wellington | designer
Nanci Smith owns Consign & Design, located in the Wellington Marketplace.
Consign & Design’s Nanci Smith Brings A Lifetime Of Experience By Julie Unger
Nanci Smith of Consign & Design has had a lifetime of design experience. “My mother was an interior designer in Washington, D.C. Growing up, I pretty much trailed along with her to all the design stores. I just always did it for friends, and then I wanted to do it for a career,” Smith recalled. “That’s how it started.” As an adult, Smith worked in department stores for 25 years. She saw them combining and decided that it was time to begin her own business. “In 2001, I opened a small store, 3,900 square feet. Now its 2017, and I have one store in Wellington that’s almost 8,000 square feet, and a store in Palm Beach Gardens that’s 8,200 square feet,” she said. When Smith started out in 2001, there weren’t many furniture stores nearby. A drive to West Palm Beach was necessary. There are now chain furniture stores nearby, but Consign & Design has established its own niche.
Smith’s store has everything needed to outfit a home. She has a complete wallpaper and fabric room, a team of painters, a license with a cabinet company, and is able to remodel kitchens. “We can do anything from a remodel to a room arrange,” she said. Smith attended Kent State University in Ohio and studied graphic design and marketing, which helped her create her vision. Approximately 80 percent of her clients are local, and about 40 percent are equestrians. As Consign & Design became more popular, clients would ask Smith, and designer Cheryl Rappolt, to
look at their homes and help pick their paint colors and other design options. Offering interior decorating services was a natural evolution. “The first thing is to sit down with a customer,” Smith said. “Find out what they’re looking for. Are they looking for a change in design? Are they’re looking for something completely different than what they have up north? Do they just want a couple of rooms arranged and adjusted? Is it a small project or a large project, and what is my time frame?” Smith creates design boards, gives clients a few different options, and then wellington the magazine | june 2017
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