AQUA RESOURCES: SO MUCH SPACE, SO LITTLE TIME!

When Aqua Resources Group, a marketing company in Irvine, California, contacted Cantoni Irvine, they had in mind a project that would get any designer pumped: a complete interior design plan plus the furnishings for Aqua’s new digs: a 20,000 square- foot building. They wanted a turnkey design and they wanted it done in two weeks! Yikes.

With time not on their side, two of our top Design Consultants, Gold winners Lauren Hauser and Courtney Hyde, hit the ground running. “Aqua Resources had a vision, “ says Lauren. “They wanted people to walk in and think: ‘this looks like a cool place to work.’ Courtney and I decided that we’d use bright colors and organic shapes to contrast with the industrial feel of the architecture.”

With their extensive experience in space planning and color selection and with the all-important readily available Cantoni merchandise, the designers burned the midnight oil and completed the project on time and within the client’s budget.

Courtney: “Cantoni’s collections are just made for this bold project. For example: for the main reception area we chose Rick Lee’s Menlo Park sectional in black leather and matching bookcases. We added a trio of our fantastic Shakti floor lamps, and a custom-designed Fourteen Round rug. Elsewhere we used Lee’s Lowy sectional, and his Cellular tables and our popular Wesley bench.”

Lauren: “The end result was well worth the extra hours and (wo)man power! I can’t think of another store that would have the merchandise in stock, the design creativity or the customer service resources that Cantoni has.”

Lauren and Courtney: The Girls From Syracuse

Lauren Hauser and Courtney Hyde, the Cantoni Irvine Design Consultants who carried out the Aqua Resources Group project with such panache and under such a tight deadline, are remarkable young women and we are proud to have them aboard. Both are current winners of our coveted (and well-earned) 2005 Cantoni Gold awards (honoring sales excellence) and both have a number of outstanding projects in their respective portfolios. This is their first major collaboration.

What’s more, both Lauren and Courtney are graduates of the outstanding interior design school at Syracuse University in upstate New York and both are easterners (Lauren Vermont, Courtney New Jersey) who struck out for the blissful weather, beaches and laid back style of Southern California.

“I really enjoyed working with Courtney on this project.” says Lauren. “Not only are two heads better than one, but enthusiasm is contagious and we definitely kept each other motivated. And I know our clients loved having two people to bounce their ideas off of.”