Saving Time and Money on Custom Furnishings With Loom Decor
The beauty of fabric is the ability to create one-of-a-kind custom furnishings based on your client’s needs. However, custom comes with a high price, often limiting creativity and access to quality designs. Digital custom workroom Loom Decor is breaking this traditional industry standard, providing an online destination for high-end custom textile furnishings at an affordable price for designers, decorators and customers.
Loom Decor is on a mission to deliver custom home decor to the masses. With the help of our dear friend, modern technology, Loom provides access to user-friendly digital tools to visualize fabric on products, 400+ designer-quality fabrics, and dedicated Trade Stylists with up to 30% savings. Loom shares the state of the fabric and textile industry, dedicated services provided to interior designers and best practices for measuring and installing window treatments.
How does Loom work exactly?
Think of Loom Decor as a digital custom workroom. With our online design tool, you can create custom window treatments, pillows, bedding, table linens, and more with the click of a mouse. Starting with a blank silhouette or a design from our catalog, clients can choose from over 400 fabrics, select the perfect size, and even add trims and tapes. The image updates as you design and can be pinned to Pinterest, Houzz or a moodboard to help you and the client visualize. To order, you simply add to your cart and check out like a typical eCommerce store.
Each order is handcrafted by our Nashville-based workroom with over 20 years experience and ships in record time for custom goods – just 5 to 10 business days. We handle all of the logistics to make sure your piece is perfect and on time. Our designer clients say taking the vendor management off their plate is their favorite part of working with Loom!
We save designers around 30% versus their typical fabric showroom/workroom sources and are more affordable than fellow custom retailers.
Courtesy of Interior Define
Loom recently launched a new and improved website – how has this impacted the growth and success of your business?
The new site offers more robust customization options, like the ability to order window treatments to the ¼” and add trim options like tapes and cords. And with real-time pricing and shipping information, designers don’t have to wait for a quote. Plus, even the configurator is mobile-friendly, so you can design on the go. In response, we’re seeing designers spec’ing larger projects through Loom, often a whole house’s worth of soft goods.
How does Loom manage to offer products at 30% less than typical designer resources?
We source directly from fabric manufacturers eliminating costly middlemen, optimize our manufacturing processes, and keep our business lean by doing as much as possible online. As a result, we save designers around 30% versus their typical fabric showroom/workroom sources and are more affordable than fellow custom retailers.
Based on your knowledge of the industry, what are some modern day issues impacting the fabric and decor business?
One: custom is hot. Millennial homeowners are used to customizing everything: their coffee, iPhone case, car, shoes…they want the same personal touch in their home. Loom offers the same for home decor. We believe custom furnishings shouldn’t just be for the elite, but for the every-homeowner and the designers who serve them.
Two: faster trend cycles. These days, a fabric can show up on a design blog and three weeks later, it’s everywhere. In response, we’re now introducing more small collections throughout the year versus large seasonal collections.
How does Loom prepare for the holiday season?
Black Friday/Cyber Week is usually huge, as it’s our biggest annual sale. However, after Thanksgiving, most house projects go on hold until the New Year. So, we focus on reminding customers that our pillows and table linens are great for entertaining and gifts.
What are some of your best-selling fabrics and products? Who are the fabric designers to watch these days?
We are known for our quality window treatments, particularly roman shades and ripplefold drapery that you can’t get off the shelf. For fabrics, our solid linens, especially soft colors like classic White, Dew, Smokey Quartz and Cameo, are consistently top sellers, particularly on drapery. Trendy patterns like marble motifs and animal prints do well on pillows and shades. A rising star is our Shibori-style geometric, Pixel, and we can barely keep our banana leaf fabric, Belief It, in stock. But our internal favorite is our studded linen, Stud Muffin. It’s so hot!
We’re always excited when interior designers launch their own line, with Jeffrey Alan Marks, Madcap Cottage and Tobi Fairley, some of our recent favorites. Although we can’t always brand them as such, you’ll find some of their top sellers on our site or coming soon!
Loom Spring Collection
Loom helps designers streamline the design process, and is truly a great resource for both designers and homeowners – what are some unique benefits to the Loom Trade Program?
That’s so nice to hear! Designers in our Trade Program receive an exclusive discount (which is automatically applied when ordering online), access to our archive of 4000 fabrics and the ability to order custom products not yet online. Plus, each designer has a dedicated account manager, aka Trade Stylist, who provides window treatment expertise and can help assist in textile & product selection.
We’ll do whatever we can to save designers time and hassles when ordering custom!
How does Loom typically work with interior designers?
We assist in whatever way works best for each designer. Some prefer to order entirely online, and rarely call us. Others rely on their Trade Stylist as an extension of their team, having her suggest fabrics, customize and put products in their cart, or coordinate measure and install appointments. We’ll do whatever we can to save designers time and hassles when ordering custom!
Photo by Tessa Neustadt, Design by Emily Henderson
What should interior designers learn and understand about fabric before sourcing items for their clients and projects?
First, linen stretches. Most designers account for this when they order, but sometimes clients don’t get told to expect linen drapery to lengthen up to 2” as it hangs. Second, don’t forget to account for special use cases – kids, pets and humid rooms like bathrooms can wreak havoc on textiles. We suggest Sunbrella® for such cases—it’s not just for outdoor! You can literally pour bleach on a Sunbrella® fabric and the stain will come out while the color will stay.
Can you share 3 tips of best practices for interior designers in regards to measuring and installing window treatments?
We get this question a lot; check out our measuring guides to really get it right. Meanwhile, here are our top 3 tips:
1. Remember floors and windows are uneven, so measure each one individually and measure large windows on both sides and the middle to ensure a perfect fit.
2. Be sure to account for extra height and width when measuring. Drapery should be hung at least 8-12” outside the window frame to maximize light, and about 6-12” above the window frame to make the ceiling appear higher.
3. Always “train” window treatments after they are hung. To do this, close the drapery or pull up the shade and hand-press along the folds, almost like you are setting the crease in your bed sheets.
Photo by Nick McGinn, Design by April Bermudez
What’s Loom’s focus for 2017?
Product expansion! We’ll be introducing bolsters, café curtains, valances, and accent furniture, in addition to adding new fabrics including sheers, more neutrals, and lots of green (thanks Pantone!).
Loom Decor Founders Nichole Ocepek and Ashley Baker
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