Meet Gayle Kwan | interiors workroom owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gayle Kwan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gayle, how do you think about risk?
I was divorced with 2 young kids after taking 10 yrs off to be a stay at home mom. I wasn’t sure even if I had money or a place to live, but I knew I would be ok. That was the first “risk” that drove me to take the next risk, and the next and the next. I believe adversity can be our friend. It’s what lays the challenge out our feet to say, “what are you made of?” Sometimes its a sink or swim situation and I knew without a doubt that I could swim. I knew I had talent and creativity, I just needed to figure out how to direct it. Where do I begin? I decided to just do what I know. I had this idea that upholstery didn’t need to be a dirty, cluttered, old man’s shop kind of experience. I envisioned a beautiful store that was inviting for anyone. I wanted beautiful fabrics lining the walls, with beautiful furnishings that people could sit and discuss their projects. Of course that was a dream and I had no money to make it happen quickly, but it was a goal. I started in my unfinished basement with a single hanging lightbulb. I built it one client at a time. I had a truck and would pick up and deliver furniture so people wouldn’t know I didn’t actually have a proper shop. The following year I was able to manage 300 sq ft shop downtown. If I got too big of a piece to reupholster I would have to stand on the table to work on it. The place was starting to look like I had envisioned however. Every dollar I could manage went into the business. I wasn’t really making money but the one thing I didn’t lack was confidence. My kind beautiful kids told me how great they thought I was and how proud they were of my work and it was just more fuel for my fire. They learned to carry furniture, stripe furniture and just support me endlessly. By year 3 I began to turn a profit and by year 6 I had a beautiful showroom in a beautiful shopping center with a separate and equally cool shop. A proper shop. I’m now into my 11th year with wonderful and talented employees. The town is so supportive of us and our clientele is so diverse and fun to work with. People tell us constantly how beautiful and inspiring our studio is and clients love seeing the workroom when they drop off or pick up their projects. It took a risky situation for me to decide what I was made of.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I never claimed to be the best upholsterer in the world, but I set out to give people a different experience than the upholstery shops that were currently available. Women, especially older women, didn’t feel comfortable going to them. It was usually an older man who didn’t listen, would only do things the way he thought they should be done, and don’t even think about doing anything outside of the box, and getting creative would be total nonsense. I say yes to almost anything. Some people come in with limited knowledge of furniture, fabric, design, trends, etc. We talk endlessly about why, how, needs, wants, etc. We want our clients to feel really good about what we design for them. We create furniture, drapes, bedding, cushions, pillows, and also do interior design when we have the time. We did an entire restaurant in 8 days. We blocked out a month for the job, but once we got started we just decided to set up shop at the restaurant and work from 7am-9pm through the weekend and surprise the owner. They had to close for a week due to city related construction, so hey what the heck. We are proud of our little team of women. It all sounds so fun and we hear frequently, “wow it must be so fun to work here”, but let me tell you it was not easy, and it is not easy. It is WORK! I have cried rivers of tears over this business. I have worked till exhaustion. There was a time I started work at 3am because I just couldn’t keep up. I would work in my pajamas, and in my full state of exhaustion, I knocked over a can of stain on a finished piece kind of exhaustion. The challenges? Have I overcome the challenges? Do you ever overcome the challenges? I’m the main upholsterer because there are no upholsterers to hire. We had one guy that really turned our place upside down. We decided then that I would stay in the roll of upholsterer and the other ladies would cover the other parts. It’s a dying art in this country and if you can upholster, why would you upholster for someone else? I have carpel tunnel pain in my hands sometimes because of the work, but hey, I am so unbelievable proud of what we do and what our company stands for. We bring our best every day. We support each other at work and beyond. I would never claim to have done all this on my own. I have amazing women working for me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well we have some fun restaurants like most cities. We have a great oldtown filled with restaurants, boutiques and live music. That’s always a good start. We are the mecca of breweries, so that’s a must do. Many of the breweries have live outdoor music at least once a week or more. Next would be our reservoir that sits high up in the foothills. Its an amazing place for paddle boarding and picnics, mountain views to the west and city views to the east. The bike trails are endless. We are very proud to be a bike crazy city. If you are in town around Labor Day you have to catch the Tour de Fat. 10,000 bikes in a parade with everyone dressed up in completely outlandish attire and the crazy carnival style celebration at the end is epic. At least 2 days should be spent hiking and the Buddhist temple, about an hour up the canyon, is a nice drive and visit. Museums are my favorite, so if an hour south to Denver qualifies, then I would include that in the must see category.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Where to begin. I’ll try to keep the list short but I had the encouragement of many other women, my life partner Antonio who just rolled with it and jumped in when needed, the kids who now have grown up with my business and encouraged me along the way, a realtor that went to bat for me at the bank and convinced them to give me a home loan(where I started the business in the basement) even though I didn’t have a job, because she said she believed in me and my work ethic.(come on, this is really unheard of, right?!?!) My parents who lent me a truck for 11 yrs, my other parents that sent flowers of support every time I opened a new location. I have to even give a shout out to my ex husband. I marvel at it all sometimes and hope that others in my situation could have the same.

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