When a top design team says, “We don’t have a signature style,” it means that they have mastered dozens of styles, and are equally adept at deploying, blending, and reinventing styles as the client, project, and occasion demand.

Furniture Plus, based in Honolulu, belongs firmly in this category. Behind this unpretentious name, four talented professionals offer superb taste…an impressive breadth of knowledge…over a century’s collective expertise…and the laid-back self-assurance that comes with consummate versatility.

No wonder president Charles M. Black, ASID, IIDA and senior designer Joseph W. Marshall, ASID are known for their award-winning residential design on multi-million dollar custom Island homes…and also for their award-winning commercial design work in leading Hawaiian business properties. Supported by general manager Scott Barley and designer Matthew L. Lopp, Allied ASID, this is a team of professionals who are totally comfortable with each other -- and totally on top of their game.

Charles Black and Joe Marshall make a powerful duo, each bringing complementary strengths to the table. Black traces his Hawaiian heritage back to the 1820s and the Islands’ first missionary families. A self-taught prodigy, he’s a former board member of and advisor to the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Marshall, son of a renowned local architect, grew up with design as an integral part of his family environment. After moving to Hawaii more than 25 years ago, he worked in various building trades before earning his interior design degree from Chaminade University, the state’s only college program in that discipline.

A quick glance at some of Furniture Plus’s residential projects confirms the team’s protean skills. For a nearly-completed $3 million ranch house and $1 million guest house on a 14-acre spread on the Big Island (unfortunately no photos are yet available), Black and Marshall have selected one-of-a-kind furnishings and artwork -- including a dining room table fashioned from an antique Chinese wedding cart cleverly topped with beveled glass and surrounded by rattan chairs. Immaculate window covering designs highlight the incredible views of other islands.

On Oahu, Furniture Plus was recruited to provide interior design for the Armstrong residence, which featured a 1920s-style, neo-Victorian structure. The designers enhanced the building’s classic architecture with elegant custom millwork and moldings, and used the client’s collection of rare European and Asian furnishings as a base on which to create a seamless synthesis of east meets west.

A third project offered a very different challenge, but Black and Marshall met it with equal success. The Tan residence is a high-rise luxury condominium in Honolulu. Furniture Plus provided a bold, contemporary design solution incorporating rich jewel tones and metallic finishes. Custom-designed furnishings include the entertainment center, area rug and seating in the living area, and a unique round platform bed which plays off the curved interior walls of the guest bedroom.

Since Black and Marshall both evidence such highly artistic sensibilities, it comes as no surprise to learn both men have more than a touch of performance art in their backgrounds. Black (who speaks in a calm, mellow voice with superb diction) often talks of “setting the stage” with interior design and of creating a home or office like crafting a dramatic environment for living or working. It’s almost as if his interior design client were the lead character in a play. This theatrical orientation comes quite naturally to a man whose high school drama successes led him to featured parts on Hawaii’s earliest local TV broadcasts. These days, Black’s stage appearances are mostly confined to singing in a barbershop quartet.

Marshall, who also dabbled in drama some years ago, now enjoys leisure moments by playing drums in a local band. A rock drummer is supposed to be a man of action, not words, but Marshall defies the stereotype. In conversation, he exudes a disarming warmth and low-key friendliness that could have made him a trusted psychological counselor.

Together, Black and Marshall add up to a new school-meets-old school, older pro/younger pro combination. Their self-confidence (both in their design skills and in their client rapport) is so unshakable, they actually send prospective clients to talk with other designers before committing to Furniture Plus. “I recommend that prospects interview other designers because it’s a personal relationship that grows through the design process,” Marshall explains. “Having that comfortable footing is all-important. I always explain that you should not select a designer based solely on pretty pictures in a portfolio; everybody has those. What counts is, do you feel a sense of connection? As a design team Charles and I have huge advantage: between us, we can relate to a very wide range of clientele, backgrounds, and personalities.”

But the designer-client relationship is not just touchy-feely at Furniture Plus. Each client is given a written road map that lays out the basic phases of design, and spells out the client’s authority and responsibility in each phase. These steps are defined in the contract to ensure that clients can easily understand where the project is at any given moment, and what is expected of both parties at each phase.

Furniture Plus also embraces the “Sphere of Excellence” philosophy. It’s a way for professionals to conceptualize their range of strengths. A series of concentric circles begins with the innermost circle, which comprises one’s greatest excellence and innate gifts. This is surrounded by a second, larger circle that denotes learned skills. A third circle that covers basic competencies; a fourth circle designates proficiencies that are not offered by the firm, period. “Any time we step out of our own Sphere of Excellence, we hire someone for whom that task falls within their Sphere of Excellence,” Black explains. “For a major presentation, we may hire someone to execute professional renderings. We can do renderings in-house -- but that’s not good enough for us. We want each client to get the best possible product at every step of the process.”

At its best, the interplay of client wishes and design team input can create a collaborative dance that changes from one project to the next. “Every design is different because every client and every project is different,” says Black. “For example, art is always an important element in any design process, and it’s even more important if the clients already have their own collections – which some do.”

Marshall elaborates: “We really enjoy working closely with our clients, and we definitely invite their input. Since we don’t have a signature style that we impose on every project, the clients’ tastes and desires are integral to our design process. For every project, we seek to develop a unique style that reflects that client, their life and their story.”

And yet, Furniture Plus does contribute its own taste, experience and judgment to the design process in important ways. “I feel strongly there are things that work here and things that don’t,” Black declares. “Interiors are more organic in Hawai’i than in other places, because of the Island lifestyle’s connection of indoors and outdoors. We need to orient houses to the direction of wind and sun; we need to respect the beauty and integrity of our tropical settings. That’s what we should build here, and that’s what residents should expect when they come here.”

Guided by these principles, Black, Marshall, Barley and Lopp navigate their way from the personal and the one-of-a-kind, to the timeless and universal. In so doing, they ensure that each design is as individual as the client and the setting, and that each residence stands at a creative crossroads of many cultures and influences.

Apparently, the company’s name stands for Furniture Plus inspiration.