WAREHAM, Mass.—With a residential-style interior and midcentury accents that will appeal to young shoppers, the newest location of Cardi’s Furniture & Mattresses “is not your father’s furniture store,” said Connie Post, the retail strategist behind the design of the 62,000-square-foot store, located here.
“Consumers decide within seconds whether they will shop a store or turn heel and leave,” said Post. “To engage shoppers, it’s critical that the first few thousand square feet of any retail space delivers an immediate wow.”
A former big-box home improvement store, the location came with an unmovable obstacle: a 22-foot load-bearing firewall that separated the first 4,000 square feet from the rest of the interior. Post and her Affordable Design Solutions team transformed the wall with a Disney-esque design that is part casual beach house—with the scale and proportions of a real home covered in ship-lap prevalent in this coastal community—and part hip, urban, industrial warehouse with enormous sliding barn doors and faux brick indicative of a downtown loft.
“In creating the newest Cardi’s store, the architectural elements we applied to the wall make a dramatic statement designed to awe and intrigue customers and imbue the Cardi’s brand with a modern sensibility that will attract millennials,” Post said. “The moment you walk in you can feel the energy.”
The brothers and owners of Cardi’s Furniture & Mattresses—Nick, Ron and Peter Cardi—added, “The energy generated by the visual stimulation has and continues to contribute to an incredibly satisfying shopping experience. From millennials with children in strollers to baby boomers and all demographics in-between, everyone is inspired by and loving their newest place to shop for beautiful home furnishings and comfortable mattresses.”
As customers pass through the grand entry, tiny white lights and an array of modern chandeliers are suspended from a 22-foot ceiling with exposed trusses and pipes painted in bird’s egg blue. Just beyond the wall, the ceiling drops to 14 feet in height and a series of large-scale drum shades lit with blue lights lead shoppers to the center hub of the store. Blue is incorporated throughout the store, as that color is part of the retailer’s identity.
Along the way, customers are met with lifestyle presentations centered around massive fireplaces and large-scale windows featuring oversized graphics. “The look is young, artistic and energetic, and lends a sense of the fantastic to the shopping experience,” said Post. “In developing the look, I was inspired by presentations I viewed at the most recent Maison & Objet and while shopping in Paris, where the trend in new retail is definitely towards enormous graphics that set the scene for sofas and more.”
Andrea is passionate about home design, and has covered the industry for most of her journalism career. She currently serves as HFN's managing editor, as well as editor of the HFN Idea Book and co-host of HFN’s podcast, The Inside Scoop. In addition, she is the lighting editor for sister publication Home Accents Today. Andrea lives in beautiful Brooklyn, where she could very well be the only person without a tattoo.
