Charles Fine Furniture
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| Charles Fine Furniture 3105 Yorba Linda Blvd. Fullerton, CA 92831 714.577.5380 charlesfinefurniture.net 323.459.9993 marcpridmore.com marcpridmore@aol.com |
The fine line between work and passion breaks to the advantage of people – especially those with large-scale luxury homes – who request a complimentary designer house call from Marc Pridmore. The executive designer, vice president, and buyer for Charles Fine Furniture, Pridmore is one of those rare types born with the ability to visualize accurately all the complex interplay of color, lighting, scale, lifestyle, and a hundred other factors involved in transforming awkward or undistinguished rooms into strikingly elegant interiors.
On the “work” side of that fine line, Pridmore cheerfully delivers what’s asked for during the convenient, timesaving house call, whether it’s a quick consultation on finishing touches to take a nice room over the top, or doing the interior design from scratch for the entire home.
But passion is what really drives Pridmore, and when clients are receptive, particularly in remodeling projects, he’ll go above and beyond with friendly guidance on such things as the best look for flooring, paint colors, and so on. Pridmore cares about the work, but he cares as much about the passion – that is, making living spaces as practical and comfortable as they are beautiful. The skill to do it comes naturally to him so he makes it seem easy – but in truth, it’s a lot harder than it looks.
Many times, he’s been called by home-owners who, even though they measured the dining room, living room, master, or den very carefully and purchased furniture with thoughtful consideration, ended up with a disappointing result. It’s especially common in spacious luxury homes: most people have a fear of big furniture, Pridmore says, and buy pieces too small for the room.
Charles Fine Furniture is unusual even in the realm of high-end furniture retailers in that it specializes in furnishings and accessories, simultaneously elegant, rich, old-world, and casual, for large-scale homes. As the buyer for the store, Pridmore has mentally catalogued every piece of furniture in the showroom, the warehouse, and what’s on order.
“When I walk into a home, in my mind I’m already going through what we have, or will have soon, that might work there,” he says.
Many clients are wealthier folks who have accumulated unusual pieces over the years.
“A lot of times they have these amazing things, but the look ends up being a piece-by-piece hodgepodge,” he says. “It’s such a fun challenge to find the elements that give that eclectic, personal, well-traveled lifestyle a put-together look.”
As smart and convenient as the house calls are for clients, many people have misconceptions about them. Sometimes they think their job is too small because it’s only for one room, or only for accessories. Or they may think the house has to be immaculate for Pridmore’s visit.
“Honestly? I don’t even see things like the pile of laundry on the floor, or the newspapers stacked on the table, I really don’t,” he says. “I’m looking at other things, like the lighting, the locations of electrical outlets, window placement, and the height of the ceilings. Going to the home is so much better than trying to work from blueprints or sketches. When I go to the home, I not only see the space first hand, I get insight into little details about the style and personality of my clients. That’s really crucial for me in the way I do interior design. My goal is to give the home a look that’s not my look, but the client’s look. House calls are the best way to accomplish that.”
