Interior designer Gretchen Knoblock turns New Leaf in Glen Arbor
Photo: Ann McCoy (left) and Gretchen Knoblock (right) at New Leaf Interiors’ new location in Glen Arbor.
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Gretchen Knoblock, who just opened New Leaf Interiors in the heart of Glen Arbor, giggles when she recalls standing in front of the Dechow Barn in the Port Oneida Rural Historic District 40 years ago, complaining to her Leelanau School history and government teacher Mike Munhall, “What are we doing in the middle of a field looking at a dirty old barn? Why is this important in my life?”
The purpose of the field trip in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was to learn about Dutch gambrel and gable roofs and vernacular architecture. Little did she know then, but what she learned from Munhall and from art teacher Joanne Evans that year would plant the seeds that inspired her to become an interior designer.
Knoblock, a Wilmette native on Chicago’s north shore, says the two years she spent at Leelanau School as a junior and senior in the early 1980s changed her life. She also fell in love with northern Michigan, and longed to return here one day.
Eleven years ago she returned, with her cat, her clothes, her toothbrush, and little else. She rented a coach house near Suttons Bay and worked for another interior designer, but times were tough. The economic recession lingered, and launching her own venture seemed like a risky move.
“People thought I was nuts, but I was here where my heart lived. When your heart is home, anything is possible,” Knoblock said. “If I had to live under a bush and eat berries, thanks to my fine Leelanau School education, I would know exactly what bush to live under and what berries to eat.”
In Traverse City she launched New Leaf Interiors, which is located on the south end of Elmwood Avenue in the Grand Traverse Commons. She made some missteps, learned from them, and thrived. She seized opportunities that presented themselves, and she listened to customer feedback. She brought cabinetry and kitchen design elements into a showroom across the hall so customers wouldn’t have to drive all over greater Traverse City to view them. She teamed up with other talented designers including Andrea Dolson, Ann McCoy, and Amy Schichtel, who Knoblock describes as a “master cabinet engineer and CAD (computer-aided design) technical drawing whiz. … She’s very technical. I’m looking more at the whole picture, the overall aesthetic.”
The interior design industry has surged in northern Michigan over the past year, buoyed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and increased focus on home upgrades, and also by the Grand Traverse region’s meteoric rise as a cherished place to own a first or second home. And this after the early spring of 2020, when the coronavirus first arrived and the economy ground to a halt.
“Nobody thought anyone would do any business of any kind last year,” said Knoblock. “We were physically shut down. We were like ‘Don’t panic, just put food on the table … We’re not getting rich this year, but hopefully we can stay afloat’.”
New Leaf Interiors’ gross revenues last year increased 20% over 2019.
“People were focusing on homes, and focusing on northern Michigan,” she said.
“COVID really changed our human nature. Everyone was spending less of their disposal income on gasoline and clothes. They were sitting at home, working in their pajamas, wondering ‘Now we’re at home. How do we do this?’ How do we keep a working husband and wife separate enough to do the work they need to do?”
Knoblock had long contemplated having a satellite location in Leelanau County, to be closer to high-end clients. But each year a different project would delay her expansion.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to have a presence in Glen Arbor. I’m a Leelanau School kid,” she said. “I felt underrepresented in Glen Arbor.”
She wasn’t planning to expand this year either, until she read this spring that the National Lakeshore was attracting record numbers of visitors—during the cold months of January and February—and was on pace to set another annual record.
“Now was the time,” she told herself. “We all know how busy last summer was [in Leelanau County] during COVID.”
Knoblock jumped at an opportunity to lease the building from Bill and Dotti Thompson, just south of The Sportsman Shop on M-22, which had previously housed the arts and crafts store Smock Paper Scissors, and before that TnT Video. (Bill served his popular Chicago-style “Dune Dogs” from a hotdog stand next door until Labor Day of 2019.)
New Leaf Interiors opened in Glen Arbor this Memorial Day weekend, as the market continues to sizzle. By the end of April, New Leaf had already hit what the business grossed in all of 2020. Knoblock is considering more satellite locations in the years to come to serve other high-end home markets, such as Crystal Lake in Benzie County.
While interior design and home decorating are hot markets in lakeshore communities right now, so is home building. The challenge is to find a contactor to do the work. “Getting product is even rougher,” she said. “We could furnish an entire house, but we’re finding that materials are not arriving until next year. The supply chain is broken.”
What styles and motifs are hot right now among Leelanau residents who want to update their home interiors? Knoblock said it depends on what her clients perceive as the “northern Michigan look.” Some want the lake life, the ‘up north’ life, bears or woods. Many of her clients with second homes want a rustic contemporary feel—a space that resembles a log cabin inside but with modern updates and 21st century amenities. On the other hand, she has observed that permanent residents here often favor an urban look.
