Dive Brief:

• Chicago-based Interior Define has hired former Crate and Barrel president Marta Calle as executive chair.

• The web-first company sells custom high-end furniture and has raised a total $3.2 million in funding.

• Calle left Crate and Barrel last July amidst a shake-up at the furniture and home goods retailer. 

Dive Insight:

Interior Define has worked closely with local designers in an effort to offer designs that it says are apart from much of what is available. But the company is interested in expanding beyond Chicago. While it has concentrated on online sales, it has a brick-and-mortar showroom in its home city that Calle said “gives the customer a window to the brand.”

Its ambitions come just at the time when similarly ambitious online furniture company Fab was sold to Irish manufacturing company PCH International. 

“We really focus on the community,” Interior Define co-founder Rob Royer told TechCrunch. “We collaborate with designers in the Chicago area who have a strong local following, so that there’s a sense of community that goes into each piece of furniture. And we want to replicate that in other markets.”