RICHARD BROTHERTON
I was born, a big fat round thing, in the small town of Macclesfield in Northwest England. Thanks to the hard work of my parents, I attended The King’s School, an all boys, 500 year old place where we all wore the same colour ties, shirts and blazers and looked like little old men. After graduating from (high) school, I spent a year traveling westwards around the globe (passing through Olympia on Amtrak). This proved to be the most educational period of my life. I learned that people are good as a whole; if you greet them with a smile, they smile back. Off to college on my return where it was confirmed beyond a doubt that studious pursuits really are my weakness, but planning, executing, and maximizing social activities came very naturally.
My father, Ken, has been selling carpet for forty years. On finishing college I was sending out job applications when I looked in his copy of Carpet & Flooring Review where “30,000 pounds on target earnings and car” caught my eye. So I began my sales career at Karndean International, a floor covering manufacturer, which ended just a week before opening 510 Interiors. This company gave me a vast range of experience—from knocking on doors “cold,” to managing the UK sales team, to calling on architects, designers, CFO’s and installers.
In the spring of 2003, I married Jen and after a brief stop in Portland, moved to Olympia—it was the water and the new bridge that did it. Luckily Karndean needed to develop the northwest, so I had one constant during a time of change. A trip to Mexico resulted in our daughter Lucy’s arrival in March 2005, followed by our son Jack in January of 2007.
So why 510 Interiors? Well, it is the right thing to do. We want to work locally, create a great place to work and provide our clients the kind of experience I expect to find when looking for flooring or other interiors, but rarely find. We want to become those people you wave at when you drive by.
Why green? No choice, really. Why would I put something into a home, an office, or a school that my son (a seven month old teething machine) couldn’t safely suck on for an hour without growing a third eye? You don’t have to own a Prius to want something that makes your life healthier. Green is for all of us and that is where we come in.