To The Trade

To The Trade. I see that all the time…what does that mean?

So here you are looking for just the right fabric or the right lighting, accessory or custom furnishings for your home. You have looked and looked through magazines as well as every Instagram post and then...there it
is! The perfect I mean the most perfect thing you have ever seen and then you see “To the Trade”…

What is that? Why can’t you just buy it? “To The Trade”. I mean it is perfect! Why won’t they give me the price? Why won’t they sell it to me?

Maybe you found just the almost perfect thing and the color was off or if the almost perfect sofa could only be 12” longer or shorter than the one perfect sofa you just found that also said To the Trade..

Remember the scene from Devil Wears Prada when Miranda explained how the Cerulean Top came about? Well this is kinda the same only for Home fashion.

The designers and showrooms that have cultivated and curated lines from these manufactures have spent thousands of dollars procuring the rights to these items just for you to see them. They have spent tens of
thousands of dollars for multiple lines to help give you that “just perfect look for you” and you didn’t even know and they didn’t know at the time just how perfect it was for you, but they took a gamble that one day this most perfect piece would be just perfect for you. That in essence is what it means to sell to the trade and buy from the trade.

Inspiration abounds in the design world and markets and showrooms spend millions of dollars to help The Trade pick the best of the best and those brands in some cases limit the distribution of their products by
geographic areas or careful selection of designers and firms to represent them. It takes years to cultivate some of these accounts and at a cost for the designer or showroom to agree to spend with them to maintain their level and offerings to their clients and customers.

Photos Courtesy of Ebanista

So you are still asking how do I get that perfect piece? You are not going to give up and we don’t want you to. Our design firm is here to help with that and many design dilemmas, but, here is why that perfect piece may not be perfect. What if the color you saw on- line or in the magazine was not what you expected? What if it was taller than you thought or shinier that you thought or now you have to move your last most perfect piece to make the new most perfect piece work?  The world is your oyster when you work with a designer…Check out some of our New Service Offerings on our web page. We would love to help you curate your best home.

Until we blog again,

XOXO Ami

Maybe you are a designer and also found just the perfect piece for yourself or for your favorite client and you can’t purchase it even if you are The Trade. Do you look for the next best thing for your favorite client
and still feel a bit disappointed that the look you really want to deliver falls short? We have a special design program for you @AmiAustinHome. We would love to assist you deliver the best to your client.