Published July 2002

Emerald Design: products,
labor under one roof

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

In the showroom of Emerald Design Inc., visitors can experience the past and the present as they walk around kitchen and bathroom displays or peruse the fabric and wallpaper selections.

They can trod upon a 100-year-old fir-wood floor as they examine a state-of-the-art, stainless steel Viking range or Kohler’s Pro CookCenter, which combines a kitchen sink with a steamer/double boiler.

They can admire the turn-of-the-century brick interior as they run their fingers across DuPont Corian counters and custom cabinets in one of the kitchen displays or gaze at a sunken tub, courtesy of American Standard, in one of the bathroom arrangements.

It’s a comfortable setting, one Emerald Design worked months to put together — tearing down plaster to expose the brick, adding walls for display areas, creating work space upstairs — before opening in March in one of Everett’s historic Riverside buildings, at the corner of Hewitt Avenue and Maple Street.

But the hard work also was an opportunity to put Emerald Design’s remodeling experience into action, said Karen Fugate, who, with husband Keith, owns the 8-year-old business formerly located in Marysville.

That’s because Emerald Design, with its four designers and six contractors, is more than just a showroom of mid- to high-end appliances and custom cabinetry. It’s also a one-stop shop for people looking to remodel, expand or add on to their homes.

“What’s unique about us is we’ve got the designers, the general contractor, the store all in one,” Keith said, so a client can purchase one or more pieces of the remodeling puzzle in one trip.

“That’s our premise, and in offering that in Everett, we feel like we’re hitting a market that really needs it,” Karen said, with all the older homes in the downtown area.

While specializing in older homes, Emerald Design also works on newer homes, she said. And Emerald Design’s mid- to high-end appliances attract a varied customer base, with young families interested in the plastic surfaces that are attractive but easy to maintain and older couples, with the kids grown and gone, wanting the high-end natural stone counters and wood flooring.

“We like to offer both because the area has so many ... older and younger people,” Karen said.

Nearing the end of its first decade in business, Emerald Design has benefited from word of mouth and good press, both in Better Homes & Gardens and “Evening Magazine.” Now, with its new 7,000-square-foot shop located near on-ramps to Highway 2 and Interstate 5, the business is benefiting from foot traffic and interested drivers-by, Karen said.

“That’s why we’re open on the weekends and we’re open until 7 at night, because many, many people are on their way to work and can’t stop in, so they take that time after work or on Saturday or Sunday to stop in,” she said.

This summer, folks will have another reason to stop in during the evenings: cooking classes.

“In the next month, we will have a working kitchen display, a high-end, custom working kitchen display with our Kohler and Corian, and we have three chefs in mind to come in at night and teach cooking classes,” Karen said. “So you can come in after work, have a glass of wine and take a pasta class or (Asian cuisine) class.”

Those classes will be in addition to courses in interior design and remodeling that the company’s designers already offer the public through the city’s Parks and Recreation program, she said.

“We’re trying to really provide the community with something else other than (just) a retail store to come in to,” she said.

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