Saturday, March 26, 2011

What to do with all these patterns?!?!?

I recently purchased a bunch 
of vintage clothing patterns... 
The papers look so cool! I was trying 
to think what would the best way to really 
show them off???
Then it hit me! 
Cover a dressing room wall with it!!!
But then wait..... I had soooooo much more left......
Then it came to me!
Cover the big boring wall in the shop! 
Now it really looks cool and makes a 
statement! 
Enjoy the photos!  
Mark 








Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Its Spring!!!

Its Spring at the Denim Loft!!!

With this warm weather we have been having,
I jumped right into changing the front of the store!
I cant tell you how many people stop and look!









Who says a bathtub has to be in a bathroom!?!?

Take a look at this! 
I think its my favorite window display yet!
It also has running water! 
Don't you want to come and take a bubble bath?? 


 


This weekend I really got some great finds for really CHEEP!!! 
It has been really hard to find stuff lately. 
Check out the two dressers. 
They came with vintage glass knobs and original
cream paint with a soft green paint underneath.

AND THE BEST PART.....
IT'S CRACKLED 




I also found this really cool  old drying rack. 
It works great for displaying the cowboy boots. 
It will be for sale at the up coming Kane County flea market! 


I recently had an article written about me for 
the Geneva Patch: 

Interior Designer Creates Fashionable Settings for Fashion

 

Spring Fashion 101: That might be your gramma’s furniture, but that certainly isn’t what she did with it.
Who says the clothes have to steal the whole show in fashion boutiques?
Not interior designer Mark Norkaitis, whose designs are all ready changing the face of State Street in downtown Geneva. His work in retail businesses ranges from dressing the place up for holidays/seasonal to total transformations—as he’s done at his most recent projects: The Denim Loft at 206 W. State St., and Merra-Lee at the corner of State and Third streets.
Norkaitas’ design approach begins with selecting a color palette and an overall look and feel. Then he becomes a man on a mission, and the hunt begins, because Norkaitis doesn’t believe in rules when it comes to displaying fashion apparel and accessories. Instead, he scours flea markets, basements, and attics for items he can repurpose in unexpected ways.
A bed in the middle of the store? Why not? You think end tables belong on the floor? Don’t be silly. At Denim Loft, Norkaitis hung them on the wall to display handbags on the lower shelf and hang tops and jackets from industrial pipes mounted underneath. At Merra-Lee, a tall, laddered CD rack became an elegant display for necklaces and bracelets. 
When he walked into The Denim Loft’s new location (formerly The Rug Merchant), the space was a blank slate.
“Like a bowling alley with wood floors and four walls, and that was it,” Norkaitis says. Not anymore. The shop has a distinctly outdoor feel to it, complete with live birds in a cage hung on the recently installed gazebo.
I’ve had this gazebo since I was 12. It was set up in my grandma’s back yard for years, then in storage,” he said.
He pays attention to a space’s history and incorporates that into his design.  Merra-Lee sits on the site once occupied by the Tea Room of the Geneva Hotel, so Norkaitis salvaged an art deco desk once used in the hotel’s rooms. It now holds a collection of funky socks.
Norkaitis explains that each of his retail projects are truly one-of-a-kind. “I won’t put a bed in any other store," he said. "And none of my other clients in the area will have the same color-palette as Merra-Lee.”
Norkaitis has been actively working in interior design since he was 13 years old.
“I spent a lot of time at my aunt’s in the summer, and I’d help her out with her design business. We visited flea markets together, and I’d help her at the stores she was working on.”
Design seemed to come naturally to him, and when he picked up enough residential clients at his interior design business, Room 363, he quit his “day job” and never looked back. Now he’s expanding into the retail market with great success.
For more information on Room 363 and Norkaitis’ design work, you can e-mail him at Mark60140@gmail.com  or visit www.room363.net.  Be sure to stop by Denim Loft and Merra-Lee to see his work in person.
 

Have a great week!!!

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Monday, March 7, 2011

Kane County Flea Market!



Flea Market this weekend....


It was a great show!
My freind Janice and I shared 
a booth together. We where really lucky 
the people next to us never showed up!!!
We where able to really spread out! 

 In a matter of an hour we had 
sold a ton of stuff! 
I think people really had cabin fever!



Janice's chairs sold right away! 
The lady was only going to bye one,
but Janice used her good flea market skills 
and sujested your really going to wish later you had
the pair! SOLD!


My favorite display almost 
Sold out right away! 
The Chippy door Janice had really 
made it pull together!

Enjoy the rest of the photos!






Later this week I will be posting the finninshing photos 
of the Merra Lee store