Spokane Valley-based Trovato LLC is leasing space in the Spokane Valley to open a furniture store this month, called Trovato Interiors, featuring the American-made Norwalk Furniture line of products.

Trovato Interiors is owned by partners Susan Usai, a Spokane interior designer who previously worked in furniture stores here, and Hank Seipp, who works for Cornerstone Property Advisors LLC, of Spokane, as vice president of its multifamily division. 

Seipp says the partners plan to open the store on Feb. 15 in 1,700 square feet of space at 18 S. Union, two blocks west of Pines Road and half a block from Sprague Avenue. He says he did an extensive remodel of the space, but he declines to disclose the cost of the construction. He adds that no real estate brokers were involved in the lease.

The Norwalk Furniture household furnishings that Trovato will sell are manufactured in Norwalk, Ohio. Customers can buy items in stock or order Norwalk Furniture pieces to be custom made with different fabrics and design details, Seipp says. The store also will offer some high-quality vintage furniture, he says.

Usai will work there full time, and Seipp will be there part time. Currently, the business doesn’t plan to hire additional employees. 

Seipp says Spokane customers previously had access to buying Norwalk Furniture when, in 1997, an outlet of Norwalk Furniture Corp. opened in North Spokane at 8014 N. Division. 

That store closed when the company shut down about five years ago. 

However, a partnership in the same Ohio community formed soon after that closure to reopen Norwalk Furniture and resume manufacturing, as Norwalk Custom Order Furniture, doing business as Norwalk Furniture, a company website says.

Since the shuttering of the Norwalk store here, other furniture stores such as Burgan’s Fine Furniture and Spear’s Furniture have closed, which has meant fewer choices for Spokane-area customers, Seipp says.   

“We see an increasing need for American-made, custom furniture that’s affordable,” he says. 

He says Usai previously worked at R. Alan Brown Interiors, based here, and at the Norwalk store in Spokane. After the Norwalk store here closed, she worked at Spears as an interior designer. She also is a co-founder and former owner of Giorgio’s Fitness Center, in Spokane Valley, until selling her partnership share to her son, Seipp says.

At Trovato Interiors, Usai also will provide interior design consulting to clients, which is a complimentary service to customers who buy furniture from the business, he says.