The Avanti Group

Naked Decor finds success with home design

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Supon Phornirunlit wants his home decor to make you smile. Mounted papier-mâchépeacock heads. A Leaning Tower of Pisa teapot. And throw pillows, lots of throw pillows. Throw pillows emblazoned with the London Eye or Chairman Mao or the two-part image of a dachshund — front end on one pillow, back end on the other.

Phornirunlit was running a modest design business from his sunny brick rowhouse north of Dupont Circle when his work space won the 2006 Metropolitan Home Magazine Home Office of the Year competition. The magazine liked the office, but they loved the pillows — featuring bright silk-screened prints of Queen Elizabeth’s profile — that sat atop his white office chairs. They asked where he’d bought them.

“I giggled, honestly,” Phornirunlit remembers, “because I had just done them myself because I wanted pillows like that. So I told them that they were from this new company idea I had, called Naked Decor, and then the calls started coming in.” Phornirunlit’s design studio, Supon Creative Enterprise, had been dabbling in graphic design and home goods, but it was the Metropolitan Home award and subsequent demand that kick-started the new enterprise.

Seven years later, those Queen Elizabeth pillows are still a bestseller, but the company’s products have expanded to include everything from wall clocks to serving trays. Her Majesty’s timeless appeal notwithstanding, Phornirunlit says topicality is the key to Naked Decor’s success. They made “Vote” pillows during the 2012 presidential election and created the Royal Baby line when Kate Middleton announced her pregnancy in the fall. “We’re always thinking just a little ahead of our time,” Phornirunlit says. “We’ve been lucky — we’re usually right on trend.”

Phornirunlit works with graphic designer Jae Wee, who has been with Supon Creative since its inception. “We’re evolving constantly and trying new things all the time,” Wee says. “It’s never been boring, and since the team is so small, we can take risks that work.”

And work they do. Naked Decor designs have been featured in Martha Stewart Living and Family Circle and on “Today.” They are sold across the country and featured on trendy design Web sites such as Gilt.com and Fab.com