The person
Eleven years and four thousand pieces
A stylist with a warehouse, which turns out to be the whole trick.
I own everything that goes into a house, which is why nothing here waits on a delivery date.
I started on catalog shoots, carrying other people's chairs up other people's stairs, and bought my first truckload at an estate auction in Duluth because a client needed a dining room by Friday. Eleven years later the warehouse holds four thousand pieces and I still buy at auction most months.
A house gets a scheme before anything comes off the truck. I walk it once with the agent, decide what each room is actually for, and then dress it so a buyer can picture a life instead of a floor plan. It is the same job as styling a shoot, except the camera is a phone in a stranger's hand and the deadline is a Saturday.
Marit Solheim, North Loop
What stands behind the work
The warehouse
Nine thousand square feet on Washington Avenue North
A brick bay, two trucks and a rack of paint decks nobody is allowed to reorder.
The crew
Three of us, two trucks
Small on purpose. The person who walks your house is the person who dresses it.
Marit Solheim
Stylist and owner
Buys everything, walks every house, and still irons the beds herself on install day
Teo Alvarado
Lead stylist
Runs the occupied restyles and the second truck, and keeps the pull lists honest
Ruth Ekwueme
Store manager
Counts, repairs and codes everything on the racks, and decides what comes back and what is written off
Right now
The board this month
What is booked, what is out on hire, and where I am buying.
Taking spring listings, two install weeks left in April
May and June are open. Occupied restyles can usually be fitted in the same week.
Spring listings, from the week of April 13
Editorial and catalog, one day a week
Thursday and Friday, 10 to 4
112 pieces across four houses
Duluth, the last Saturday of the month
The board is rewritten on the first Monday of the month, after the count.