If
there were a prize for turning an empty 970-square-foot commercial
space into a cozy, old-world flower shop in 60 days with less than
$10,000, Lisa Friedlander would easily take that award to her
Provence-influenced shop in Southbury, Conn.

But until there’s a prize for fast, furious and fabulously
French redesigns, Friedlander and her co-designer, Christopher
Isaacson, will have to just celebrate their shop, Floré, being named being a finalist in Gifts&Decorative Accessories magazine’s 58th Annual Retailer Excellence Awards
for shop design in the under $1 million category. The flower shop, the
only florist in the crop of finalists, will find out if it bested a fine-bedding retailer in La Jolla, Calif., when the winners are announced Aug. 16.

“In these challenging times it’s difficult enough just
managing, let alone growing your business,” said Caroline Kennedy,
editor-in-chief of Gifts & Decorative Accessories. “But to plan and
execute a great new store design is an achievement truly worthy of
recognition.”

Floré opened in April after protracted lease negotiations gave
the duo just two months to carve out a cozy shop from the sterile empty
shell. They had no wiggle room with the timing or the budget,
Friedlander said, but did have experience in delivering dramatic
results on tight deadlines with limited resources. Both are former
interior designers and their thrifty scavenging helped lend their
brand-spanking new empty box some centuries-old charm.

Once the shop was theirs, they hit Craigslist.com,
where they found a $3,000 cooler, their most expensive purchase. Trips
to salvage yards, consignment stores, and used furniture shops yielded
old French doors, antique shoe racks, a pre-Civil War farmer’s table
and a hutch.

“Being designers, Chris and I know how to think creatively,
see things that other people had thrown away and new uses for materials
that you’d find at the hardware store,” Friedlander said. For example,
they used hydrochloric acid on the concrete foundation to create a faux
weathered-stone look, a trick that saved money on flooring.

Although giddy and honored to be named a finalist, Friedlander
said she knew the redesign was a winner as soon as she heard customers’
reactions: “I feel like I’ve stepped into Provence.” “I’ve got to tell
my friends about this place, it’s such an escape.” And her favorite: “I
feel like I have to buy something.”

Try this:

• Put Craigslist on your shopping list. People post all kinds
  of things they want to sell on the site — so you could find
  merchandising materials, an old bike to put outside the shop or, heck,
  even a cooler.
  
  
  


• You may already hunt the aisles of your local consignment stores for your shop’s props, but be sure to check out Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores,
  as well. They sell donated building materials, home goods and décor,
  both new and gently used, for 50 percent to 90 percent off retail
  prices.