<b>Short bio: </b>
Alexandria has been home for 20 years. I grew up in a small town in Indiana and after college took a pilot job with World Airways at Dulles and decided to stay in Old Town.
<b>Why did you choose this particular business? </b>
Enjoy meeting people and bring the creative side out of our customers. Patrick and I have been doing Interior Design for the past 20 years in the metro D.C. area and enjoy working with corporations to redoing a single room working with all types of different budgets.
<b>Why did you choose to work for yourself rather than as an employee for someone else? </b>
I decided to make customer service the most important thing in our business, saw the need for quality products with great customer service, knew I could do a better job than the big box stores and risk everything I owned to make Patrick's become a reality and so far, so good.
<b>What have you learned from being in business? </b>
Impossible to very difficult to get a loan to start a new business. Even with a solid business plan.
<b>Share an anecdote of a challenging or humorous experience or biggest surprise learned from working your business. </b>
We see more men purchasing the bedding than the women. I think it has something to do with the feel and that we have six rooms with beds completely made coordinating with the color of the room.
<b>Key staff: </b>
Patrick Dempsey - designer/imagineer
<b>Description of services and/or product: </b>
Quality products for every budget including fabrics, linens and silks from Italy, along with complete decor items for the home with incredible tabletop from all over the world. In store products we carry include Hermes of Paris, Faberge's, Herend, Nicholas Moss, Bernardaud, Rosenthal, Versace, Moser, Staint Louis, Puiforcat, Sambonet, Royal Copenhagen, Match, L'objet, Lynn Chase, Mottahedeh, Jay Strongwater, Picard, Vietri, Niderviller, Ercuis, Juliska, Hickory Chair, Somerset Bay, Yorkshire House, Modern History, Kindel, Karges, Anichini, Scandia Down, DEA, Nancy Koltes, Ann Gish, Anali, Eyves Delorme, Signoria, Schlosberg, Bonjour, S*D*H Abyss Habidecor, KAS Rugs, Dempsey & Carroll DL & Company, Dayna Decker, Rigaud and many other great companies.