Bringing Dreams to life – with creativity and KCD technology
Custom-built desk for a vendor at the High Point Furniture Market. In addition to custom residential work, Dream Closets also creates display work for commercial stores and the retail furniture market.
“Customers and closets are getting more sophisticated,” says Phill Hunt, Vice-President and Co-Owner of Dream Closets, Inc., in Sophia, North Carolina. “We used to carry seven or eight stock colors and now we can design in any texture or color. High gloss is just making its way into our market, along with contemporary and minimalist design.”
To help ensure that his closet designs meet the latest expectations of his customers, Hunt relies on both his own creativity and KCD Closet Design Professional. “KCD Software has kept up with the changes,” he states. “They partner with vendors like TAG Hardware. I can select the TAG products and make a design that’s specific to the client. I build a shelf with baskets below, two shelves above, cubbies, and boom!, I’ve got a multifunctional cabinet in detail. With other design software you’re limited as to what you can show and do. With KCD Closet Design Professional, I can create what the customer wants. That’s a sales tool for certain.”
Hunt explains that he and his partner Terry Farlow became closet designers almost by accident. They were involved in golf course design and construction when two of their projects were delayed simultaneously. With time on their hands, they decided to help a friend with a thriving closet design business. When their design and construction experience worked wonders in a whole new business area, Hunt and Farlow decided to start Dream Closets.
Custom Design
“We’re not a franchise, we’re the one and only,” Hunt declares. “We can send a design to a customer, make changes on the fly, and hammer out exactly what they want. Customers don’t have to wait for designs and price quotes.”
Dream Closets creates strong, durable, and beautiful storage solutions for closets, garages, pantries, laundry rooms, media rooms, and commercial spaces, including home businesses. Since 2003, the company has served the entire North Carolina region with custom designs.
One of the specialties of Dream Closets is to design for small and oddly shaped spaces. “We did a master closet installation in a space that was broken up into cubby holes, almost like several small closets, and had a sloped ceiling.” Here again, KCD Closet Design Professional was a great help. “It gave me the flexibility to draw what the space looked like to begin with and then to redesign it. We couldn’t do that with hand drawings.”
Precise Pricing
Hunt and Farlow also own their own manufacturing site, with two Biesse CNC machines, two edge banders, and a panel saw and have recently expanded with the intent to add a third CNC. That equipment enables Dream Closets to manufacture closets for other companies, and Hunt always recommends that they use KCD Software both for designs and for pricing.
“I have my personal KCD Professional set up with our pricing, and the other designers I work with set up their KCD Software to show both their own pricing and my wholesale pricing structure. It’s a big advantage for them. We can talk together and look at the design at the same time and they already know what the pricing will be.”
In addition to quickly creating dimensioned closet designs with floor plans, elevations, and 3D images, KCD Closet Design Professional generates detailed pricing, estimates, proposals, contracts, and both custom and standard cost reports.
Excellent Service
At one point, Hunt looked at competing design software, but he stayed with KCD because it was easier to learn and implement; included free online tutorials and updates; and had the flexibility he and his customers need. As Hunt explains, “When you get into custom storage, nothing is standard. Some software systems, when you say 173/8 inches wide, they freak out.” But not Design Professional. He adds, “If you have a problem, or the most mundane question, the KCD Software team will help you work it through.”
During its 15+ years of existence, Dream Closets Inc. has garnered a lot of accolades, not only from customers, but also from Houzz (2016 Best of Service and 2015 Best of Design). The company was featured in Closets & Organized Storage magazine, and Hunt himself is an invited presenter at the International Woodworking Fair. “We’re very fortunate,” Hunt states, “to be still moving forward.”
For more information about Dream Closets Inc., visit their website at www.dreamclosets.org or phone 336-861-1000. For more information about KCD Closet Design Professional, visit https://kcdsoftware.com/ or phone 508-760-1140.
