Hello! (hello, hello, hello…) Echo! (echo, echo, echo….)
I can’t believe it’s been almost three months since I last updated the blog! It wasn’t for lack of things to talk about – there are plenty of amazing and inspiring paper goods and design excitement floating across the desk these days. No, my absence is for much more practical reasons – too much on my plate! The workload around here hasn’t gotten any smaller – still plenty of changes to make to the store and catalogs to dog-ear and all the other day-to-day tasks of running a store. But the good news is, our plate is getting bigger.
Just over two months ago – about the time this blog entered radio silence – I mentioned to some fellow designers that I was looking for a studio space that would allowed me to run a storefront. I mean, we’ve got too much paper and crafty goodness to keep it all bottled up on the internet, you know? I’d been keeping an eye on retail space availability, but because we live in a “trendy” area of town, everything in the location I liked was far, FAR out of our budget.
A few miles away, in the city of Lakewood, there’s a an upscale new-urbanist development called Belmar. Belmar sits on the site of an old shopping mall, and the mall was razed to make room for mixed-use development – lofts and townhomes, some big-box stores like Whole Foods and DSW, office spaces, and a ton of retail. And one block of the development was set aside for artists and designers. This block of storefronts, Block 7, is subsidized by the developer so rents are highly affordable (half to one-third of the cost of similar spaces in other parts of the Denver metro). One of the spaces, a 1200-sq-ft. double unit, was occupied by a husband-and-wife design team. They ran their studio out of one side, and the other side was home to their screenprinting gallery and workshop space. And three months ago, they moved into a new space elsewhere in the city. One of my fellow designers mentioned the availability to me, and I e-mailed the leasing agent that afternoon. And thus began a two-month process of applications and interviews and stress headaches and clothes shopping (being self-employed means I don’t dress up for work too often). I had to wait over a month from the time my application was submitted (since the space is so inexpensive, the openings are competitive) to the time I was called for an interview, and then I waited another three weeks until I was called for a second interview. I showed samples of my work and our products, I answered questions about our plans for the store, and I tried to be as honest as possible. And finally, last week, I got the call – we’re in! Starting in December, Fluff Paper will have a brick-and-mortar storefront location!
There will be a few changes, although not really any to the online shopping experience. Our physical location will known as “Fluff Co.” – we’ll have more than just paper goodies in store. We’re also following the model of the previous tenants and half the space will be studio space for me and my friends – designers, copywriters, photographers… whoever decides to join me on this adventure. The store side will have a custom lounge, where people looking for wedding invitations or baby announcements or any other one-of-a-kind products can come to meet with a designer and discuss their vision. We’ll also hold classes and workshops for paper crafting aficionados in the Denver area (feel free to come out and visit us if you’re in town!) and host private get-together for local artists and designers to showcase their work. The upside for our online friends is LOTS more inventory – since we don’t have to cram everything into a supply closet anymore, we’ll be able to stock the store to the gills with all the amazing paper we come across.
Stay tuned for all the fun changes – there might just be some free goodie giveaways come up to celebrate! If you’re a designer or artist and want to get your stuff in stock, drop us a line. And if you haven’t yet, feel free to sign-up for our soon-t0-launch e-mail newsletter – there’s lots to share!
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