At Furniture Finesse, in York, owner Susie Mummert’s specialized attention means each customer walks away with precisely the right furniture or window coverings to fit their individual style and needs. While she works to keep her prices comparable with big-box furniture stores, the benefits of working with an expert at Furniture Finesse are invaluable.

“We’re a boutique design center,” says Mummert. “Our tagline is; ‘Imagine, Design, Impress.’ We work one-on-one with everybody who comes to us, and we have two designers in our store who will make house calls to our clients.”

Mummert, an expert on window coverings, says people are often surprised by the importance of curtains, blinds and drapes in a home. “Their value isn’t simply aesthetic,” she says. “Our window coverings keep our houses energy efficient. That’s not people’s first thought. A lot of us have window treatments, but we don’t even pull them down at night. But if you use your window coverings correctly, you can keep your home warmer on some of those harsh, cold winter days, and cooler in the summer.”

Mummert notes that window treatments are manufactured to be more energy efficient today. Furniture Finesse is York’s only Hunter Douglas Gallery dealer, offering a number of high-quality options to lower heating and cooling bills. “Our world is getting more energy efficient and green, recycled and techy and cutting-edge,” she says. “We have recycled material in our blinds, the Hunter Douglas blinds are U.S.-made and some can even be controlled by an app.”

Mummert’s dedication to sustainability and a low-waste philosophy has translated into a program that does more than lower her clients’ electric bills. She’s says not just transforming rooms; she’s transforming lives. “I grew up in a big family with eight kids, so there were never any extras. We used hand-me-downs; we never had anything new, and everything always had two or three purposes. Nothing should end up in a landfill just because you’re done with it. So when we’d deliver window treatments and furniture to our customers, I started asking people, ‘Do you have something to do with the old furniture?’ When they say no, we take them.”

Mummert works with the Salvation Army and local veterans organizations to donate lightly used furniture to those in need; often; formerly homeless veterans moving from a shelter to an apartment. “We just delivered a dining room set to a client who’d just come out of a shelter,” she recalls. “I went home and thought, ‘These folks are in their own house, sitting around their own table,’ and that made me feel good. I’ve found that the more success I’ve had, the more I’m able to give and the better it feels.”

Furniture Finesse is located at 700 W. Market St., Ste. 1, in York. For more information, call 717-848-8759 or visit FurnitureFinesseYorkPA.com.

Kate Morgan is a frequent contributor to Natural Awakenings magazine and can be reached at [email protected].