In its 20th year in business, family-owned Design & Detail—a to-the-trade fabric and furniture showroom with locations in St. Louis and Kansas City—is entering into a new market category. The St. Louis location is set to be the exclusive North American showroom for Casadenza, a line of flexible, ultra-thin real stone veneers with a myriad of application possibilities.
A partnership between Esspex Corporation of Japan and Vesna Inc. of India, Casadenza has been available in Asia for nearly 15 years but is new to the U.S. Ivan Moses, a veteran of the door industry, brought Casadenza to North America and to a select group of showroom owners, including Melinda Klinghammer, owner and founder of Design & Detail.
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She was so impressed with the product, available in more than 70 stone varieties, that she asked Moses what more she could do. After a month of discussions, he invited her to be his partner in bringing the product to market, both in the U.S. and Canada, and she accepted.
“I wasn’t looking to expand in a new category, but when I saw the product I was so excited about it and just had to be a part of it,” Melinda says.
Casadenza veneers are created in India by taking a slab of stone, applying a sealant, the backing, and then peeling it up in layers like an onion. Because of its thin profile, the veneer is not applicable as flooring or as a countertop surface, but it is perfect for “anything vertical,” Melinda says. An indoor/outdoor product (the fiberglass-backed version is waterproof), Casadenza can be applied to walls, fireplaces, showers, and cabinet or island fronts. It’s even certified to be applied to the side of a building stretching up to 40-feet high.
Lightweight and flexible, the fabric-backed version, in particular, can be applied like wallpaper or fabric, easily wrapping around a tight column, for example. This allows it to be used in spaces where the weight of regular stone would be a challenge.
“We just got FAA approval to put it into 25-passenger planes,” Melinda says. “You never see stone in planes.”
In addition to its efficiency, Casadenza is more affordable than traditional stone, running around the price point of a really nice wallpaper or quality tile. Melinda says it’s relatively easy to install, too, but it takes a talented trim carpenter to do it properly. To that end, Design & Detail is working with the Masonry Association to train some of their members to work on installations.
Once the new Casadenza showroom is completed on the second floor of Design & Detail St. Louis, Ben Klinghammer, Melinda’s son and sales manager, will lead Continuing Education Unit classes.
“I’m excited to reach out to architects and people in the area who want to learn about it and share all the information I can,” he says.
The line marks a foray into new territory for the Klinghammers and the company.
“It is kind of outside the box of what I do here–furniture and fabric–so it’s getting into a different category,” Melinda says. “We mostly are residential and this obviously can be used in residential, but commercial is going to be a big space for it. We’ve been approached to do elevators and retail store displays. Several casinos have also approached us.”
That said, she has given previews of the product to her regular residential interior design clients. She says they’re just as excited because they can see the applications. “They can’t wait to do kitchen cabinets in it,” she says. “It’s a great accent or you can do whole walls, too.”
Ben Klinghammer, who has worked in the family business since graduating college three years ago, will lead sales for Casadenza and is equally inspired by the possibilities.
“We were very impressed by Ivan and saw his vision of what we can do with it and its niche,” he says. “We’re excited for people to learn about it and use it in their projects. It’s a new challenge for us.”
