At any one time, Stephanie Wiott Designs has about 45 to 50 client projects in the works, but that doesn’t stop her from taking on time-consuming show homes. Because those, she says, help keep that client pipeline full.
Her latest was an 8,500-square-foot show home done with Sigma Builders as part of the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis’ 2024 Centier Bank Home-A-Rama.
“We always have people come up and say, ‘We love this house. We want to work with you,’” she says. “For us, they’re always helpful. People see what we do and then they reach out because they like what we do.”
One key to making show homes work for her firm, Wiott says, is focusing on whole homes, rather than projects in which she’s just given a room or two to design, though she’s not opposed to taking on one of those if the right project presents itself at the right time.
“A show home is typically a clean slate, so we get to showcase the way we want a home to look and include pieces we love. … They take a lot of work and a lot of energy, but they are a good business driver,” she says. “We had almost 20,000 people walking through over three weekends (in the most recent home). You really can’t get much better publicity than that — people actually walking through a home that you did. And it gives you great photography because you’re involved with everything from start to finish.”
Wiott grew up in a family of crafters, builders and DIYers. “My grandma did her own pottery, she sewed her own curtains, she reupholstered her own furniture. She actually had her own kiln in her laundry room in the basement,” Wiott says. “She kind of passed that all onto my mom and then to me. And my grandpa had all kinds of tools and saws and built furniture. So, (interior design) was pretty organic with me.”
Wiott started her firm in 2012 in Chicago as Cupboards Design Group, focused on kitchen design and renovations.
She expanded the focus of her business and rebranded to Stephanie Wiott Designs around the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The changes coincided with a move from Chicago to Carmel, Indiana, a place just north of Indianapolis that charmed her during a visit to the area for work.
Although its population of about 100,000 is just a fraction of Chicago’s, Wiott found plenty of work in Carmel and the Indy metro area, concentrating her efforts there. She’s also grown her team, which now includes eight: Wiott and two other lead designers, three assistant designers, an operations manager and an order-entry expediter.
Many of the firm’s projects are new construction, “but I have a special place in my heart for existing homes and remodels,” Wiott says, “so, we don’t shy away from that, and we don’t have minimum square footages or anything like that. … I think it’s part of the reason we’re successful and get some of the projects that we do.”
The firm specializes in family-friendly interiors. “My whole adult life has been about kids and family, what works and what doesn’t, and what’s functional for families,” Wiott says. “… Obviously, people hire interior designers because they want a beautiful space — a space you walk into and are just wowed by. But we also want to make it livable. I don’t ever want to have a client walk into their home and feel like they’re not comfortable or are telling their kids not to touch things. We want to make a home livable and touchable so a family can hang out, entertain and make memories.”
Wiott’s recent show house is one of her favorite projects, but so is a 14,000-square-foot home outside Carmel.
“It was a lot of house — with a bowling alley in the basement. It was definitely the first bowling alley I’ve ever done. I just wanted to make sure it didn’t look like a Brunswick (Bowling Center),” she says. “It was a great project overall. The house is on a lake with lots of light, lots of windows, lots of very tall ceilings. That was a client we got because she’d seen a show home we’d done in 2022.”
Strategies and tips
How else does Wiott keep her firm thriving? Read on more.
Design News Now: How do you market your design services?
Stephanie Wiott: “We don’t do much advertising. … Most of our clients are referrals from previous clients, local builders or they’ve seen our work at home shows. We also get a lot of clients from Instagram. I had no idea how powerful it is, but it is.”
DNN: What are some key tools in your toolbox?
SW: “We use AutoCAD a lot, mostly for our trim drawings we do for new construction and remodels. AutoCAD is our go-to because we do everything in-house. We’re also getting better at using Revit; everyone’s trained on it now. It’s time consuming but we use it when clients need to get a really good visual. We use 2020 for kitchen design. … And our Google Calendar is just indispensable.”
DNN: Are you incorporating artificial intelligence tools into your design process?
SW: “We’ve played with it a little but haven’t gotten serious. But I feel like coming into the new year, we’ll take a serious look and see what we think.”
DNN: Where do you turn for advice or guidance?
SW: “I definitely utilize my mom, not so much for design-related things but just for day in, day out issues. And I have a friend who is a local builder, a majority woman-owned builder. She and I are good friends and work together, as well, so that’s a great relationship to have — someone who completely understands the industry. There’s also a women in building group for networking that I’ve gotten more involved with here.”
DNN: Who are some of your go-to sources for furnishings?
SW: “Four Hands is a go-to for us because it’s just an easy line — easy to order and we have a great rep and we all know the line very well. We also use Rowe a lot. We use Spoonflower for wallpaper because they have cute, kind of unique things. We use Afloral for our plants and stems. For lighting, I love Visual Comfort. I know everybody says that, but they just do have great product. Those are just the ones that come to the top of my head. We use so many different vendors.”
DNN: Which markets do you like to attend?
SW: “We’ve been to High Point. We’ve been to the Vegas market. We kind of randomly pick the shows that we’re going to go to based on our schedule. High Point in the fall always seems to be on my daughter’s birthday and we’re always busy in the spring. We typically carry about 45 to 50 clients at a time, so we don’t ever have a whole lot of downtime. We’re always trying to squeeze market in.”
DNN: Do you have a local source or vendor you love?
SW: “Drapery Street. If we could, we’d use them 100% of the time. They do a great job with everything, whether it’s privacy or drapes or whatever.”
DNN: How many hours a day do you work?
SW: “I still have a daughter at home, so it kind of depends on what her schedule looks like, but I’m probably working a good 10 hours a day in some capacity. … I do take weekends off. I’ve actually made myself do that. If there’s nothing going on that I’m going to miss or if my daughter is hanging out with friends, then I’ll typically work. But I don’t miss major life events, and I also don’t miss hanging out on the sofa with her on a lazy Saturday morning. These years are very short, so I do take advantage of them in full.”
DNN: What can’t you live without during a workday?
SW: “Definitely a tape measure. Definitely my cellphone. And all the ladies who work for me right now; they’re pretty indispensable. We have a good core group of ladies right now. They’re very efficient and very team oriented.”
DNN: What’s next for Stephanie Wiott Designs?SW: “We have another show house coming up in 2025 and we have some great clients that we’re really excited to start working with. … And we’re looking internally at processes and how we can make things better. We’ve been at this now (as Stephanie Wiott Designs) for four years: What else can we do? What can we make better? The ladies who work for me have a lot of background in construction, as well, and we do a lot of preliminary blueprint drawings and blueprint reviews, so we’re dipping our toes in and exploring the idea of building our own house. Let’s take it from beginning to end and see what it looks like. That’s really fun to think about.”
