Periwinkle Lane

Sept. 14, 2005

Almost five years ago, Kathy Bradway was working for a company that was thinking about opening a business in Northern Michigan. That same company sent Bradway to the north country to scout out the area - and, of course, she did her job. Bradway’s scouting trip proved futile in the end - the company’s management changed their minds about establishing in Northern Michigan. But, for Kathy it was the beginning of a new venture - well, two new ventures, to be exact.
Following Bradway’s scouting trip and her company’s change of heart, she decided that she’d accumulated enough information to open a business in Northern Michigan herself, so she teamed up with a business partner and opened Kathy B. and Me, an interior design company.
“That... was just a disaster,” she chuckles today. After a mere six months, the partnership proved to be a bad choice, and Kathy B. and Me was gone, replaced with Periwinkle Lane Interiors, a business that Bradway quickly established in order to finish up with her Kathy B. and Me clients before leaving the interior design world entirely.
That was four years ago, and Periwinkle Lane Interiors is still in business.
Periwinkle Lane Interiors is now one of the busiest decorating firms in Northern Michigan. “We do full-service design,” Bradway explains, “and we do so all over Michigan. We’ve also recently been doing a lot of work in Florida, too. We start by extensively talking with our clients, and we put together a complete client book that maps out the whole interior design plan for their house.”
Working with the clients’ ideas Bradway and her employees -- known for their use of bright colors -- put together color schemes, furniture, lamps, artwork, and other accents. They have an in-house hand-painter, and a roster of people who offer custom furnishings, rugs, and chandeliers.
They also team up with Etc. Kitchen and Bath to make sure those areas of the home are well-decorated and coordinated with the rest of the design plan.
“We have a great retail department, too, mostly accents and accessories, and some furnishings,” Bradway enthuses. The company works with many high-profile clients in the area, and, in part due to their “bright colors” philosophy, have also recently begun working with various nursing homes and adult day care facilities, where they implement a “light, bright, happy” color scheme, as Bradway describes it.
“I learned my design skills from actually working,” she explains, “I worked for three other design businesses before establishing my own business, and I also did window displays for a while, so I got a lot of good experience with color and balance.”
Her customers must think that experience is a desirable commodity, because Periwinkle Lane doesn’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon. Bradway’s husband, Gary - who previously spent much of his time at their downstate home, where he’s a 4th grade teacher - has now taken a year off of teaching to help support his wife’s upstate business.
“In addition to the nursing home jobs, we’re also working on the new hospice up here,” Bradway points out, “and this fall, we’re planning on doing a development with a friend of mine who is an architect - it will be a series of small, whimsical cottages, maybe 12 or 15 to a development. Yes, we’re definitely busy.”

Periwinkle Lane Interiors is located near Cormack’s Deli at 2609 Charlevoix Avenue, between Charlevoix and Petoskey. They may be reached at 231-439-3234.