during, you guessed it, recruitment season. How does Liz’s small team manage the needs of multiple organizations across the nation? “Summer is just crazy,” Liz laughed. While most projects only require two trips, her team is usually gone for about eight weeks in the summer, visiting two campuses per week. “Travel is a big part of what we do. We typically do what we call a scoping trip. We go out and gather all the information we need on-site, and then we come back to the office and do all of our work. And then we go back again at the end of a project.” The busy summers for PDR Interiors are a direct result of different organizations’ decorating needs and fall recruitment timelines.

Surprisingly, covid-19 changed the pace for PDR Interiors in that clients became more understanding and flexible with their project timelines, despite the ongoing industry challenges of supply chain disruptions and increased timelines on new construction projects. “They understand that there are bigger things going on in the world, and we can make do and get a little more creative for how we address a house while we’re waiting on the new items to come.” Clients that approach Liz in March or April are comfortable waiting in line, even if it means the housing upgrades get pushed back to Winter Break instead of Summer Break.

Liz and her staff are working on offering more installation opportunities for interns; the company is growing in its virtual offerings as well. Liz now manages several online resources for those looking to redecorate a residential or business space on a budget. Last year she launched Sorority Chat, a podcast about Greek housing, decorating and beyond. Additionally, she has constructed an online course, Interior Decorating 101: Sorority Edition, a resource geared toward local housing boards.

This course is ideal for those with a great team that can handle picking everything out and overseeing contractors but might need some assistance getting started and managing the project. “I’m always looking for new ways to continue growing our clients and income without making huge jumps in the number of people working for us. We just realized that not everyone can or wants to hire us, but a little guidance could be helpful.” When organizations aren’t sure what they want, they benefit from the virtual course and often realize that they actually want the complete client experience with Liz and her team.

Word of mouth and making connections continue to contribute to the growth of PDR Interiors and its reputation. Recently, Liz was featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal about designers specializing in transforming sorority homes into luxurious and functional living spaces. She explains how she stumbled upon a happenstance meeting with the writer, “I was headed to a conference, just a little bit over a year ago, and ended up seated on the plane next to this freelance writer. We were both going to the same conference, and I was the first person she had ever met that did this type of focus and interior design.” The writer pitched the story to the ® Wall Street Journal, and PDR Interiors became a significant focus of the article. While Liz and her company have been mentioned in other notable media outlets, this was one of the first pieces that generated many client inquiries: “It’s just been wonderful. I’ve been so thankful for how that worked out.”

Reflecting on her Alpha Gam experience, Liz laughs about one of the memories from her chapter house, “I was watching the first iteration of Trading Spaces and watching one of the designers do a sorority house, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, whatever. That’s not real; nobody does that!’ So, it’s very comical to see where I am now. For me, it feels like everything has just completely culminated now.” From her sorority days living in the house as a collegiate member to now being involved in the first generations of facilitators with Alpha Gam’s Empower program, Liz appreciates the role that Alpha Gam has played in her life. “I think of the leadership qualities and opportunities, volunteer hours and philanthropy, the understanding of giving back to the community that is planted in our hearts, and the support of your sisters; that’s why we exist on these campuses.”

The FHC enlisted Liz's team with the Theta Omega Chapter's transition from a full live-in facility to a downtown historical loft-type space. Stay tuned for project details in the Fall issue of the Quarterly Liz is an Alpha Gam Empower facilitator and resides in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and two dogs.