Procurement and Purchasing

r.o.i. Design: The Experts in Contract Furniture Styling

by Rayanne Rzepka | Feb 28, 2023 | Branding, Procurement and Purchasing

Recently, we have been posting blog articles about our expertise in contract furniture, regarding comfort and maintenance; Comfortable Seating and Durable Casegoods.

Our contract furniture customers are interested in how we can provide style and durability and our manufacturers are responding.

Our customers are furnishing lobbies, hotel rooms, break rooms, and a variety of lounges in corporate spaces. They are looking for a “hospitality/residential” look with the added advantage of durability that commercial furniture provides.

The industry is calling this style resi-mercial, which means creating homelike environments – where we truly enjoy spending time.

Corporate environments continue to work towards bringing employees back to the office in order to build teamwork and team culture, and the current strategy is to create home-like settings to support that. Those settings also require a sensitivity to lighting and finishes, but the tactile experience of furniture is very important.

So, resi-mercial today borrows from the current residential trends that include a combination of modern, Scandinavian, mid-century modern, mission style, Art Deco, Victorian, contemporary, and industrial, just to name a few. These popular furniture styles are those that people have used and loved long after they were first created.

Durable Casegoods: r.o.i. Design Expert Advice

by Rayanne Rzepka | Dec 14, 2022 | Procurement and Purchasing

r.o.i. Design has been supplying their clients with furnishings for more than 20 years and the need for durability in casegoods (tables, storage units, non-seating furniture) is a budgetary and maintenance must. Buying a casegood for your commercial or hospitality use should last more than 10 years.

Many of our clients have opted to buy residential-grade furnishings based on their sense of price and value. We have several examples when these same clients called after 18 months, saying they need to replace the furniture because of poor wear, the inability to maintain, or general breakdown.

Contract furniture has these qualities that many residential furniture pieces lack:

Frame Construction: The base frame is hardwood or steel, with fewer pieces and joints. Joints in the frame are reinforced. Non-exposed surfaces are fully finished/sealed.
Maintainable Tops: Many contract grade casegoods offer laminate top options, versus wood veneer. In many cases, stone and resin tops are also available. These are more durable finishes that permit typical cleaning using non-caustic cleaners.
Internal Hardware: Hinges, drawer glides, and feet glides all are tougher than residential grade.
Warranties: Most contract casegoods are sold through qualified distributors who can advocate with the manufacturers when issues arise. Most contract manufacturers offer a 1-year warranty on frame and construction issues.

r.o.i. Design supports all our local and regional office furniture providers. We have been engaged with clients to provide more “residential in feel” furnishings for lobbies, lounges, and break rooms.

When we are asked to procure furniture for other spaces in a project, we use two local manufacturers or work with a local office furniture provider.

Let us know if we can help you with your furniture procurement.

BDNY 2022

by Rayanne Rzepka | Dec 14, 2022 | Design News, Procurement and Purchasing

Scroll down to see photos from our visit.

Boutique Design New York (BDNY) is the leading trade fair and conference for the hospitality industry’s boutique and lifestyle design community.

This November, r.o.i. Design attended the BDNY conference in New York looking for the latest ideas for the hospitality “touch” to share with our customers and include in our designs.

We weren’t disappointed.

This 24-hour excursion was a 12,000-step adventure with two red-eye flights. We met with our current furniture distributors, renewed the relationship with inactive furniture distributors, and created relationships with new furniture manufacturers. We saw the latest in wall finishes, wall décor, and decorative lighting.

We are pleased that we already knew and are engaged with many of the manufacturers of finishes and furniture (thank you to our product representatives) and look forward to including our new learning in our designs going forward.

Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge photos from our visit.

Grass Lake Pediatric Dentistry Opens New Office

by Rayanne Rzepka | Aug 30, 2022 | Interior Design, Medical Design, Procurement and Purchasing

When Dave Bordewyk of DGB Health Care Construction met with Dr. Melissa Potacki in January of 2022, he discovered she was looking for a more hands-on experience with materials, so he reached out to us for help.

r.o.i. Designer Megan Hoekzema met with Dr. Potacki, Dave, and contractor Tom Buchanan from Kasco and made a game plan for the interiors.

Megan provided samples and support so that Dr. Potacki felt confident in what her space would look like.

Key interior elements of the space include a stone wall with the business’ logo as you enter the space, a fun graphic wallcovering on the front of the reception desk, blue fan-shaped backsplash tile by the brushing station, and luxury vinyl plank throughout the walkways and treatment rooms.

r.o.i. Design also made selections for and procured their new lobby furnishings. As of May 2022, the new interior build-out is complete.

For more information about Grass Lake Pediatric Dentistry, go to their website: https://www.grasslakepdandortho.com/

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images.

Greenville Area Community Foundation Moves to New Remodeled Offices

by Rayanne Rzepka | Jun 15, 2022 | Design News, Interior Design, Meeting and Conference, Procurement and Purchasing, Workplace Design

Our friend Dean Clement at West Michigan Office Interiors introduced us to Alison Barberi, President and CEO of the Greenville Area Community Foundation (GACF). They were in the process of swapping offices with Southwestern Oil Co. They needed more space and Southwestern Oil needed less. Southwestern Oil had been at its location for more than 30 years, and most of the space had not been upgraded for decades. The swap was a generous gesture, offering GACF opportunities to expand and upgrade. We were engaged as interior designers supporting the efforts of their contractor, KASCO, and furniture provider, WMOI.

We were able to work with the GACF team to upgrade lighting and finishes. We worked with KASCO to make the entry and restrooms A.D.A. compliant. We recognized the mid-century style of the building and its details and worked to make the new design work with the building’s architecture.

Preserving the interior doors and trim, which were dark oak, we kept the new finishes light and added accents to the new carpeting and wall finishes. In the restrooms, the plumbing fixtures and lighting were completely updated. GACF brought with them their quality artwork and furnishings.

While the construction process revealed some issues, none of them minimized the outcome.

We celebrate the work of the GACF and learned a great deal about their impact and efforts in the Greater Greenville Area.

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images.

The Gignac Lounge at Dooge Veneers

by Rayanne Rzepka | Jun 15, 2022 | Design News, Interior Design, Meeting and Conference, Procurement and Purchasing

r.o.i. Design has been honored to be the designer for Dooge Veneers for many years. We have seen the office expand three times, and watch them grow in staff, services, and veneer options.

Most recently we worked with them to create a couple of offices from a conference room and convert an office to a soft seating meeting area. That office used to be Hank Gignac’s office. Hank passed away from COVID, one of the first 50 in Kent Count in 2020. Hank was a tremendous leader and a gracious person, and Dooge Veneers wanted to create a room in his honor.

In that room is a large coffee table made from a walnut slab, something Hank always wanted, and the original veneer on the wall remains. We furnished the room with comfy chairs around the new coffee table. The room has a great view of all the birds outside the window that gather at the feeders that Hank placed there.

We acknowledge and thank Wolverine Building Group for their work remodeling the space.

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images.