Windows are wide open for decorating business
The Lorbers of So. Bruns. celebrate 10th year of window treatments
BY CHRIS MURINO Staff Writer

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - As her husband Doug fumbles with a new video camera, Nicole Lorber greets people at the door. A dazzling array of colors and patterns are laid out on a stage at the South Brunswick Senior Center as she tells her husband where she will be standing so he can record her. When all the commotion has stopped and Lorber has started her seminar, "Top 10 Dos of Decorating," there are at least 60 people in the audience, all anxiously awaiting the presentation.

Nicole and Doug Lorber own and operate Distinctive Designs by Nicole. Based in South Brunswick, they specialize in window treatments and blinds, but can help people design any part of their home.

They are celebrating their 10th anniversary being in business.

"We have five employees within the company as well as several seamstresses," said Nicole. "We bring the store to you."

Lorber is on theWindow CoveringsAssociation of America's (WCAA) national board of directors and was the president of the organization until her term ended recently.

"We help each other," Lorber said. "It's for the people who've just started in the industry and need a little hand-holding."

She also recently won an international design award from the WCAA.

"I've been sewing since I was a little girl," she said. "Anything we can dream up, I know can be accomplished."

During the presentation, Lorber went over some trends of the industry and each of her dos of decorating. She showed a slideshow with rooms she has decorated and passed around examples of blinds, sketches and other patterns she's done.

However, the Lorbers had not always been so set on having their own business.

Nicole, after having her third child, was working for a bank but decided she wanted to stay home for the children.

"I was always doing this kind of stuff for our house," she said.

For the first five years of the business, Nicole did every piece of work herself: the consulting, the measuring, the drawing, the sewing and even the installing.

Meanwhile, Doug was working atMorgan Stanley in New York. He was working in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and was in the building when the second plane hit. Luckily, he escaped with his life, but was laid off a year after.

In 2003, Doug wanted to join the business to make life easier on Nicole.

"I thought the business was way too small, at that point, to support a family of five," Nicole said. "My parents worked in the same school system for 35 years. I was brought up in a 'don't take risks' type of family. But, life has taken me where I'm supposed to be. I love what I do."

Doug took over the accounting, administrative work and installation part of the business. Seamstresses were also hired. He was happy with the change.

"I'm able to coach the kids in Little League," he said. "I always dealt in problems that had to be solved right away. Here, I do installation of work where people are happy with the final product. I'm not used to dealing with happy people."

When Doug joined the business, things started to grow.

"We added blinds and shutters," Nicole said. "We had to grow the business as fast as we could to support us. We got more than 35 percent of growth because we added blinds and shutters."

Nicole now mostly does consultations, although she says she does miss the sewing and creating part of it sometimes.

"I always want to keep my hands in there," she said.

She does about one consultation a day, but it could be up to five hours long. They are doing houses all over the area now, in Pennsylvania, Long Beach Island and even North Carolina, where they are designing hotel rooms at a Residence Inn.

Nicole said after the presentation that many of the trends in design are really prompted by clothing.

"All of a sudden it starts to ease into home design," she said. "It takes, typically, about two years for what happens in apparel to come to home design."

The reaction from the audience at the senior center was nothing but positive.

"It was really helpful to actually see things," said Denise Etcheverry of South Brunswick. "There were things I never would have thought of."

"It was very good," said Susan Boguszewicz of South Brunswick. "I'm a dressmaker and to see the fabrics and what she did was really inspiring. They were beautiful. I'm actually in the process of doing two rooms and I got some ideas for the windows."

Doug said the seminar was filmed because there are people who want to purchase it.

"It's just another marketing idea, another revenue source," he said.

Thirty-eight percent of the business comes from existing customers coming back or sending new clients, while 15 percent comes from relationships with furniture stores. Nicole does grassroots level promotions and her seminars help as well.

"I go to new homeowners who've just moved in," she said. "I'll get business from [this seminar.] This is planting seeds."

Nicole does not know where the business will go from here. They have thought of getting a storefront, but they are able to charge less without paying for the rent. She does not expect to be doing only hotels from now on, either.

"I like my clients," she said. "I really enjoy the creativity."

Nicole's favorite part of her work? "The hugs I get from a client when a job is done," she said.