Spokane designer opens home décor store

SPOKANE, Wash. — A new home décor store officially opened here last week with something for everyone in this little corner of the Pacific Northwest.

Chaise & Home, located in the Garland District of Spokane, is an extension of Wendy Nolan’s interior design business, 509 Design, and gives both her design clients as well as walk-ins from the neighborhood a full assortment of furniture and home décor to browse.

“It’s allowed us to bring our home furnishings that we’ve offered to past clients to everybody,” Nolan told Spokane’s Journal of Business. “I brought in a lot of décor, and my goal is to bring in things that you can’t get anywhere else in Spokane.”

Nolan, who has been a practicing interior designer since 1996 and is NCIDC-certified, and her husband, Alan, opened 509 Design in 2015. It offers commercial and residential design services (Alan handles the contracting side of the business). It has been selling custom furniture to its design clients for a long time, Nolan said.

In 2020, it bought an elementary school on Spokane’s North Side with the intention of converting it into its office and design studio. It was a two-story building with a center hall, and its old drinking fountains added another level of charm, Nolan said. But a complicated permitting process led them to look for another location.

They found the 2,300 square-foot space, a former improv theater with nice tall ceilings, in the walkable business section of the Garland District, which also has a historic movie theater, a big draw in the area.

The space had room for a display kitchen, a bonus since 509 Design (the name is a play on the region’s area code, 509) does kitchen and bath work. “Clients can come in and look at finishes and proceed with furniture and accessories,” Nolan told Home Accents Today.

Chaise & Home’s assortment includes large home décor pieces such as artwork and lighting. “We are a Currey & Company dealer, and we have that on display,” said Nolan.

The store is divided into style vignettes — there is a farmhouse section, a trendy area, a classic section, displays that appeal to visitors from North Idaho (due to its proximity to Coeur d’Alene, ID.), and, because Spokane is populated with small bungalows, a section dedicated to small-scale furniture that would work well for bungalow-sized rooms.

“We are actively going to market to visit vendor fairs to find things our local community can’t find elsewhere,” Nolan said. “We recently brought in antique pieces that were received well.”

Nolan will not be at the Fall High Point Market because of staffing schedule conflicts, but she said she would “definitely” be there in the spring. “But even if I don’t go, I always look at reports and people’s Instagram to see what I’m missing,” she said.

Chaise & Home’s core customer base is slightly different from that of its 509 clients.

“Prior to opening the store, I would say it’s a generation with kids who are out of the house, who are nearing retirement and ready to do one last house update. That’s been our client before.

“Now that we’ve opened the store, we’ve had millennial-aged customers who are now established in their careers and interested in making their space reflect their taste. The neighborhood has a younger generation, it’s drawing new families in.”

Spokane’s housing market, like many others across the country, has “definitely slowed,” according to Nolan.

“Our property values doubled since COVID, we had a lot of influx from out of state. Our inventory has never been great. [I would attribute the] slowness in the market because of interest rates. But there are some sales.”

“Sometimes I think I’m a little crazy for opening in this market,” Nolan said with a laugh. “The store in general has been well received, so we’re excited to be a new and different option in this community and establish ourselves in this neighborhood.”