Ep. 15: What’s It Really Like to Open an Interior Design Showroom? With Maison Mischief Co-Founder Katie Gutierrez
What does it really take to open an interior design showroom?You may be picturing beautiful windows, fabulous objects, and customers wandering in to admire your impeccable taste.Now add the commercial lease, insurance, accessibility, security cameras, wholesale minimums, damaged shipments, tariffs, returns, music licensing, broken merchandise—and the occasional day when not one person walks through the door.In this episode of Stuff Interior Designers Need To Know, Rebecca sits down with Katie Gutierrez, co-founder of Errez Design and the recently opened Maison Mischief in Coral Gables, Florida, for a remarkably transparent look at the money, logistics, uncertainty, and joy involved in opening an interior design and home-goods showroom.Katie took Maison Mischief from “maybe it’s finally time” to open doors in only six months—but that speed was supported by 17 years of business experience, a season of strong projects, a willingness to reinvest in growth, and what Katie freely admits is a particularly high tolerance for risk. Rebecca asks: When did Katie first dream of opening a showroom—and why did it take nearly 17 years to make it happen? How did she go from spotting an available storefront to holding the keys only a few weeks later? What surprised her most about negotiating and signing a commercial lease? What unexpected requirements came with opening a public-facing space, including signage, music licensing, insurance, accessibility, security, and breakage? How does she choose vendors while balancing profit margins, wholesale minimums, available storage, and completely unpredictable customer demand? How are freight, tariffs, e-commerce, damaged shipments, and return policies affecting the business? How does Maison Mischief support—and complicate—Katie and Ruben’s established interior design firm? What has been the scariest part of opening a showroom? What has been the hardest? And what has brought the most joy? How did Katie develop Errez Design’s signature approach, Biographical Design? What would she say to interior designers who know they are watering down their point of view in an attempt to be more marketable? Katie shares the kind of realities nobody pictures while daydreaming about opening a shop: discovering that a commercial tenant may be responsible for nearly everything “from the ground to the clouds,” realizing that one $150 online sale could require placing a $1,000 wholesale reorder, and experiencing days when nobody enters the store followed by a day when one designer buys $7,000 in accessories. But this conversation is not simply a warning about leases, inventory, and broken candle lids.Katie also explains how Maison Mischief has given her greater creative freedom, created opportunities for press and community engagement, and allowed her to put Errez Design’s distinctive maximalist point of view fully into the world. The result is an honest, funny, passionate conversation about the difference between having a beautiful dream and building a business capable of supporting it—and why the qualities that make your work different may be the very qualities that make people care.If you have ever dreamed of opening a showroom, wondered whether you have the courage to make a bigger move in your business, or secretly suspected that you are sanding off the most interesting parts of your brand, this episode is for you.Enjoy!--About KatieKatie Gutierrez is the co-founder of Errez Design and Maison Mischief and the creator of Biographical Design™, an approach that uses clients’ histories, experiences, and identities to create deeply personal interiors.Katie and her husband and business partner, Ruben Gutierrez, founded Errez Design in Miami in 2009. Their residential and commercial work is known for its bold use of color, meaningful storytelling, and belief that every client’s home should reflect the life of the person living there—not simply the prevailing design trends. Their work has been featured in publications including Architectural Digest, Veranda, and House Beautiful. With Maison Mischief, Katie and Ruben have translated that philosophy into a retail experience filled with furniture, lighting, art, and expressive objects chosen for their character, craftsmanship, and ability to make everyday life more memorable. Connect with Katie, Maison Mischief, and Errez DesignMaison Mischief: https://maisonmischief.com Maison Mischief on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maisonmischief/ Errez Design: https://www.errezdesign.com Errez Design on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/errezdesign/--Looking for Rebecca's Interior Design Business Coaching & Courses?https://seriouslyhappy.comWanna be Interior Design & Expat Insta-Friends?!https://www.instagram.com/beseriouslyhappy/Follow Rebecca's Moving-To-France, Living-In-Paris Expat Adventures:https://bonjhola.buzzsprout.com/And here's where to find Rebecca's book on Interior Design Psychology:Happy Starts at Homehttps://www.amazon.com/
