SBJ photo by Wes Hamilton

Inspiration Nook

Co-owner Nathan Taylor uses this room layered with fabric swatches to consult with clients on interior design. He says his collected style means many items found throughout the office have a story or history behind them.

SBJ photo by Wes Hamilton

Room to Dream

Co-owner J. Kent Martin says he prefers to sit in a common area rather than his closed-door office to work on designs for his home furnishings company JKM Home.

SBJ photo by Wes Hamilton

Old Meets New

A 300-year-old oversized table from Spain easily fills the office’s conference room.

“Had we even bought the building when we bought the table?” Martin asks. “Maybe barely,” Taylor says. “The architect designed the space around it.”

Displayed in the background is artwork by Panamanian artist Ismael Ortiz, who the partners took under their wing when he worked odd jobs at Obelisk during his time studying at Drury University.

SBJ photo by Wes Hamilton

Continued Learning

A long narrow tabletop recovered from a medical school in Chicago serves as a spot for weekly office huddles, Martin says. The chairs are refurbished from an old schoolhouse.

SBJ photo by Wes Hamilton

Design for All

Staff members work in open cubicle spaces, where pets are welcome to roam. Billy Davison, national sales manager for Martin’s upscale pet accessories company Unleashed Life, brought along pups Blair, left, and Misty to work. A cast mold of the co-owners’ late dog Poidras used to market the company sits on the desk.

SBJ photo by Wes Hamilton

2018 Office NV: Obelisk Home

Balanced Blend

BY: Christine Temple, Features Editorctemple@sbj.net

Posted online December 10, 2018 | 3:35 pm

Architect: Wells and Scaletty LLC
Design: In-house

The attention to detail – and the story behind each of those details – is unmatched at Obelisk Home.

New designs and historical pieces spanning the globe and centuries marry in the airy offices that stick true to its foundation. The three-story, 40,000-square-foot building circa 1900s once housed general grocer Crighton Provision Co., and even though much of the floors, beams and walls are original, it has taken on a new life since business partners J. Kent Martin and Nathan Taylor bought the space downtown in 2006.

The ground floor housing the company’s modern furnishings and decor showroom seamlessly transitions up the exposed wood paneled staircase to top floor workspace.

“We set out to create something that wasn’t in the norm,” co-owner Taylor says. “When it’s a collected design, it adds to the story. The story of our lives.”