When you think of a place to find beautiful, quality and stylish pieces for the nursery or kids room, you can’t help but think of Incy Interiors.
Founded by Kristy Withers, after she couldn’t find a great ‘big boy bed’ for her son Oscar, the online store – along with a flagship store in Chatswood, NSW – has now firmly established itself as a leader in the children and baby furniture market. Defined by style, quality, functionality and a fair price, Incy Interiors stocks its own brand and a range of the top Australian furniture and decor brands for kids too.
Take a read of my interview with Kristy to find out about the highs and lows of running her own business and how she chooses what to stock in her beautifully curated store.
You have amazing taste when it comes to choosing products for your store! What criteria must products have for you to stock them?
I would love to be able to tell you that there was a really clever science to what we sell in our store. The reality is that we really just select products that we love from brands that we love. I know the people behind every brand we sell in our store, most of them are my friends and I completely buy into their store.
It sounds a little hippy but I just make a habit of surrounding myself with people and things I love.
Could you tell us a little about the process involved in creating your own products?
Once again there is no exact process to designing a new range. The process generally starts as a result of feedback we receive from our customers. For example right now our customers are telling us they want other pieces to match with their bed or cot so we are madly designing a new range to launch in October of lots of other pieces for the bedroom.
The inspiration for the range can come from anywhere. Our range we are designing at the moment was inspired by a trip to Palm Spring.
Once we have an idea for the range, it gets put into CAD and samples are made. Sometimes we get the sampling right the first time, other times it may take multiple rounds. After sampling we have the item tested by an external testing company. On approval we go into full production. If all goes to plan the entire process take about 5 or 6 months.
What has been the most challenging part about running your own business to date and why?
My biggest challenge was in the first 2 years when we had phenomenal growth, I had a newborn and we just didn’t have the processes or systems to handle it.
I really struggle with letting people down and I was working 80+ hours a week and constantly felt like I was letting everyone down and not providing the level of service I wanted to provide. We deliberately slowed down the growth and spent lots of time and money ensuring we were set up so we could scale the business.
Tell us about a couple of ‘wins’ that you are most proud of since starting your business?
My biggest pinch me moment was when Megan Morton approached us to do a collaboration. I was such a fan girl of hers and I really just couldn’t believe she would want to work with us.
Out of that collaboration so many other pinch me moments came about – being featured in Vogue Living and our beds in Country Road stores nationally.
What do you love about working with babies and kids furniture?
The thing I love the most is that we get to deal with our customers at such a special time in their lives. They are either welcoming a new member of the family or transitioning to a new phase in their lives and I feel so honoured that they are trusting us at such an important time.
What is your biggest dream and hope for your business?
Honestly, my biggest dream for the business would be to hand it down to my children one day. We have designed our products so that they can be handed down through the generations and I hope to be able to do the same with the business.
A big thanks to Kristy for her time – take a look at Incy Interiors here.
