Boutique interior design firm Outline Interiors, has streamlined their sourcing process with Gather.

Laura Needed A Tool Made for the Interior Design Business

Laura Tribbett, owner of Outline Interiors, focuses primarily on residential work in Chicago, as well as working with developers and management companies on model units and common spaces.

Before finding Gather, Laura was using a series of tools, including Pinterest and Microsoft Word, to help her run her burgeoning business.

“We had to be hyper-vigilant to make sure we didn’t save over another document, and that everything was formatted properly. It was also difficult to group different options for our clients. For instance, we might want to create schemes A, B, and C, but Pinterest didn't really allow us to do that without creating totally separate boards. It was a cumbersome process.”

Not to mention the problems with pricing specifications for clients:

“We experienced the same issue with saving over, or formatting the word document - we had to double and triple check all of the price calculations. We take into account the vendor discount, plus our markup, and sales tax. You never want to go back to a client and ask for additional funds once you’ve already shown them a price. We were spending so much time ensuring the math was correct when I would rather be focusing on the overall design.”

Gather Replaced the Patchwork of Clunky Tools

Laura got a first-hand look at Gather in a demo.

“It was really straightforward - the demo showed me exactly what I was looking for. I could tell that Gather was really focused on helping designers with their process. It was obvious that they really thought it out and it was super user-friendly.”

She had tried another tool for interior designers but found it less functional than Gather.

“It was similar to Gather in that they had a clipper tool, which I think is a really great resource. I just didn't find it to be as user-friendly as Gather. It wasn't as seamless of a process. 

When we were using (the other tool), we couldn't see a thumbnail of the item. We could only see the title, and typically, we rename items.

We don't just call it by its manufacturer name because sometimes you might have a client who will shop from under you. We had a really hard time trying to quickly find something specific when it was re-named ‘coffee table’ - that could be anything. With Gather, we can quickly see the image, and we are able to rename it whatever we want. It's a much easier and streamlined process to review selections."

A Visual Organization Tool Made for Visual People

Having Gather as part of her business makes Laura’s design process so much smoother.

“The visual part helps us with how we decide what goes best together. If we can say, okay, here's master bedroom option one. We can see this bed right next to this bedside table. You can see the grouping of the item and it lets you do a quick edit there before you get too far into that design, which I like.

Or I'll think, oh, maybe I'm going to shift this to scheme B. Oh, it looks much better there. Okay, great. Now I just need to find something else to fill that void in scheme A.”

It also helps her avoid the uncomfortable situation of dealing with pricing errors with her clients.

“We can collect all the information from the website with the clipper. It all goes to the project. It calculates the markup. It calculates the discount. It calculates the sales tax. I think that’s what excites us most.

I know if I say to my assistant that we need to make tear sheets she can turn it around in 10 minutes. And when we send it to the client I know the math is right. I'm a lot more confident in turning it around quickly than I was before because there's less room for error”

With pricing errors and clunky tools eliminated, Laura can focus on her designs and clients like the polished pro she is.