Winning with Window Coverings

WINNING AT WINDOW COVERINGS

BY SOPHIA BENNETT

Window Fashion VISION is pleased to present in-depth interviews with the winners of the two top prizes in our annual VISION Design and Workroom Competition Awards. Katherine Wozniak of Katherine Elizabeth Interiors nabbed the title of Designer of the Year for the first time, while Linda Tully with Custom Coverings was named Workroom of the Year for the second time. We hope their stories provide new ideas for exploring your creativity and strengthening your business.

Designer of the Year Winner

“In school, I was not formally trained as a window

When she consults with clients about their window covering needs, she gets frequent requests for woven window coverings made with natural fibers. “For a while everything was the simplistic panel,” she says. “We’re seeing details being added back into that.” She also does a lot of motorized treatments.

Katherine Wozniak

Katherine Elizabeth Interiors, Barrington, IL

“In school, I was not formally trained as a window treatment designer,” she says. However, she’s always believed they were an important component in homes, one that adds softness and warmth to a space. Many of her clients have lakefront homes, so window coverings frame their view. They also provide privacy and block unwanted light. When she begins designing window coverings for a residence, Wozniak starts by sketching ideas over a picture of the home’s As a child, Katherine Wozniak often tagged along to job sites with windows, thinking about both functionality and beauty. What she her father, a custom home builder in the Lake Geneva, WI, area. She doesn’t think about right away is practicality of construction. That would listen as he walked clients through the process of designing constricts her creativity, she finds. their dream home—beginning not with questions about structure or style or interior space, but queries that Once it comes time to specify the looked at the bigger picture. “How do window coverings, “I really lean hard you imagine functioning in this home?” he’d ask. “What is your lifestyle like?” “We can always dream up on a good workroom,” she says. “We have a few we go to and they each It was through those early life beautiful things, but they have different strengths. I sit down with them and say, ‘This is my goal’ and experiences that Wozniak fell in love with interior design. And it’s not hard need to function well.” then learn from them the practicalities of construction. Because we can to imagine that the devotion to getting always dream up beautiful things, but the details right, learned from her they need to function well.” father, helped her win the title of Designer of the Year at this year’s VISION Design and Workroom Competition Awards. Katherine Elizabeth Interiors has 10 employees, all of whom help Wozniak ensure they’re delivering practical yet beautiful spaces Wozniak earned a business degree at Marquette University, then that clients will love. That allows her continue to thrive in the career attended design school at the Parsons School of Design campus she’s always wanted. “I love design. It’s my passion,” she says. “It in Paris and Harrington College of Design in Chicago. She started doesn’t feel like work. It’s a dream every day.” her suburban Chicago firm in 2005 and serves mostly clients in her local area. Many of her customers also have homes along the Great Lakes or in warmer parts of the country that they want her to work on. As a result, Wozniak’s work takes her all over the country.

Workroom of the Year Winner

Linda Tully

Custom Coverings, Findlay, OH

Linda Tully wowed the judges of this year’s VISION Design and Workroom Competition Awards with treatments full of skilled execution and meaningful details. In addition to recognizing three of her individual projects, the panel chose to name her Workroom of the Year for the second time.

Just as Tully is no stranger to accolades, she has a long history in the window coverings industry. She first established her workroom in Phoenix, AZ, in 2000. When her husband’s job took the family to California in 2012, she faced a turning point with her business. “I didn’t know if I wanted to set up and dig as deep of roots as I did in Arizona,” she says. “I had already downsized and gotten rid of lots of equipment, but I had enough for a one-person operation. I just wanted to keep doing what I was doing because I loved it so much.”

She ended up meeting the owner of the local Decorating Den franchise who was happy to have Custom Coverings set up the workroom in her facility. She also hired Linda as a decorator. Working with Decorating Den was a blessing because Tully ended up collaborating with other franchises for the next several years.

After California, Tully and her family moved to five states in seven years, including Texas, Florida, Missouri and Kentucky. They recently landed in Ohio, where she set up the workroom to continue fabricating for her Missouri and Kentucky designers. She also opened a satellite workroom/office in Scottsdale, AZ, earlier this year to serve some of her longtime clients.

Like the Workroom Award judges, many of Tully’s clients have been drawn in by her attention to detail, beautiful eye and strong sense of design. Never one for ruffles or fussy details, she instead focuses on

highly tailored treatments made from quality fabrics and embellished with cording and trims.

When she begins any new project, “I spend a lot of time sketching,” Tully says. “I do almost everything on graph paper to scale to make sure the proportions will work. I pay a lot of attention to how a treatment is going to fit on a wall. The sketch is a great sales tool because when the designer or customer sees it, they can envision it and say, ‘Wow, that will look good.’” The drawing also functions as a work order and tool for the installer.

Another part of her long-term success as a workroom owner is her ability to maintain good communication with designers. “Having a lot of knowledge on hardware and a little bit of design knowledge helps,” she adds. “You don’t have to be as creative as a designer, but being able to give them suggestions, especially when there’s a challenging situation with a bay window or arched windows, helps. I love finding creative solutions to help them solve their problems. Sometimes when the budget is tight, you can come up with a creative way to trim back fabric. For example, instead of pinch pleats with three fingers, do two fingers. That’s a popular look today anyway because it’s less full and more contemporary, but it also saves yardage and there’s less labor because there are less widths to fabricate.”

When asked to share advice with other workroom owners, Tully says, “Probably the most important thing is pay your vendors on time and reinvest in your business as you’re growing.” In addition, network as much as possible by joining industry and nonindustry groups in the community. Keep going to meetings even if it seems fruitless at times. “You can’t just go to one meeting and expect all this work to come in. Over time, people will see you’re real and in business and you mean it.” z