Sue Gartner. Photos: Chris Emeott
There’s more that goes into a turnkey experience than meets the eye.
The high point of most HGTV home shows is in the last few minutes. The mess and stress of remodeling is resolved, the music swells and the homeowners are welcomed back to a new, sparkling space that turns their design dreams into reality.
“I tell clients, ‘Delivery day from Crown is the only day that is anything like HGTV,’” says Brandi Hagen, owner and principal designer of Plymouth’s Eminent Interior Design. “Delivery day is super important to us, and that’s what Crown does. They make delivery day happen.”
Crown Warehouse and Delivery Service, Inc. is the 48,000-square-foot warehouse off Berkshire Lane in Plymouth that receives and delivers furniture for hundreds of interior designers across Minnesota and beyond. “It is a specialty that, unless you’re in the industry, you maybe didn’t know existed,” Hagen says. “But a good receiving warehouse, a white glove receiving warehouse for an interior design firm, is mandatory.”
“Part of being a warehouse is you have to be very organized, very lean, just make it super easy for all the employees to know the process.”—Sue Gartner, owner of Crown Warehouse and Delivery Service, Inc.
Crown has been operating out of Plymouth for the past 20 years, with current owner Sue Gartner taking over in 2020. “I, myself, am an interior designer,” Gartner says. She speculates that her background has made her more relatable to the hundreds of designers who use the space and services.
“On delivery day for an interior designer, I can relate to them,” Gartner says. “Delivery day is a scary process. It’s like, ‘… Is everything going to fit? Is it going to work out? Is it going to look good? Is it going to be okay?’ And so I think they understand that I know what they’re going through.”
A single room design can incorporate numerous vendors from all over the world. For this recent living room and kitchen project by Eminent Interior Design, everything from the curtains and lamps to the sofa and coffee table are new. Photos: Drew Gray Photography
But delivery day is just the culmination of Crown services. “We receive furniture in every day,” Gartner says. “And then we open it, inspect it, tag it and receive it into our warehousing program. Then we store it until the home is ready for it. Sometimes things come in at all different times, so a project could take up to a year—even longer—for everything to arrive.”
These behind-the-scenes services keep design projects running smoothly. Besides avoiding a chaotic, piecemeal approach for large projects, the team at Crown also intercepts any imperfections at the jump. Hagen estimates that someone from her team is at the Crown warehouse every couple of weeks inspecting a new arrival. If it’s not up to snuff, “We can either send it back to the manufacturer, or Sue can help us with who’s going to repair it to make it look great before the client sees it,” Hagen says.
When it’s time for the big day, Crown loads its deliveries into a truck and alerts the design team that it’s on the way. “Every day, we’re pulling product that’s going to be going out on a truck the next day,” Gartner says. “We deliver all over Minnesota and [to] outlying areas.”
Hagen says that sometimes, if it’s a smaller delivery, she’ll send a sketch of where it goes. “I trust the Crown guys to go into the home and to do it,” she says.
Photo: Chris Emeott
But, when the project requires additional attention, Hagen says the Eminent team also goes out to meet the delivery crew. “It’s the best part of my job, and it’s also the most nerve-wracking, right?” Hagen says, echoing Gartner’s sentiment. “The clients have been waiting for the furniture and waiting. You just want it to look exactly like they thought it was going to look.”
Every install is as specific and unique as every client—and every designer, for that matter. “We have all different kinds of designers,” Gartner says. “Sometimes people get stuff in and they want to just onesie-twosie it over to their client. Others want to wait until everything comes in and have the big moment.”
When the stars align, Crown delivers an as-seen-on-TV moment for Eminent and other designers. “We try to make sure [the homeowners] aren’t home. We send them out for dinner,” Hagen says.
Another view of Eminent Interior Design’s Orono living room and kitchen remodel.
Is Hagen on site for the initial client reaction? “It really depends on the client. Sometimes, I love being there and walking through with them, so they can see it all,” she says. “Sometimes, I just set it all up and walk out. They should see it for themselves. They don’t need me standing there watching them.”
Either way, Hagen finds delivery day rewarding. “I mean, that doesn’t always happen, right? There’s many projects where I deliver one thing at a time [because] the homeowner needs it or wants it or it’s late,” she says. But the grand reveal appeals just as much to this designer as it does to the HGTV audience. “I’m not interested in selling a client one piece of furniture,” Hagen says. “I’m interested in designing their room, and Crown helps us do that. I don’t know how to do it without them.”
Crown Warehouse and Delivery Service, Inc.
1000 Berkshire Lane N. Suite 8–11B
Facebook: Crown Warehouse & Delivery Service, Inc.
Instagram: @crown_warehouse_and_delivery
Eminent Interior Design
11140 Hwy 55 Suite C
Facebook: Eminent Interior Design
Instagram: @eminentinteriordesign
