The headquarters for Floyd furniture is a 3200 SF office and retail space renovation within an existing warehouse building in Detroit’s Eastern Market. The company, which began in 2014 with a Kickstarter project, has grown into a successful manufacturer of superb quality directly- to- consumer furniture made simple and easy to assemble (and disassemble).
The space is designed to accommodate a range of working styles, from deskwork to more casual meetings in lounge or eating areas. The existing building utilized glazed block construction for easy cleaning when it served as a meat storage warehouse; block walls have been painted over with semi-gloss white paint, to retain the original color and as a reference to its former finish qualities.
The space is subdivided with several 10-foot high, free-standing walls, including a thick-to-thin wall we dubbed ‘the Floyd Wall’ to delineate uses without entirely separating them. A glass-enclosed conference room and a smaller ‘phone booth’ provide privacy within the collective space. A showroom space known as 'The Floyd Shop' allows products to be experienced firsthand, while two long tables act as workspaces during the week and transform into event spaces for pop-ups and other activities.
The design was intended to provide a backdrop to the furniture designed by the company. The material palette is deliberately restrained, with polished concrete floors, an exposed wood ceiling, and painted gypsum board walls, in addition to the white-painted block walls. Custom-designed millwork pieces such as the phone room desk, kitchen bench and backsplash are made of ash to complement Floyd’s products.
