'08 BALA Hall of Fame

Carole P. Eichen, Carole Eichen Interiors

Carole P. Eichen Photo courtesy California Homebuilding Foundation

She was an innovator, a pioneer and expert marketer. Carole Eichen, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 70, was a legend in the home building industry. She invented the concept of interior merchandising and even coined the term “buyer profile.” She understood how to use interior design to appeal a specific buyer at a subliminal level.

“She helped establish the very measures used by judges to determine whether a project -- as depicted in photos — hits the target buyer,” says Heather McCune, the BALA judge who nominated Eichen for induction into the Hall of Fame. McCune is director of marketing for Bassenian/Lagoni Architects and former editor-in-chief of Professional Builder.

Eichen opened Carole Eichen Interiors in 1966 in Newport Beach, Calif. Her design style incorporated bold use of color and design details like drapes and throw pillows.
Long time friend Peter Mayer, principal of Peter Mayer Productions — producer of The Nationals and several other industry awards programs — moved to California from the Midwest in the 1960s and understood how novel Eichen’s approach was.

“I saw model complexes you didn’t see in my part of the country,” says Mayer. “Here were these glamorous houses with exotic, elaborate landscaping. People who pulled this off, to me, they were like super stars. That’s the way I viewed Carole Eichen.”