Owner pays tribute to daughter, NFL son with interior design business

DOWNERS GROVE – When NFL player and Lemont native Coby Fleener buys his first home, he won’t have to look further than Downers Grove for someone to design its interior.

His mother, Michelle Nagel Fleener, opened her interior design business, Cobri Decor, at 933 Curtiss St. last month in Downers Grove.

Nagel Fleener had operated the business from her home in Lemont until deciding this winter she wanted a storefront for the visibility and exposure. The space also allows her to show clients furniture and other items in person, rather than from a catalog.

She said she thought of the name for the store – Cobri, a combination of her two children’s first names, Coby and Briana – when they were little.

“I thought, ‘One day, I’ll have a store,’ and I was trying to come up with names,” she said. “I’ve always remembered it ever since. As a single mom, raising them, it was always important to have them in my life. It was a little tribute to them.”

Visitors can see several vignettes collecting pieces of furniture and other decorations to show how a room might be designed. There also is an art collection in the rear.

She said picking the wall art for a home is her favorite part of the job, but the most important thing is to get to know the client and who he or she is.

“It just has to work right with that person,” she said. “There are all different personalities. But you really have to figure out and study that person, or that couple or that family. Even if they say one thing, they may not [really want it]. You have to understand where they’re coming from.

“In the end, they’re the ones living there, and they need to be happy. If I don’t read them well, nobody is going to be happy.”

Nagel Fleener describes her own style as eclectic, a
mixture of contemporary and traditional.

Cobri Decor offers commercial and residential services, from full house or room designs to paint consultations.

The business can be reached at 773-609-1082.