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Steinhafels Furniture is excited to partner with OnMilwaukee on unique content every month.  Our goal is to bring you articles that will keep you up-to-date on the latest style trends and also show you a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes of running a successful furniture store.

This month, we’re going to go behind the camera lens for a Steinhafels Decorating Solutions Before and After shoot. Our interior designers work hard on projects across the area – but what’s the point if no one gets to see them? We love when our clients allow us to showcase some of our designers’ most impressive projects. You can see them all online right HERE!

The shoot we are profiling today was at a home in Franklin, designed by Dawn Adamec. Adamec is one of our top designers and has been in the design business for more than 20 years. These shoots are carefully planned out by the designer and our photography team, led by talented in-house photographer Sarah Utech.   

In this particular instance, Adamec started from "scratch" and helped the homeowners pick everything from paint to pillows! The family of four had a vision, and Adamec explains it’s very important to take her clients’ specific needs and wants into consideration.

"Listening is so important. When I’m doing my design presentations to clients, I make sure I am repeating some of the points they made to me in the initial interview. I want to show them I was listening and value their opinions, and will utilize them."

Adamec has been a part of several Decorating Solutions Before and After shoots, and sees the value they provide to our customers. She explains, "They need to see what we’re capable of doing. Also, if a customer isn’t good at putting their vision into words or explaining what they want, they can reference our Decorating Solutions website and show us an idea of what they want by referencing past design projects."

A Decorating Solutions photo shoot is a very detailed process. Utech wants to make sure she is true to the design and brings the work to life in the way the designer imagined. Utech took us through the four main steps of a successful shoot.

1. Exploration

Walk around the house and check out the rooms that will be shot. Make sure to use any natural light in the best way possible.

2. Set up the camera shots and lighting equipment

Set these up in a way to best showcase the designer’s work!

3. Room shots and detail shots

We always get one big room shot, and then several detail shots to show off the various accessories and textures.

4. Editing

This is at least 60% of the process! It takes awhile to pick the best pictures and color correct them. 

Utech’s team also shoots all of the products you see on our webpage in-house at our Corporate Store and Warehouse – thanks to Steinhafels’ new state of the art video and photography studio. Utech explains, "I like these on-location shoots because I get to have a different approach every time, versus working in a studio setting. I also like to show off what the designers did."

In recent years, Steinhafels has worked hard to make our online presence more robust and compelling. Our Decorating Solutions Before and After pictures are just one small part of bringing the Steinhafels experience right to your computer screen or cell phone. 

From our growing social media platforms to our interactive website, we like to think that shopping with us is easier than ever! As Utech says, "I think it’s awesome to show customers what they’re getting. It’s hard to just believe a written testimonial; actually SEEING the space is testimonial itself. You can’t beat a picture."

Adamec hopes the growing photo gallery also helps to show consumers that design projects can range from the elaborate, to very simple. She explains customers on any budget can enjoy the pride of creating a home that is truly their own – at the fraction of the cost of a private design firm. 

Adamec adds, "If you break down our pricing structure, the more hours you buy, the less you pay. You get more bang for your buck. Also, time never expires, so if you don’t have the money to finish a design project at the present time, you can bank those hours for the future. We market to the majority. It gives people who are afraid to take the leap and hire a designer the courage to do it. There’s no budget too small."