In Community with: Michael DeChillo of Sample House

What is Sample House and how did it come to be?

Sample House is a new format membership-based material library for interior designers, furniture designers, architects and contractors within a physical studio in LIC. We empower creatives with the resources needed to approach their work efficiently and expressively. At the same time we want to rewrite the way design professionals consider procurement and maintenance of essential design elements.

The original idea of Sample House came after working as a freelance Material Librarian the last couple years for some premier firms in the city. I noticed that samples are usually wasted and most of the time poorly maintained. Many vendors who put a lot of time and energy into their samples don’t normally get the shelf life they deserve. Additionally, many material libraries are only available within larger firms.

How will the trade interact with the library?

The library is available to the trade through a membership-based program for either individuals or teams. Any member can book unlimited appointments each month across three 2-hour time slots throughout the day. Unlike a showroom or online material distribution centers, Sample House offers a beautiful and inspiring space where materials are at the ready. This experience can be enjoyed either solo, with your team, or alongside your clients.

At the same time, Sample House understands that some samples might be required on-site or by the construction team. To help remedy this but still maintain sample quality, designers can also checkout samples for a small fee for a two week loaning period. If we don’t have something or you are interested in seeing a vendor we don’t currently carry we can handle communication and logistics to continue telling your project’s story.

At MINNA we believe in creating beautiful, ethically made products and using business to do good - how do these concepts relate to or inspire your work at Sample House?

The ethical use of materials was a critical component of starting Sample House. The current consumption of samples is extremely wasteful and cringy to think about for most designers. Thousands of samples are sent out to either be discarded or thrown into an unorganized bin in the back of the library. We hope to mitigate this problem through organization and proper care for the samples.Instead of samples getting lost, damaged, or thrown away, our sample lending process puts more responsibility on ourselves to extend the use of each swatch. We hope to lesson the amount of wasted samples in the industry as well as lower costs for vendor sample distribution. Internally, we call it ‘Kind Design’ and everyone can benefit.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I’m truly honored and feeling lucky to be entering this design community. I’m engaging with vendors and designers who I’ve always found inspirational. I’ve always considered myself as someone who finds joy in this work from the sidelines, so I’m just happy to be here and try my hand at building something that I hope will help others in the design industry.