BillingsGazette.com :: Davidson Design looks across street to future

BillingsGazette.com :: Davidson Design looks across street to future: "Davidson Design looks across street to future
By DANA MOSS PULIS
For The Gazette

Even outside the remodeling project going on at the old City Brew location at 2228 Grand Ave., something indicated it wasn't your typical remodeling.

An Oriental rug lay across the entrance for people to wipe their feet on before entering the construction zone. Another Oriental rug being used to catch stray paint was sprawled across a work bench.

Only a design and decorating company could get away with that.

"Oh, just our old Oriental rug samples," said Pat Davidson, owner of Davidson Design at 2223 Grand Ave. Nonetheless, most businesses would consider it a treat to have rugs adorning their floors after the construction was over. Davidson Design is used to having such accessories around. The 18-year-old business is making a whopping move this month, all the way across the street from its current location. The buildings are so close that Davidson joked it would be easier to set the business's possessions on a roller and slide it across Grand Avenue in the wee hours of a trafficless morning.

"We might just do it," she said.

For the past two years, Davidson Design has looked for a new building. The business had outgrown the current 4,000-square-foot space, but finding and constructing a new building proved to be difficult and time-consuming, Davidson said.

When City Brew moved out of the space, Davidson was ecstatic about the idea of staying in the area and moving just across the street.

"One of the things we did right at first was to place our store initially on the West End," she said. "It is very accessible." And, she said, clients won't have to drive to a new area of town after the move.

"We got excited that the addresses were so close. Instead of being at 2223 (Grand Ave.), we are at 2228," Davidson said. "And we can just make the 3 an 8 until all our business cards are gone. We get a good chuckle over that one."

The business is a multigenerational operation, with Davidson's daughter, Tiffany, working with her mother for the past 14 years. Davidson also has her grandchildren helping her from time to time on various projects.

"We like the two-generation thing going in that we have a great team," she said. "We like to work together on projects."

Both mother and daughter were amazed to find beautiful original maple wood floors at the building and a cedar tongue-and-groove ceiling. At one point in its history, the building was Skate Land, and skaters flew across the wood floors. Davidson had them restored to a beautiful luster.

The new space brings an additional 2,000 square feet and will be used to showcase more furniture on-site, as well as to house a mega-resource center with samples of fabrics, tapestries, wall coverings and colors.

On a bittersweet note, one room, called "Dara's Closet Distinctive Accessories Really Awesome," is named after a beloved employee who was killed not too long ago in a car accident.

Davidson Design hopes to open the new location around mid- to late March. The design team planned its own architecture. Carpenter Construction provided the contracting, and First Interstate Bank provided the financing."