Pillow talk

Joy Tribout has been feathering her empty nest with plump, down-filled pillows for more than eight years. Covered in fabrics and trimmings from Kravet, Scalamandre, Brunschwig & Fils and Lee Jofa, 7,000 pillows a year are sold under the brand Caroline Cole, named after Tribout's first granddaughter.

Now she has two granddaughters and the youngest one, of course, wants to know why grandma hasn't named a company for her. Tribout doesn't know yet if it will be bedding or maybe a children's line, but the diplomatic grandmother promises she'll "eventually do something with Katie's name on it."

For many years a stay-at-home mom who helped out with her husband's retail business, Tribout first reinvented herself 22 years ago as a high-end interior designer and home furnishings retailer. Eight years ago, at the urging of her son, Torre, she decided to start manufacturing her own pillow designs. For her, it was a way to gain more quality control and to meet her own high production standards. For him, it offered a potentially lucrative business opportunity.

"My son graduated in finance, came home from London and said, 'Mom, I think you should start a company. You could make the pillows for your store.' I said, 'Torre, I don't have time for that. When would I do it?' To which he replied, 'I'll run the company and you design them.'"

The self-taught licensed designer has been going at it ever since, working 12-hour weekdays and most weekends. "I would say about 95% of my interiors business is very high-end homes in St. Louis. I do this (the pillows) three times a year, but the rest of the time I'm doing homes. The pillows are still more of a side business." It's a substantial "side business" to an already busy schedule, but Tribout said she thrives on excitement and is fortunate to have a lot of it, and energy, in her life.

Tribout's daughter Tamara (Caroline and Katie's mother) assists with all the design work, which results in two new lines plus one limited edition run of 50 each year. "Tammy and I share much of the same taste, but she likes a little more and I like a little less. We rarely disagree." A staff of seamstresses and upholsterers assemble each piece in the company's 8,000-sq.-ft. Belleville, Ill., facility. "I don't know how to sew a button. We have a full-time staff and I will tell them how something is supposed to look, not knowing if it's even possible, but they always figure it out for me." The pillows are sold through more than 300 retailers nationwide, including Tribout's own stores in Clayton, Mo., and Belleville.

Tribout uses neutrals for most of her interiors and brings out color — lots of it — with her pillows. "I like a splash of bright color, even if it's just in foliage. I'm also partial to black, chocolate and taupe." Splashing a bit of green into a base color or accent has become one of her trademark touches, as has putting at least five or six pillows in each room. "We sold our house a year ago and I had 175 pillows in there. The new owners bought every one of them.

"I like color ... and coloring books. I even like the smell of the Crayolas. It's one of my favorite things to do with my granddaughters." And apparently the girls are paying close attention. Tribout shares a recent kindergarten moment when Katie's teacher couldn't understand why, when the class was asked to draw their homes, Tribout's granddaughter's paper was blank. "She said it was because she didn't have the color 'butter.' Her house is a pale creamy yellow and she had no intention of coloring it if it wasn't the right shade of yellow, so she sat there until she realized she could put a little white with it ... and make butter."