By Design

by Design, custom furniture & interior design, is a store driven by the idea of co-creating unique rooms with our clients. While our store is full of cool things, your room must be greater than the sum of its parts. Our focus is to engage you in a design experience with the goal of creating your personal, perfect room.

by Design was established in 1998, but our history actually goes back to 1976. Russell and Ruthann Clark proposed to their son and daughter in law, Kevin and Bonita Clark, that they open a furniture store together.The first Wood Stock Ltd. store opened in December of 1976 in Des Moines, IA, and was entirely dedicated to selling unfinished wood furniture. In 1985 we took our first steps into upholstery by opening Sofas by Design. The concept caught on immediately and we became excited about the future of custom upholstery. By 1999 we had become convinced that the wood specialty business no longer offered us the excitement and opportunities to serve our customers that we needed. We made the decision to close our old friend and first love, Wood Stock and also our Sofas by Design store. We would take the best parts of both of them and combine them into a new concept. by Design and their talented designers have been a big part of the Des Moines community ever since!

Bonita C.
Business Owner
Although I graduated in Education and taught for four years, my heart has been in retail since we opened our first store. In 1977! While there are many things to love about retail, I love our customers most.

There have been few things in my life more gratifying than meeting, working with and having fun with our wonderful customers. So, I’m working hard to make by Design a store that has great products, inspires great ideas and shows wonderful design. But my first goal is always to assemble a team of folks who will love our customers as much as I do.

Bonita