Corner Studio grows out of three seniors' do-it-yourself experience with furniture
When three Brown seniors moved into their apartment at the beginning of the school year, it contained a hodgepodge of leftover furniture. After a trip to the local hardware store for paint and brushes, the roommates filled their apartment with colorful and funky pieces that sang out in bright colors with zany swirls, dots and checkerboard designs. Unlike the former tenants, they will not be leaving the furniture behind after they graduate this month — the pieces have become too valuable. Those pieces will likely grace storeroom floors as display items for the students’ new do-it-yourself home-decorating-kit business, a venture they started this year after their efforts to give their own living space a unique personality proved a success. "We realized how much fun we had and we wanted to make it fun for everyone," said senior Emily Levy. "What kept driving us was the interest of other people." Levy and roommates Julie Strongwater and Amy Kulak, also seniors, incorporated as Corner Studio in January. Their first home decorating kit, "Funky Furniture," is on the shelves of the Brown Bookstore on Thayer Street and Personally Yours in Wayland Square, and will soon be sold at Oop on Thayer Street and at Collage in Newport. Corner Studio kits are designed for people who are inartistic, which is how the three women describe themselves. None of them studied art at Brown: Strongwater concentrated in political science; Levy in economics; and Kulak in biology. The kit allows the user to decorate two to three pieces of furniture. It includes an instruction booklet with design ideas, tubes of acrylic paint, brushes, stamps, stencils, a palette, sandpaper, a dropcloth, and bandanas to hold your hair off your face. It sells for $39.95. "We wanted to make it easy and affordable enough for everyone," said Strongwater. "But even if you buy the same kit, each piece of furniture will look different." Added Kulak: "The colors are so bright, you can’t mess up." A favorite room of their own apartment houses a red and black cow-printed shelf and a desk freckled with their footprints. Seating includes stools decorated with swirls, and a rocking chair in bright yellow with purple stars and squiggles. The coffeetable features a patchwork look, with each patch containing a different design. The three have come a long way since the early fall weekend they stepped in paint and left their tracks on the top of their desk — the first piece of furniture they decorated. After "Funky Furniture" they plan to market kits called "Cool Kitchenware," "Beautiful Bathrooms," "Trendy Tables" and "Fabulous Frames." A week before the three collect their diplomas, they’ll be on Thayer Street decorating furniture to promote their product. They plan to be in front of Oop on May 20. After graduation, the business partners have lined up warehouse space in New York and plan to hire some part-time workers to assemble the kits. At they same time they manage Corner Studio, they have separate career plans. Strongwater will soon start working as a business analyst for Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide; Levy, as an analyst at an investment banking firm; and Kulak will continue looking for opportunities in such areas as bioresearch. The trio met as freshmen, but did not become good friends until last year when, as juniors, they all studied in Australia. The apartment they moved into together marked the fifth location each had lived during their years at Brown, and they wanted it to reflect their own personalities. Now, the furniture they decorated will serve as tools for their business.
Julie Strongwater, Emily Levy and Amy Kulak (from left) are partners in Corner Studio, Inc., a home-decorating-kit business that spun out of their enjoyment in decorating their own apartment. (Kristen Cole photo)