Shop on Yonge a dream come true

[attach]6900[/attach]At the age of 13, Howard Forberg made his first sale in the furniture business: a desk.

“That is 30 years ago and I’ll never forget it,” he says from the newly opened second location of Decorium on Yonge Street at Alcorn Avenue. “I still get the same rush every time I sell another piece of furniture.”

Forberg and his brother Steve are third generation owners in the furniture business, including their grandfather, who used to manufacture kitchen sets, and uncle and father, who branched out into the retail side. Although they were happy running one shop, they couldn’t resist opening up another when the new space became available.

“Our dream was always to have a showroom on Yonge Street and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity so it all happened pretty fast,” he says. “It was basically three days, okay let’s do it, and we pulled it together in four weeks with the renovations. It’s probably the best location, everybody in Canada knows Yonge Street.”

Decorium, which was originally only open to the interior design trade, is derived from a combination of the words décor and emporium. After spending a lot of his childhood at the store, Forberg started working at the family business fulltime in 1988 — although he also had plans of playing for the Maple Leafs and becoming a rock star.

The new two-level store, which features everything from couches and mattresses to pillows and artwork, has a main floor dedicated to more classic and elegant pieces while the downstairs area features more funky and contemporary items.

“If they’re willing to sit down with us and share a little bit of information about their rooms and their homes and how they use the furniture we know they’re going to find the right piece of furniture,” he says. “Even if they don’t at least they’re going to leave with a much better understanding of what they’re looking for.”

[attach]6901[/attach]While surrounding stores in the area focus on accessories, what sets their store apart is they’re also focused on furniture, Forberg says.

“You can come into the store and furnish an entire condo or an entire house in one location and we’ll offer them all the free interior design service they need to put it together,” he says.

One of the biggest challenges behind the midtown space was coming up with a way to represent 9,300 square meters worth of furniture like at their Dufferin Street and Finch Avenue store and representing it in the smaller 836 square meter showroom.

“I think we did a pretty good job,” he says. “The people here generally know what they like, they have a good sense of fashion, they’re very into the design shows on TV, design magazines, so it’s a challenge to be able to impress them with your assortment of products because they are so knowledgeable and I think we’ve managed to do that.”

Since the other location is in an industrial area, he’s enjoyed working from the new store and being part of a community with restaurants and shops.

“We’ve had people walk in just to say welcome to the neighbourhood,” he says. “We’ve had people bring us cookies.”