In an effort to reel in more customers, Studio C co-owners Damien Boisvert and Greg Vernice plan to get creative and expand into the wholesale market with custom products in 2017.
“We really want to focus on developing some of the products we make ourselves and get them out to other stores, and also do design consulting,” Vernice tells Business Report in the new Entrepreneur feature in the current issue.
Vernice and Boisvert want to expand Studio C—an interior design and home furnishing business located at 3786 Government St.—because the business is isolated and doesn’t have a commercial shopping space. They are also hoping to grow their interior design business and open an online shopping space.
Studio C features items Boisvert and Vernice personally craft, including pillows, cushions, poured candles, watercolors sandwiched between glass and decoupage plates featuring U.S. Geological Survey maps of coastal Louisiana.
“I think a big aspect of our clientele is that they are people who appreciate the idiosyncratic and are not so enamored by the chain, national stores,” Boisvert says.
Studio C opened in 2013 in the space formerly occupied by Brandt’s Maisonette restaurant.
Boisvert and Vernice, who met while working in New York City’s Greenwich Village, have managed to create in Baton Rouge the type of eclectic home décor studio found on the streets of San Francisco or the west side of Lower Manhattan.
Their designs incorporate inspirations from their travels as well as a Southern twist. The two say their merchandise is a big part of what sets Studio C apart.
“We kind of want you to feel like you are in a gathering place that just so happens to sell things,” Vernice says.
Lately, Boisvert and Vernice have seen an influx of customers wandering in while waiting to meet friends at the nearby Goûter restaurant, and they are encouraged by Government Street’s revitalization.
“The challenge is continuing to make our presence known,” Vernice says. “That is why we are excited about Curbside Burgers and the guys from Radio Bar opening up the beer garden.”
Read the full Entrepreneur feature. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
