Spotlight – Demystifying the D&D Building
Hey Lara... "What’s the Deal With The D&D building?”
Located on the upper east side of Manhattan, the Decoration & Design building, otherwise known as the D&D, is home to the leading high-end fabric, wallpaper, and trim brands in the world. It also showcases several high-end furniture, lighting, accessory, hardware, window treatment, and other beautiful home product showrooms. There are 18 floors, with each floor containing approximately 10 showrooms.
Many of the showrooms represent multiple different brands, so as you can imagine, it can get a bit overwhelming for the new visitor. There is a great bookstore on the lobby floor, called Assouline Books, which sells fantastic design, art & architecture books. If you love design, I highly recommend a visit to Assouline and yes, the public is welcome to peruse and shop in the bookstore.
Although the bookstore is open to the public, the showrooms in the rest of the D&D building are specially set up for interior designers and architects and therefore do not cater to the public, which is why it’s called “to the trade only." In order for the trade to shop in the showrooms, we must first fill out an application and open a trade account. The showrooms won’t do any business with anyone without opening an account first.
This doesn’t mean, however, that if you wander into a showroom they will call security and have you thrown out (lol!). Different showrooms have slightly different rules, but basically anyone can go into the showrooms and look around. You can get a sense of what the different company’s product style and look are, and see what their overall product lines include. That’s about all you’ll be able to do though. so unless you are with your designer, you won’t be able to get much more information. Occasionally, a showroom might give you a sample or a “tear sheet” on a product with a photo and measurements, but most likely they’ll say you need to contact your designer. If one of my clients wants to go to the D&D by themselves, I will alert my sales people in advance that they are indeed my client and assist them in looking/giving info about products. They still won’t give any pricing directly to the client, that will only go to the designers.
The great Assouline Bookstore is open to the public!
I have been shopping at the D&D for clients for over 20 years so I’ve become an expert on its layout, showroom product offerings, and have gotten to the know the major players intimately. I’ve seen several of it’s represented brands come and go through the years. I’ve also watched many of my favorite brands merge, evolve their product lines, expand, or go out of business. I’m familiar with most of the salespeople in many of the showrooms and have developed great working relationships with them. It’s become a second office in a sense for me, as I’m sure many of my fellow designers feel as well. With such a concentrated amount of the world’s best products in one building, there is no other place in the area like it. Through the years, I’ve carved out my favorite “go to” showrooms in the D&D and will be highlighting them in my upcoming posts, so stay tuned for those!
The question of whether to shop with clients or not at the D&D often comes up. Typically, I do most fabric, wallpaper, and trim shopping without my clients because I work so much faster alone. The sheer volume of options in the building is totally overwhelming to navigate for someone who is not an experienced interior designer. When I have to go through the fabric or wallpaper wings slowly with a client, and then explain why I think a certain fabric is appropriate or not, you can imagine how much that would slow down my selection process! Only if a client has a very specific item in mind for something and is capable of making decisions quickly and/or just wants to experience shopping at the D&D building, will I agree to shop with them there.
I hope you found this post insightful about the D&D building. Let me know what you thought in the comments section below and if you have any remaining questions!
Happy Designing!
2 Comments
The D&D seems like an interior designer’s dream – very interesting!
Appreciate the recommendation. Will try it out.