The Style team

By Olivia Bloom

Tony Wallace has always loved to fish. At five years old the young angler got his first tackle box and when he wasn’t casting about for big walleye, he was organizing lures into the various compartments to keep things neat and attractive. Already he was practicing his lifelong passions of fishing—and organizing.

Many years later these organizational skills led to Store with Style, the Mentor, Ohio-based business which designs and builds kitchens, closets, garages, sewing rooms, media centers and more to help homeowners neatly store their stuff. Tony launched the company with his wife, Kathy, who also serves as an “interior design advisor,” matching dreamers to doers.

In addition to Tony, she’s attracted a dream team of local talent, including:

• Tracy Baker and Barbara Tortora are Sassy and Classy Designs. Barbara began designing as a young child. She’d ride her bicycle to the local candy store, return home, merchandise the products attractively and sell them at a profit. The aesthetic vision that sold candy has translated into fine floral and interior design.
• Deborah A. Stern not only designs kitchens, but guides homeowners through the entire process of selecting cabinets, flooring, colors, hardware and more.
• Kate Weaver, of Faux What?, uses her paintbrushes to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
• Karen Krauss has broad ranging expertise in everything from color consulting to space planning.

These designers found each other when they were creating the stunning interiors of the annual Lake County YMCA Dream House fundraiser, which is coming up again this summer. The Dream House highlights local designer talent and gives ticketholders both a tour and a chance to win the showcase home.

“We work so well together because we approach our clients and businesses in the same, customer-centric fashion,” says Kathy.

The team uses Store with Style as a full-time, state-of-the-art showroom and design center open to homeowners.

Affordable Customization
At Store with Style, visitors step up to a beautiful, Cambria quartz-topped island in a model kitchen showroom to discuss their plans and explore possibilities.

“Our goal is to maximize function while blending in aesthetics,” says Tony.

The results can be spacious cabinets that master carpenters (Wallace’s sons) have expertly finished with decorative baseboard and crown molding. A closer look reveals neatly mitered corners and other craftsman-like details.

“They’re much more than two guys with power tools,” he adds.

This is no do-it-yourself, plug-and-play, modular product. Tony launches a CAD program and builds a 3D draft.

“That makes it easy to feel like you’re in the room,” he says.

For example, one customer used the virtual tour to place cabinets in her sewing room. She had Tony move the cutting table closer to the sewing machine cabinet so she could simply rotate her chair between them.

Another customer wanted a surround for a double-sided fireplace. Lacking standard components, the Wallace sons—Adam, 30, and Aaron, 34—customized one for their needs.

“What customers envision, we can do given imagination, time and budget,” says Tony.

Among the creative but less common requests have been designing a pull-out gift wrap station, converting a closet into a bar, building a shoe pantry and creating a moving “bookcase-door” to hide a closet.

“If it’s something that needs storage and organization, there’s a high likelihood we can make it happen,” says Kathy. “We are also very proud of the fact that most all of the high-quality materials come from USA manufacturers.”

The Store with Style showroom is at 8250 Tyler Blvd. Suite E, Mentor, 440-974-8201, StoreWithStyle.net. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and by appointment.