Michelle Blunk brings together things that excite her ‘Within’

Michelle Blunk’s life work is all wrapped up in space — whether it is designing it, reinventing it or helping to fill it up. An interior designer for some 20 years, the Bettendorf woman’s passion and profession have focused on improving her clients’ spaces. She has designed places where they live, work and play including […]

Michelle Blunk’s life work is all wrapped up in space — whether it is designing it, reinventing it or helping to fill it up. An interior designer for some 20 years, the Bettendorf woman’s passion and profession have focused on improving her clients’ spaces. She has designed places where they live, work and play including homes, additions, workplaces, commercial spaces and more.  But in her latest project, Ms. Blunk has transformed her own business’ footprint — Conceptual Designs Inc. — bringing together all her family of companies — into an expanded storefront in downtown Bettendorf.  “I’m so happy to come here,” she said smiling as she glanced over the newly renovated space that contains, among other businesses, her Within by Conceptual Designs retail store. 

Within features various room vignettes that showcase the product lines, styles and accessories clients can choose. Hightop work tables provide ample space for customers to consider their room designs, furnishings, textiles choices, draperies and blinds, and much more.   Located at 1729-1737 State St., the sprawling space now occupies three storefronts in The River’s Edge complex. The latest addition included Within’s expansion and renovation of the former Riverside Grille, which moved to its new location near K&K Hardware.  Now co-located under one roof, is Conceptual Designs Inc. (the parent company’s name and a standalone commercial design service company), Within and Once Again Furniture & Accessories. As part of the transformation, Ms. Blunk has blended two former Quad Cities businesses — Interiors by the Sewing Room and State Street Interiors — that she bought previously into Within.   When Ms. Blunk describes her company structure, you’re reminded of twists and turns in the family tree of a blended family. It all began in 2004 when she launched Conceptual Designs Inc. to offer commercial design services. Ms. Blunk first struck out on her own — from her home — 18 years ago after doing architectural design for Shive Hattery. While her commercial design business grew, she realized that other architects and even furniture companies in the area were viewing her as competition. “It was a constant education process of all we had to deal with,” she recalled. “I saw all the opportunities we were missing by just having interior design services.” So her solution was to also sell — and in some cases produce — the products they were incorporating in clients’ designs. She remembers thinking “We’ve got pretty things but we were giving (business) to others to buy it.” Her strategy began with her 2013 purchase of the Interiors by the Sewing Room business and building in downtown East Moline. She bought it from the longtime owner Claretta McArtor after Ms. McArtor’s husband with whom she had run the business for 35 years died.  Back then, Ms. Blunk also moved her home business to downtown Bettendorf in the Alter Building and wanted to bring the two together. So the drapery business moved its production to Bettendorf.  About the same time, someone planted the idea that she should buy State Street Interiors, Bettendorf, which like the Sewing Room, was a well established, respected business with a strong following. In 2017, she purchased it from Marie Johnson, who died in December at the age of 83. Ms. Blunk’s admiration for these two strong women — both business owners for decades — is evident as she talks about how she balanced the need to modernize those businesses with her desire to carry on their traditions and legacies. “This was one more business (State Street Interiors) by an older woman who had worked her entire life to build,” she said. 

Also in 2017, she jumped at the opportunity to purchase Once Again Furniture, then located along Interstate 74 in Bettendorf, from Amanda Keppy. After buying the high-end consignment furniture business, she relocated it into her empty drapery workshop in East Moline — leaving it to her husband Bob to operate. “I told him ‘You’re going to run it, you’re going to buy it and someday I’ll take it back,’” she recalled.  After recognizing she had three of everything (for the Sewing Room, Conceptual Designs and Once Again) from websites to storefronts, staff and bookkeeping systems, she decided in 2018 it was time to launch Within as a division of Conceptual Designs. In 2019, she bought her first condominium commercial space in River’s Edge to house Commercial Designs Inc. and roll out the Within name. She has since purchased three of the commercial center’s storefronts including the former Automated Lifestyles in 2019 and last year’s purchase of Riverside.   Also last year, she realized Once Again’s move to East Moline saw a loss of its Iowa customers, so she opened a second Once Again in downtown Bettendorf, next to Within. Besides the numerous room displays, her new expanded store now offers easy access to a library of samples of draperies and upholstery fabrics, spacious work spaces where customers can work with a designer, and actual furniture samples and accessories right on the sales floor that can be customized to their personal style.  “No one is sad that comes here,” she said of her customers. “They’re all excited when they come in here.”   The purchase of Riverside’s condominium commercial space also gave Ms. Blunk new spacious room for storage and deliveries — there’s a full basement complete with docks and back doors that runs under her stores — as well as a workroom for making custom drapes and upholstering new furniture.  “It’s a cliche, but we’re a one-stop shop for anything interior,” she said as she walked through the spacious new showroom. “I want to be the place to go for anything you need in your house or business — anything interior.” Within employs a staff of five including interior designers, a seamstress (a role temporarily being filled by her 24-year-old daughter Cameron) and an accountant. The Blunks also have a son Carter, who lives in Kansas City, and a daughter Cara, a student at Iowa State University.  While legally Conceptual Designs remains the parent company, she wanted a name that sounded more residential. After putting up a selection of potential names on a board, “the Within name just stuck,” she said.  Pulling her hand to her heart, Ms. Blunk said “It’s all the stuff within here (in me). That’s the things that excite me.”