The Great Gulf Design Studio makes shopping for finishes a visually evocative, exciting and streamlined experience. A glamorous hotel-like lobby outfitted with designer furniture, stunning drop chandeliers and a dramatic sandblasted mural sets the mood. Once inside, vignettes merchandised with carefully curated options replace the endless rows of products that purchasers expect. Laid out like a luxury store, the Design Studio offers one-on-one service, curated offerings and a seamless transition from browsing to final selection.

During the process of selecting finishes for a new home, commissioned research for Great Gulf revealed that the main consumer pain point was anxiety. Customers were overwhelmed when confronted with too many choices.

Shikatani Lacroix designed a studio that made the process easy for customers to shop and easy for the client to sell and maintain.

The result is an immersive, curated experience that leads customers on a guided journey through designated display areas throughout the studio – kitchen, doors and trim, flooring, bathroom and tile. Each area contains workstations, samples, and fully designed aspirational vignettes created by Figure3.

The studio itself acts as a sophisticated blank canvas against which the finishes are showcased. With polished concrete floors, white walls and dark ceilings, the studio evokes a gallery-like feel with functional fixture design and intricate detailing, including routered walls and counters to inlay samples, Corian framing around vignettes, and recessed Corian details on wall corners.