10 SMALL BUSINESSES

10 DESIGNERS

10 MAKEOVERS

10 DAYS

MAIN ST MAKEOVER

Preuss Pets 1127 N. Cedar St.

My name is Michael. I'm a decorator for IKEA.

I've been assigned to redecorate Preuss Pets.

Hi, I'm Rick Preuss from Preuss Pets in Old Town Lansing.

Preuss is like a paradise. Their store is total fantasy.

I've never been in a pet store like that.

We're a small Ma-and-Pa pet shop that's grown big.

Now we're able to do the same thing as the small Ma-and-Pa pet shops but in a very big way. In each of the departments we have pets.

In the bird department my wife has the store mascot.

It's the hyacinth macaw, and his name is Alejandro.

In the fish department you have peculiar and strange animals you wouldn't find anywhere else.

In the reptile room we have a savanna monitor that is 2.5 - 3 feet long.

He is a meat eater.

The best thing about being in business for ourselves is that our family can be on top of making sure that the store and its principles and values go down the path we want it to go.

A constant theme is educating people about how to be responsible and helping customers become successful with their pets.

It's about pets, but more about people and the value of pets to their lives.

PLANNING THE MAKEOVER November 2007

Hello! Nice to see you again.

This is Michael.

The store is incredible. There's a river flowing by.

And bridges and turtles.

But the back areas have maybe been neglected a bit.

So I thought that was where we could help them the most.

You have an enormous, wonderful character. It's like paradise there.

Now our job is to continue that to other areas that have been given a low priority until now.

We want to fix this office for the administrator, manager and maintenance guys. And then splash in some green or orange to continue the island look that the rest of the store has.

Then there's your break room.

I want to do something nice for all the fabulous people working here.

This is the employees' lunchroom, which was a complete disaster.

- No one would eat in there.

- They go to the parking lot.

There's a few places that they scatter to. It's not always that inviting.

- We'll try to make it more attractive.

- And brighter. That'd be fantastic.

I thought of something energizing and sunny.

So as yellow as you possibly dare to go.

A new fridge and some simple kitchen furniture.

A nice table and some bright green chairs.

- That's fantastic.

- You like it?

I'm all for happy and bright. The enthusiasm it shows is fantastic.

I have to rush to the next business. But Michael will plan the details with you for a few hours.

Bye.

Michael is a good listener and is good at communicating.

And keeping a dialog with the customer.

I could trust his process with the Preuss family very much.

And they trusted him.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. It's great.

- It's been fun.

- We're going to have fun with it.

THE MAKEOVER January 2008

We decided, after talking with the owners of Preuss Pets and Mats that we would remodel the office space and the break room.

The main challenge of the office and break room, which are similar ...

They're very small spaces, and they have to be very well organized because many people use them.

The bookkeeper was having issues with the ten service people.

Their work was spilling over onto her desk.

They don't have enough space. Others use the office when I'm not here.

What we needed was to have each person, bookkeeper, service people office manager have their own space.

And everything that they're dealing with be right there.

They shouldn't have to run all over. It's key to break it down.

What are the different functions that go on within this office?

They're painting right now. They're priming the walls and woodwork to be finish-coated. The walls will be aqua blue.

The trim will be green with a semi-gloss paint.

Do you like my makeshift paint tray? We could bake cookies or paint a wall.

It took longer than I anticipated. And it was due to the painting.

We're waiting for the painting.

It's always nerve-wracking at a certain point.

It looks like it's been primed, but not completely primed.

They still have to do the molding around the windows.

But they did a decent job.

We had some issues with painting.

It's still early.

But it was solved in that quite a few guys came and painted it all in one day, so it all worked out.

So the trim is going to be second-coated.

And then we'll move the furniture in. It should fall together really quickly.

- Hi, Michael.

- Mats is really good.

He's the trained eye. The eyes watching what you're doing.

Is it too tight to open that filing cabinet over there?

He gave you the space you needed to work.

If he sees something that could be improved, he'll mention it.

Like the sea horses in the office. Just adding the orange.

It'll be nice, Mats.

He's a director. You couldn't ask for more.

The people in the office said there was a lot more desk space but the office seems bigger. More workspace and storage space.

- Yet the office seems much larger.

- More functional, more spacious.

- And more beautiful.

- Aesthetically it's great.

It came out great.

The other room was the break room. Totally windowless and a small cubicle inside this huge building. So we decided to paint that a bright sun ... The sunroom we called it.

We gave them a kitchenette, a new fridge and some chairs.

So they can have lunch inside instead of in the parking lot.

This is the break room. They've started painting it.

The yellow walls, the green trim and they've started on the orange doors.

Rick and Debbie have a real love for the Caribbean.

And Caribbean colors, as you can see in their store.

A lot of bright colors. Intense, marine colors.

We carried that through to the office and the break room.

The break room has two finishes. Stainless steel and white.

We chose a white fridge because it would brighten things up.

It's a very small space. So we thought the brighter the fixtures are ... Refrigerator, tables, cabinetry will all be white and brighter and make the room seem bigger.

Make sure he doesn't hang them too high. Two feet above the table.

No higher. Because you want to create a little bit of intimacy.

It's like a campfire. You don't want it to be up here.

The break room came out great. The whole vision pulled together.

And Mats realized that when he walked in. Hi, Mats.

- They moved in already.

- Yeah.

Although the office size is the same, there's a lot more workspace and storage space. It makes everybody's life easier.

I'm so glad we had an office where we managed to ...

... to use the versatility of our desks in this way.

It's a beauty.

On our budget, to be able to do something that solved two, three, four, five functional needs in one office space in such an elegant way, I think that's pretty much IKEA.

These are the storage lockers for all the service guys.

- They have plenty of storage space.

- Can we look at the break room?

- It came out beautifully.

- Energizing.

- The employees really love it.

- Cool. You found an IKEA picture?

It's a Caribbean scene. They love that theme.

All the plumbing is hooked up. There's a nice light over the sink.

- The fridge is working, functioning.

- Thank you so much.

- Rick said he was ecstatic.

- Rick loves it.

- Thanks a lot.

- Thank you.

Before

After

Before

By adding functionality and organization and better aesthetics we created at better life at work for Preuss Pets.

I know they're really pleased.

The aquarium technicians work hard, and then they can come in here and have this bright, sunny, friendly, IKEA makeover project.

It's fantastic.

IKEA BUSINESS A better life at work