Heather Shaw, owner of Exquisite House Pilates & Wellness. Photo: Ian Salvosa
A local Pilates instructor is moving her practice from her home to her first full-time studio.
Heather Shaw’s Exquisite House Pilates & Wellness will open on June 18th. 13829 Village Place Drive We offer private and small group Pilates, Barre, TRX, Brrrn classes, and functional nutrition programs in Midlothian.
Shaw has been practicing Pilates for about 10 years and opened her own studio in her home two and a half years ago.
She said her personal approach to fitness and small group settings has led her to want to compete in Pilates franchises and large group class competitions.
“I want to bring what I know and what I’m passionate about and love into a space where people can get as much individual attention as possible,” Shaw said.
Two Pilates reformers in Exquisite’s new space.
The new studio is equipped with three reformers. Pilates equipment with moving platformThere are also three Pilates chairs, a barre, a Cadillac reformer and a Brrrn board.
Shaw said his store is the only one in Virginia that sells the Brrrn Board, a sliding board that provides cardio and speed skating-like exercise.
The new space will serve about 100 clients in classes of three, and Shaw said she plans to eventually expand to six reformers for a total of 250 clients. She hopes to hire three to four instructors within the next 18 months.
Exquisite House’s one-on-one sessions start at $75 per hour, with session package options available, and they also offer monthly group training, with rates ranging from $240 per month for eight classes to $360 per month for 12 classes.
Other Pilates studios in the area include Club Pilates Midlothian, where beginner group classes cost $29 per session, and Pure Barre, where group barre classes cost $35 per session.
Shaw said his business is not a franchise, which allows him more flexibility when it comes to pricing.
“I have a nice balance to strike between making a profit and not making the cost too high for my clients,” she said.
The Cadillac reformer in Exquisite’s new space.
Shaw said he moved his practice from his home to expand his customer base, eventually settling on the Village Place location because he felt the area was experiencing a resurgence of small businesses — neighbors in the center include Capital Ale House.
Shaw discovered Pilates about 10 years ago as a way to combat the chronic fatigue and autoimmune disease she’d suffered from since her teenage years, and after working in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years, she has incorporated a combination of Pilates and functional nutrition into her own practice.
Exquisite House charges $125 for a nutrition consultation, and follow-up nutrition courses range from $1,000 to $3,000 for eight- to 24-week programs.
With many people out of town over the summer, the June 18 opening will mark Shaw’s “soft opening” for the business, but she plans to have a grand opening in the fall, by which time she hopes to have mastered the new software system and be able to offer on-demand classes by the end of the year.
“I want people to come here, take classes and when they leave they think, ‘I never want to go anywhere else,’ so that’s my immediate goal between now and the open house,” she said.
