Debra Kresge strived to make her day spa a total experience for clients, creating an elegant retreat that she describes as “a bed and breakfast for the mind, body and spirit.” To that end, Debbie’s Day Spa & Salon features honey-dew-colored walls, antique furniture and styling stations m the shabby-chic style, and a retail “avenue” inspired by the Champs-Elysees, complete with little French bistro tables and loveseats.
Kresge says decorating is her passion as are, evidently, her customers. For a year before opening her day spa, this dedicated owner surveyed clients at her former salon, asking them what they would like to see in her new business. Their answers led her to make some expensive accommodations to provide the utmost in client comfort, such as redoing the building’s plumbing system to put a private shower in each treatment room and adding three pedicure chairs.
Her research paid off. After just two years, Kresge says she is ready to expand again. “I felt St. Augustine was ready for a place like this, and I was right.”
—Kelly Svoboda
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