The Wellington Chamber of Commerce recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Wellington Design Center (9312 Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington), owned by Michael Gordon and Karen Paull. They offer a one-stop shop for people looking to design or redesign their home.
Gordon was born and raised in New York. He earned an associate’s degree from Nassau Community College, followed by a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Queens College and a master’s degree in counseling psychology in West Virginia.
After school, he returned to Queens and began his career as a therapist. Along the way, he taught special education, worked at a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed boys, ran a group home and later opened a nursery school and day camp.
In 1991, Gordon and his wife moved to Coral Springs and began selling art items at area flea markets. Liking his new direction, he opened an artwork and framing store in Stuart and then later in West Palm Beach. The Art Colony, as it was then called, was successful. In 2006, Gordon took over an existing framing store in Wellington while his daughter worked at the West Palm Beach store.
When adjacent space became available, Gordon teamed up with Paull to create the Wellington Design Center, with one side being a flooring center and the other side being a design center. The flooring center is run by Joseph Leech of Wellington Wood Floors, who offers a variety of wood floors plus unique, hand-crafted flooring. The new business opened in January.
Paull and her husband ran four showrooms/design centers in New Jersey. With her 32 years of experience in the industry, it seemed to be a good move for them to partner in the business.
“We offer an array of different things for the customer and designer,” Paull said. “We do flooring, windows, design, we have designer fabrics, we do wallpaper, we have custom furniture, custom framing, custom rugs, anything for the home that the customer needs. We can take an empty house and design it from floor to ceiling. We have ASID designers on staff who work for us. We also have professional installers. Our pricing is excellent. Because we have been in the business so long we have very good connections with the vendors and we get very good pricing.”
The Wellington Design Center is involved in the community and helps out local schools by framing team jerseys. For more info., call (561) 223-3709, e-mail wellingtondesigncenter@comcast.net or visit www.wellingtoninteriordesigncenter.com.
For more information about businesses in the Wellington area, call the Wellington Chamber of Commerce at (561) 792-6525 or visit www.wellingtonchamber.com.
ABOVE: Wellington Design Center — (L-R) Carmine Marino, Audra Leech, Joseph Leech, Karen Paull, Michael Gordon, Mark “Boz” Bozicevic, Laura Jaffe and Denise Carpenter.
