Showroom to Showcase the Unusual

New York —Space Downtown is not a typical Chelsea showroom where visitors see the usual bed-in-a-bag samples and the latest basic towels.

Instead, in advance of the Spring New York Home Textiles Market, proprietors Abe Gurko and Susan Schultz have opened a showroom that features innovative designers across several home categories.

Gurko and Schultz teamed up for Space Downtown after working together in the industry for four years. Gurko was producing events in kitchen, bath, bedding and accessories, while Schultz worked in marketing and production for major home textiles manufacturers. She then went on to start a magazine, Loop, which focused on finding new talent in the design industry.

Gurko and Schultz met through these ventures which led to their launch of the annual Downtown Show at New York's Chelsea Hotel. Downtown, Gurko said, was a success and inspired the duo to open a showroom which featured designers that could not afford a space of their own.

“This space grew out of the show at the Chelsea,” Gurko said of the showroom. “There was a need for 'local space' for the designers that were not based in New York,” he stated.

Space Downtown offers room for each designer to have their collection displayed without being distracted by adjacent presentations. “We try to have people have the same sense of discovery that we have when we find these lines,” Schultz said.

Merchandise in the showroom represents a broad range of products.

Top-of-bed products with coordinating decorative pillows, illustrated hand-made rugs, and window sheers are among the home textiles shown. There are also bath and body products, porcelain and ceramic vases, bowls and plates, organic lighting and furnishings and decorative ambient lighting.

“Through extensive travel, we found people we really loved. It's a work in progress to find innovative designers,” said Gurko.

Schultz added, “We were looking for things that were not necessarily represented in the United States market where there is a lack of stylish, modern pieces.” The team scouts European shows for designers.

Don't expect to see the same products each time you visit Space Downtown. Schultz and Gurko change the merchandise often depending on new arrivals. Gurko likened the showroom to an incubator. “We help young designers think about where they need to go,” he said.

Quality is also a high priority for the proprietors of Space Downtown. “Customers expectations have risen, and it's a challenge to keep standards high and not price it out too high,” Schultz stated.

Gurko and Schultz are looking forward to the upcoming textiles market and are hoping to launch the careers of future top designers in the home textiles industry.

With new bedding collections having arrived in January and February, they are anticipating a positive response from the design community. “We are reaching out to the audience of the New York (Home) Textiles Market,” Gurko said.