A POWER HOUR PAIR

Rebecca Plumb and Claire Jones

“I’ll never design a kitchen or bathroom any other way again,” says Claire Jones, principal designer of Etch & Ivy and coowner of the new Happy Hour Design Collective, which she opened with friend and colleague Rebecca Plumb, principal designer for Studio Plumb. Jones is referring to the Power Hour design service she and Plumb offer. It’s a focused, fun, interactive option for fully designing a single room somewhat on the spot in a short period of time and on a budget.

“We’ve spent months collecting all of our favorite designer materials—including wallpaper, tile, countertops, flooring, paint, fabric and plumbing finishes—for our Happy Hour Materials Library. We realized it was a resource that wasn’t available anywhere else in Sacramento and knew we needed to share it with the larger community,” says Plumb. “At the same time, both of our design businesses were growing, and we were no longer able to take on single-room projects, but the requests were still coming in. One day, we had the light-bulb idea that we could bring clients in for a collaborative design session and arm them with all the aesthetic decisions they would need to make and manage the project themselves.”

For a flat fee, Power Hour clients get a dedicated session (typically five or six hours) with both Jones and Plumb, during which everyone gets to participate in the design process while poring over tangible materials samples and three-dimensional on-screen renderings. (Room measurements, client answers to an initial design questionnaire, and “before” photos are all procured beforehand as a jumping-off point.) “This is a big hit with clients, because most people are not able to visualize as quickly or easily as most designers are,” says Jones. “Nothing beats being able to say to a client, ‘I know which countertop will go perfectly with this design,’ and pull out an actual Cambria Quartz sample that the client can touch and see. In the past, there would be a lag time between design, ordering samples and presenting them to the client. Now it’s instantaneous.”

At the end, the client can ogle all their final materials collected in one tray. And within a week or so, they receive final drawings and renderings, plus a complete specifications spreadsheet that includes products, links and where to buy everything. A happy experience indeed.

“Working with Claire and Rebecca was amazing,” says client Kim Follett. She and her husband just redesigned their Arden Park kitchen via Power Hour. “Their pre-meeting process was simple and seamless. They walked us through so many decisions we would have never been able to navigate on our own. It was also just really fun.”

“The energy during a Power Hour session is palpable,” says Jones. “There are always a lot of laughter and jokes.”