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thePeorian.com
W
hen Becky Grimm and
her family and friends
set out to take a dilapi-
dated building on Washington
Street in Morton and turn it into a
rustic showplace nearly a decade
ago, it was what she called “a
labor of love.”
That’s how she still feels about
the building that about half a
block west of Main Street and
about her home décor business,
Grimm Interiors. And that build-
ing reflects Grimm’s business in
that it mixes old with new, tradi-
tional with contemporary.
“
I had always dreamed of
someday renovating an old loft
building. This isn’t a loft, of
course, but I loved the charac-
ter of this building. But it still
needed to be functional and it
took a lot of work to get it there.
Now, it has come to define our
studio,” Grimm said.
The décor of her store, which
she said “was a real dump” when
she bought it after it had stood
vacant for many years, reflects
her tastes while maintaining its
industrial warehouse look. That’s
basically what it was at one time.
Grimm said it was originally a
masonry on one end of the build-
ing and a cleaners on the other,
with a brick yard in between.
You couldn’t tell today it was
ever in ill repair. “I’m proud of
what we’ve done and I am very
proud of the business we’ve built
here and I’m confident of the
future.” That business is, in a nut-
shell, interior decorating. Grimm
and her staff of five, including
one in Galesburg, work with
clients to find the image that suits
them, whether it’s for one room
or an entire house. That entails
asking many questions about a
family’s lifestyle and “looking
for the rights levels of formal and
casual, because every family is
different. For example, I would
put one piece of furniture in a
room that is seldom used and a
whole different type of piece in a
room where kids are going to be
jumping on it all day.”
“
I try to be logical,” she added.
Her color schemes run to
warmth and “homeyness,”
Grimm said. “I try to make the
look fit them and make it feel like
home, that when they come home
and walk in the door they feel
good, they feel safe.”
Grimm first became interested
in home decorating when she was
young and her parents taught her
how to hang wallpaper. Then,
after he two sons started school
she bought a Decorating Den
franchise and began learning the
interior decorating business first
hand.
“
It was very hands-on learn-
ing and it served me well. I like
to put colors and fabrics to-
gether and see what fits well and
through Decorating Den I got the
chance to really do it. But I found
Decorating Den too confining,”
she said, explaining that franchi-
sees work out of a van without
much ability to show what they
can do in a studio setting.
Specialty Retail: Home Décor
FROM TRADITIONAL
TO CONTEMPORARY
Grimm Interiors aims to
make you feel at home
Paul Gordon
