Gilt Groupe acquires home decor site Decorati

The fusion will create an uber shopping site!

Gilt Groupe, a flash sales site for high end fashion, on Wednesday announced that it has acquired home decor site Decorati. I sense a beautiful fusion in the making.

So as a brief side note, I happen to be in the process of buying a house right now, so I think I just spent an hour scouring the Decorati site, which features an array of upscale interior design items, as well as a community of designers and shoppers. Of course, I'm buying a house that I think once served as the town meth hub, so my entire budget is pretty much going into making the house livable, which means luxury is not in the stars at the moment, but still...it's all so pretty (I may start taking donations for an Infinity sink fund...). 

The site, which considers itself the updated version of the old design catalogue you used to pick up at home improvement stores, features a vast library of products from over 650 trade-only manufacturers and helps consumers connect with local designers. Manufacturers include Kravet, Duralee, Schumacher, Stark, McGuire, and more. 

The acquisition is an integral part of Gilt Groupe's plans to launch a new Home offering later this year, which will be a combination of flash sales and full-priced merchandise, as well as social and community tools. It will also feature a channel exclusively for interior designers. The company currently has a Home-oriented service, known as Gilt Home, which offers 30 sales per week from over 400 brands, including Baker, Kravet, Jonathan Adler, Stark, Lignet Roset, Mitchell Gold +Bob Williams, Frette, and Soicher Marin. The acquisition will give Gilt access to products from additional trade-only brands (brands that only sell their products to designers), which will enable the company to offer an enhanced line of products for purchase on the site. 

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

"The design community will be a key component of our expanded Home business," said Kevin Ryan, Founder and CEO, Gilt Groupe, in a prepared statement.  "Decorati has done a fantastic job establishing a venue for high-end designers, knowledgeable consumers, and trade-only brands.  We are excited to combine those assets as we expand Gilt's Home business."