Last year, I redesigned a showroom at the Pacific Market Center (formerly the Seattle Gift Center), and would like to share a few of the design principles involved in a project like this. Whether you have a showroom, a show booth, or a retail store, I hope this information will help you with your layout/design development.

The main objective with this project was to address traffic flow challenges, while allowing for effective display of merchandise and easy access for ordering. Showrooms are harder than retail shops in that respect, because there is only one of every item - and you can't cross-merchandise. Each line has to remain intact in one location.

Using the principle of Zone Design, the space was divided into functional areas containing products of like purpose/use. By taking an inventory of the lines carried and placing them in categories (Wine, Kitchen/Cooking, Tabletop, and Outdoors/Home Décor/Entertaining), I was able to determine how big each Zone would need to be to hold them all, and where each Zone would be located within the space.

I moved on to determine what fixtures worked together (same finishes, similar structure, etc.) and what product would show best on those fixtures. My goal is to coordinate the style of the fixtures with the style of the product – for example, a formal dark wood shelf unit with glass shelves holds crystal vases & glasses, while a rustic pine hutch & table displays handpainted pottery. The fixture isn't so incongruent that it calls attention to itself – it lets the products take center stage. In some cases, manufacturers provide fixtures specific to their products, and I left those as they were.

Each Zone was plotted, fitting fixtures into the space to allow for adequate walkways and to keep sightlines clear, so that certain areas can be made to POP with large colorful displays to draw you through the space. Placing season-specific merchandise in one area in each Zone keeps things looking fresh and exciting, and allows for flexibility in resetting displays each season without having to move everything in the space. Only two fixtures were discarded, and several additional lines of merchandise were added.

And in the end, the space had more open area for order-writing tables, higher product visibility in every display and from the hallway outside the windowed showroom, more accessible walkways within the space, and a cleaner, more spacious feeling overall. Her clients are spending more time in her showroom, and her sales have jumped. She's in the Zone now!