A mom's perspective
Sydney Cavanaugh, designer, Wheeless & Associates
Jane Kitchen -- Kids Today, 11/8/2011 6:46:03 AM
Cavanaugh is now designing exclusively for Creations. Coco Bay is one of her newest collections.
Back ground: A High Point native, Sydney Cavanaugh grew up in the furniture industry. Her mother was a partner at furniture design firm Aulbert and Wheeless, and Cavanaugh's first job out of college was as the events planner at The String & Splinter in High Point.
"What killed me there was furniture market," said Cavanaugh. "It's ironic, but I hated it."
So she talked to her mother about furniture design. At the time, AutoCAD was just coming on the scene, and Cavanaugh quickly got some training on the software.
"My mom didn't know how to turn the computer on, so it was overwhelming for her," she said. "But I caught on pretty quick."
Soon after, Cavanaugh's mother and her business partner went their separate ways, and Cavanaugh became an integral part of Wheeless & Associates.
But just because she was the boss's daughter doesn't mean she walked right into it.
"For an entire year, I did nothing but line drawings," said Cavanaugh. "My mom does all that free-hand, and she made me practice every day before she even used one of my drawings...She felt I needed to master that to move on to bigger things."
A NURSERY DESIGNER IS BORN :
Five years later, Cavanaugh's mother was on a business trip to China when Bassett Furniture called to say it needed a crib design immediately.
"When I told them my mom was in China, they said, ‘Well, you're going to have to do it,'" she said. And so she did.
That crib design - her first - turned out to be the very successful Windsor crib for Target, and Bassett said they wanted to work with Cavanaugh on more designs.
"After that, they became my client," she said.
Cavanaugh worked on many projects with Bassett, including the Wendy Bellissimo line for Babies ‘R' Us. But in March 2008, she got a whole new perspective when she became a mother herself.
"It definitely changed what I thought about the use of my furniture," she said.
Today, she is a mother of two, and using both her real-world experience and design background to create practical and attractive furniture for Creations, who she is exclusively designing for.
DESIGN SENSE: Cavanaugh said while she personally likes clean, simplistic, classic furniture, she designs across the board, depending on what she sees a need for.
"My personal style is like that of a buyer," she explained. "A good buyer doesn't necessarily put their own style into buying decisions. A designer is the same thing - I have to look and see what a customer wants."
For example, she said, when dealing with some of the big box stores, she looks to see what's missing on their floors, and comes up with a design that fills that void, whether it's a girly girl collection or a cottage group or something more transitional.
Also, she said, "I've worked with enough buyers that I know what they like."
But being a mother of two young children herself, one of her biggest focuses at the moment is building practicality into her designs.
"I feel like a lot of the time as a first-time mom, you don't know what it is that you need, especially in furniture," said Cavanaugh. "...I want things that are functional and help you do things more efficiently."
For instance, Cavanaugh herself struggled with fidgety babies on the changing table who would grab (and throw) everything in reach, and so she's working on some pieces that address that issue of accessibility.
She also found herself hiding her changing station in her own nursery to not make it a focal point of the room, and has designed some pieces since then to disguise that space.
"My ultimate goal is to make nursery pieces that you can use forever, not only in your child's room, but pieces that you would be happy putting in another part of your house, or a second bedroom," said Cavanaugh. "I want to make the pieces functional enough that when you get finished, it doesn't look like a changer, or when you convert a crib, it doesn't look like a converted crib."
With many of her friends at the age of having children as well, Cavanaugh said she uses their feedback to have mini focus groups on what they do and don't like in their nursery furniture.
She also uses her connections to the world of adult furniture for inspiration.
"The baby industry is a little bit behind the adult industry in terms of finishes," she said, then laughed. "I say that, and however espresso still sells in both - we just can't seem to get rid of it!"
FUTURE PLANS: Cavanaugh said she's very happy designing nursery furniture, but hopes to one day have her own Sydney Cavanaugh-branded line (yes, that's her real name, or her married name at least. "I know," she said, when asked, "it sounds like a soap opera star!")
She would also like to branch out into the world of nursery bedding at some stage.
"It's hard to find simplistic-looking, classic bedding at reasonable prices," she said. "I'm not a bedding designer, but I'd love to try."
And Cavanaugh finds herself in a lucky spot as both mother and designer.
"I'm just like any other mom," she said. "I just happen to be in furniture, so I want to put that to use."
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