Stone Business Veterans Seek To Innovate With Dallas Showroom
Longtime Dallas stone business veterans Margarita and Francisco Acosta, who own Stone Boutique in the Dallas Design District, have 30 years of experience in the industry and now offer a new proprietary software system that allows customers to see a rendering of their products in their job.
“We invented a proprietary software system that we recently got a patent on where we do the whole process in a digital way, where you are coming to our showroom…and we allow you to sort all of our inventory,” Francisco said. “Every single item, product, that we have is available to be viewed in detail, alongside any other product, in any position that you want to see it. And then, what we do is we do a rendering while you’re there, we can do a rendering of your job, of your house, and overlay the selections that you have made into your particular job.
He added that they enjoy working on contemporary designs of late.
“We really like working with designers that are very creative and have a different style that (isn’t) cookie cutter,” Francisco said. “Right now, there’s a lot of contemporary looks that we really enjoy doing. Minimalistic with some very clean lines and clean designs, and we like to do that kind of work.”
People Newspapers: Do you have a favorite project in the Park Cities or Preston Hollow neighborhoods?
Francisco: We recently also just finished a big home in Preston Hollow. It was a big remodel home, and we also used about 14 different types of stones in the job…these customers that we deal with are looking for something special. They want to have something that is unique, that has (an) incredible look.
People Newspapers: Is there a particular stone that you guys like to incorporate in home design that people may not think of off the top of their heads?
Francisco: We have about a couple hundred different stones that you can purchase. People sometimes come here with an idea because they have seen something that they like and then, when we start showing them more products, they start opening their eyes. They realize that there’s a lot more choices out there than what they originally thought there were. Because we’re able to reproduce or replicate how the area would look using a certain stone, the clients are not really having to have this visual capacity to say, ‘I’m looking at this slab in a horizontal way or a vertical way and I’m going to put it in my fireplace…I cannot really see that.’ Well, we are able to show them all that with our system, and that takes away all the uncertainty.
People Newspapers: Are there trends you guys are seeing in terms of interior design?
Francisco: Well, you know, we have been in a 10 year run, a 15 year run on whites…but we see that some colors are coming into play that were not actively looked for before. There’s an increase, I think, in demand for green…I also see some pink, I also see some gray, and darker colors–black and dark grays are also coming back.
People Newspapers: Is there something that makes Dallas a particularly good place to be for interior designers?
Francisco: Dallas has a phenomenal community of interior designers with some incredibly talented designers that we love working with. We do some work here in Dallas with architects from New York and San Francisco areas that do some projects here, but, more often, we see architects from Dallas doing projects outside Dallas than architects from other places doing work here. I think Dallas is a very dynamic city. There’s great diversity.
