Fleurish, which opened at 135 Main St. in Hamilton in 2017, was nominated in Home Accents category for the Midwest/Southwest region at the 31st annual ARTS Award. It faced competition from three of its peers: New Orleans-based Eclectic Home, Dallas-based Blue Print and Burr Park, Illinois-based The Design Bar.
MORE: 5 things to know about Fleurish Home, the coolest new shop in Hamilton
Presented each January during the Dallas Total Home & Gift Market, the ARTS Awards is the premier awards program in the nation, honoring the home industry’s top manufacturers, retailers, designers and sales representatives.
Fleurish Home co-owner Debra Campbell said "out of the hundreds of thousands of home decor shops just in our region alone, just being nominated is a huge honor."
Winning the award during a gala event at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas Jan. 10 was “an absolutely amazing experience,” Campbell said.
“I honestly didn’t think I would win,” she said. “The other stores are more established and all are very high-end designer boutiques. It feels amazing to be recognized for the hard work and dedication to excellence and innovation in this industry during a time where tremendous sweeping changes are happening continuously.
“I’m so proud to have brought this home for my team and my community.”
Nominations typically arrive in the dozens by those in the industry, then nominees are judged by a panel of five judges on several categories including visual merchandising, marketing, social media, community involvement, philanthropy, employee development and more, according to Sharon Davis, executive director for North Carolina-based ART.
Fleurish Home learned in August that it had had been nominated, but those nominations were not publicly announced until November.
MORE: Why Hamilton is the perfect location for this mother-and-daughter flower shop
Davis said it was not easy for for Fleurish Home to not only make it through the rigid and thorough nominating and vetting process to be a finalist, but also to win.
“I do remember one of the remarks that one of the judges put on the comments, which was that Fleurish was ‘a true merchant,’” Davis said. “ A lot of these stores have turned into studios and they’re basically not carrying any inventory. You walk in and you’re buying stuff but they have to order it for you, they don’t have it in the back. To have a store that does carry inventory and is a merchant and selling things in a traditional way is pretty extraordinary.”
Credit: Thomas Garza
Credit: Thomas Garza
Besides taking home an award statue, Fleurish Home will display official winner logos on its website, social media and elsewhere to celebrate its win.
The ARTS Award ceremony was hosted by fashion designer, style expert and New York Times best-selling author and Emmy-award winning TV personality Carson Kressley and Thom Filicia, an influential interior and product designer.
Fleurish Home's award-winning moment can be viewed here.
Dallas Market Center is a global business-to-business trade center and the leading wholesale marketplace in North America connecting retailers and interior designers with top manufacturers in home décor, furniture, gifts, lighting and fashion. Inside its 5 million square foot campus near downtown Dallas, nearly 200,000 customers from all 50 states and 85 countries seek industry trends, business education and new products via open-daily showrooms and from exhibitors participating in trade events held throughout the year.
MORE: Dozens camped out to help this Hamilton business celebrate its ‘grand re-opening’
About the Author
