Creative confidence

When the owners of Imagine That! Furniture planned the new store in south Reno, they wanted to create an experience that would surprise shoppers.

But a couple of the biggest surprises developed by partners Greg Hughes and Jake Gordon involve mundane matters such as staffing and advertising.

All eight store hosts the name Imagine That! gives its employees will sell furniture 30 hours a week, finish furniture for five hours, and deliver furniture for five hours.

It's about building a relationship with the guests, the store's designation for its customers.

"We don't want a salesperson to spend hours working with a guest, only to ruin a remarkable experience by having a gorilla show up at their house and damage the furniture," Hughes says.

When it comes to advertising, meanwhile, the partners decided to use a virus.

"We invite people to become a sneezer for the store,"Hughes says, pulling out a credit card-sized promo piece.

Customers put their name on back of the virus card, and give it to a friend.

It's worth $25 off a $100 purchase.

"That amount goes into your account if it's redeemed.

As a sneezer you have unlimited earning power,"Hughes says.

Why put the customers to work?

"Our guests live within our demographic.

They're immersed in it," he says.

To carry the idea a step further and creating supersneezers, Gordon and Hughes are cultivating stylists at salons.

They'll invite groups of stylists to come by for refreshments and get to know the store so they can spread the virus.

To reinforce the message that customers are guests, an espresso and wine bar fronts the entrance.

Everyone who comes in is offered a complimentary beverage.

The store price point is in the medium- to high-range, but Hughes and Gordon sell more than furniture.

"We want to inspire peoples' imaginations," says Hughes."To give them creative confidence."

To get the wheels turning, an art gallery adorns one wall of the 12,400-square-foot store on Double R Boulevard at Double Diamond.

Each artist who wants to hang art in the gallery must first decorate a piece of furniture.

Furniture inventory comes from 12 wood manufacturers and one upholstery manufacturer.

While customers are encouraged to design their own furniture finishes and are invited to do the hands-on work the store expects to finish 80 to 90 percent of pieces.

"We'll even install a web cam in the finishing room so they can watch their piece being finished.At most places, the finishing room is tucked way in the back; here it is front stage," says Hughes, adding,"We call it bringing HGTV to life."

Consider the couch: The store provides 20 profiles, or shapes.At a computer, customers choose a profile and try different fabrics on it digitally.

Or, they can pull an actual fabric swatch choosing from 900 fabrics and 80 leathers from rolls adorning the wall to physically drape over a profile to see the result in real time.

If a customer takes possession of a custom creation, only to decide it looks hideous in her home, Imagine That! will redo it for free one time.

"We use the word remarkable a lot," says Hughes.He wants the store to do things just for fun, with no functionality.

For instance, the ladies bathroom: It lies in full view behind large windows.

But when one walks in and locks the door, those big windows frost over and become opaque.

Just for fun.

The bathroom showcases a koi pond, painted on the floor, that looks so real, it's like walking on water.

Hughes,who owned Reno Lawn and Landscape for 20 years, is funding the business and handles the financials.

Gordon is in charge of operations.

"It's like putting on a play," Gordon says.

"We must get good reviews right from the start."