We were lucky to catch up with Corey Davey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Corey , thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

Corey and Hugh met in 2013 on a trip with ASID to LA for the organization’s annual conference. The following years, Corey and Hugh worked closely together on the ASID Texas Chapter Board and committees, in various leadership roles, ultimately becoming two of the best of friends. During their time in leadership, both Corey and Hugh served as President of The Texas Chapter of ASID.

Curate Studios began in 2019 when Corey and Hugh forged both sets of talents to create the partnership which came from years long of friendship. Corey has a strong commercial background in healthcare design and Hugh has a strong residential background. Together, they set out to create a healthcare design firm, with a strong focus on dental office interior design. Having officially been in business for only a few shorts months before the COVID-19 pandemic rooted itself into the fabric of our world, the business pivoted to a strong focus on residential projects. Our clients have been some of the best around, and we could not have been successful without them or the ability to be agile during a time which was so unknown to anyone.

After two years of having a strong focus on residential design, Curate Studios has re-focused and is setting its sights back on healthcare design, with a strong focus on dental office design. We have started partnering with architects other interior designers, real estate brokers and agents, and with healthcare supply company representatives, to collaborate on projects in hopes of being a great resource for our healthcare clients.

Corey , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Curate Studios is a healthcare design firm based in Dallas, founded by two Registered Interior Designers. – Corey Davey and Hugh Scarbrough. Corey graduated from Texas State University with his degree in Interior Design, and Hugh graduated from University of Arkansas with his degree in Interior Design. Both became Registered Interior Designers after sitting for the NCIDQ Exam at the beginning of their careers.

Curate Studios began in 2019 when Corey and Hugh forged both sets of talents to create the partnership which came from years long of friendship. Corey has a strong commercial background in healthcare design and Hugh has a strong residential background. Together, they set out to create a healthcare design firm, with a strong focus on dental office interior design. Having officially been in business for only a few shorts months before the COVID-19 pandemic rooted itself into the fabric of our world, the business pivoted to a strong focus on residential projects. Our clients have been some of the best around, and we could not have been successful without them or the ability to be agile during a time which was so unknown to anyone.

Curate Studios specializes in dental office interior design. Corey has a background in dental office design, as well as other healthcare, and hospitality design. Hugh has also worked on dental offices and brings a robust residential design background with him. Together, we make a team that understands the needs of our clients and will go to great lengths to be sure to create a successful project for the client. We are the only design firm that we know of who offers mobile dentistry to our clients. Most dentists don’t want to shut down their practice for 6-8 weeks to remodel their space, as well as having the potential to lose clients during their down time. So we’ve partnered with a company who offers a mobile clinic, which hosts 2 operatories where dental professionals can continue to see patients while their remodel is underway. The mobile clinic can be parked anywhere that the dentist would like and can be branded to their existing brand standards, even!

In addition to interior design services, we offer holiday design to our clients. We curate packages of holiday decorations for our clients that fit their desired style and install to create a beautiful environment for their families, patients and friends. We have resources at our fingertips which help us create one of a kind, beautifully decorated spaces for the most special times of the year.

We are most proud that our name really does define who we are and how we work. We don’t just design spaces, and make them cookie-cutter. We curate spaces. We do this by listening to our clients and really getting involved with them and learning about their needs to create a beautifully curated space that showcases who they are and the image that they want to.

When it comes down to it, we want people to know that we believe that design is not necessarily a luxury, its a necessity.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot we have seen was, like everyone else – the COVID-19 Pandemic. Navigating this was especially difficult during a time when dental office operations came to a halt for quite some time, and our clients weren’t to spend the money to remodel or build their practices without the certainty that they would be able to create the offices of their dreams.

Since our focus has been back on healthcare design, we have learned that in order to be successful we need to create the right team of people and professionals… and that we’re only as good as the people we have on that team. We’ve partnered with great people like our fantastic new marketing team, CARR, individual dental supply reps and other design professionals to help navigate a post-pandemic world of healthcare design.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Corey and Hugh met in 2013 on a trip with ASID to LA for the organization’s annual conference. The following years, Corey and Hugh worked closely together on the ASID Texas Chapter Board and committees, in various leadership roles, ultimately becoming two of the best of friends. During their time in leadership, both Corey and Hugh served as President of The Texas Chapter of ASID.

Curate Studios began in 2019 when Corey and Hugh forged both sets of talents to create the partnership which came from years long of friendship. Corey has a strong commercial background in healthcare design and Hugh has a strong residential background. Together, they set out to create a healthcare design firm, with a strong focus on dental office interior design. Having officially been in business for only a few shorts months before the COVID-19 pandemic rooted itself into the fabric of our world, the business pivoted to a strong focus on residential projects. Our clients have been some of the best around, and we could not have been successful without them or the ability to be agile during a time which was so unknown to anyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.curatestudios.com
• Instagram: @curate_studios
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curatestudios/

Image Credits
Stevie Cotton