For more than four decades, June Roesslein glamorized homes in St. Louis.

Her team of designers promised a "total look," and in this Midwestern town with its traditional sensibilities that often meant creating a European aesthetic: Sofas skirted to the floor, medium to dark tone wood, color on walls, a bit of wallpaper and grand window treatments. It would typically involve a mix of floral prints, plaid or striped fabric.

Her eponymous design firm, June Roesslein Interiors, was closely connected to local builders and had a corner on designing display homes.

"June did model homes for so long, the company was St. Louis design," said Barbara Slavkin, a designer who worked with Roesslein for 20 years.

But in October, this matriarch of the local design community quietly sold her business name and assets to an employee and retired.

The building's lease was up at the spacious showroom in the Chesterfield Valley, where the firm had relocated from Manchester Road just five years before.

"It became a point of do I want to still work or do I want to enjoy the rest of my life," Roesslein said from her vacation home in Florida. The badly hit housing market, the crippled construction business and a bleeding furnishing industry had changed the face of interior design nationally and locally.

Her own firm went from a peak of employing 18 designers to just four when she closed the showroom.

The layoffs had taken a toll.

"It was the most painful thing in the world because all of them had been with me for a very long time," she said.

And yet it wasn't that long ago that the local housing market was booming, with new subdivisions cropping up like weeds, overrunning the western suburbs.

"It was crazy. Everyone was working at full tilt. We would have two or three display projects going each month," she said. All three presentation rooms were always booked, and the staff resorted to doing presentations in the office kitchen at times because they had so many clients.

Many local designers who experienced those heady times say they are unlikely to return anytime soon. And, for now, many designers are simply looking for ways to survive.

Lofts downtown

Lori Olsen McElvain made her name with the loft district downtown. She designed many of the new loft projects, along with restaurants and other commercial spaces. Her husband worked as an architect, and both were so busy "it was hard to keep up with the opportunities."

McElvain decided to strike out on her own after several years of working with various local firms, and within a year, the market began to change.

"All of a sudden, projects started going on hold. ... Then it pretty much ground to a halt," she recalled. The credit market had frozen, and development projects dried up. Her husband's job was cut to part-time hours, and when her work slowed considerably, she started interviewing for jobs.

"Not only were they not hiring, they were still laying people off," she said. "There are a lot of experienced architects and designers on the street right now."

The lack of openings has prompted laid-off and young designers to strike out on their own.

McElvain realized she would have to diversify her business if she wanted to survive. She began taking on residential projects and learning a whole new set of resources on that side of the industry. She has partnered with well-established residential designer Emily Castle, of Castle Design in Clayton, to better her purchasing power for new clients and give her direct access to furniture lines.

For the first time, clients are asking her to go to vendors and barter for discounts. It is a completely new way of operating, she said.

"Lots of dealers and vendors and showrooms and sales reps are gone. People I've worked with for years, you call, and they are no longer in business."

changing industry

Designer Rose Roberts opened a retail furnishing shop in O'Fallon, Mo., three years ago. Last spring, she decided against renewing her lease, closed the store and shifted her design business into her home in Chesterfield. It's a move several other designers have made, as well.

Roberts, who is membership director for the Missouri East chapter of the American Society for Interior Designers, said the national organization has seen about a 20 percent drop in its membership since the recession began. She attributes that to several changes within the industry, as well as the economic downturn.

Technology has changed how potential clients can research their options.

"People can go online and find things," she said. One-of-a-kind pieces that used to be the sole purview of designers are accessible to the masses. Even wholesale furniture markets that were typically closed to the public have started making it easier for consumers to shop there.

She says the loss of furniture and textile mills in America has also hurt the industry. Now, nearly all furniture is made overseas in China or Indonesia.

"The quality isn't as good as it used to be," Roberts said. Fabric mills have all moved to India, and it can take months to get a custom fabric. Some custom furniture pieces can take as long as a year to arrive.

And designers, who used to rely on the profit they made on product sold, have switched to billing hourly rates since the margins in furniture are not as profitable.

A recovery ahead?

Slavkin, who had worked for decades with Roesslein, launched her own business out of her home after the remaining designers disbanded.

"We've all become more creative in how we market our service and are open to new ways of doing business," she said.

Slavkin said she started offering a "color consultation program," starting at $250, in which she offers two in-depth consultations to help clients choose color palettes for their spaces.

"I probably wouldn't have had time to do this sort of thing in the past," she said. Plus, she's borrowing materials from a design library, which is costly to develop and maintain, from two of her former workmates, who have also struck out on their own.

Like other designers, she has started to see an uptick in business recently. There have been more homeowners tackling renovations and additions to their homes, and many are discovering it's a good time to get deals on furnishings.

"Americans don't wait long," Slavkin said. "We enjoy spending. We enjoy living in a beautiful environment."