Maison Decor Boston opened Labor Day weekend~
a pretty tricky time for retail~
I was told to expect it to be slow,
and that was OK because I didn't want Justin to be overwhelmed
with the sales as I would not be able to join him on our opener, Saturday.
So I sat in my Malden store, and he opened Boston~
he had a pretty decent day, with good sales
of furniture and paint while I had zilch, zippo, nada!!
No phone calls or walk-ins.
I was chomping at the bit to join him on my day off Sunday
as I expected some good action since that is the
day of the Vintage SOWA market
located right next to our shop. I
arrived early at the Boston shop and took some pics in the
quiet closed shop so you could see more of the store.
This is our work area that has the sink and cabs along with our check out area.
An exposed brick wall is really cool, and the large store window area is to the left.
This is the store window space~
This is the back of the store~its a very small space
and we don't want it to be too cluttered
so that shoppers can't navigate around the place,
and I think Justin did a good job with that.
Of course all the paint is housed in Betsy's cabinet
that sits along the wall to the right as you enter the shop.
Little setups of Gilding pastes and waxes and brushes are on one long console table.
Getting ready to open my doors~I was nervous and hopeful,
but not too hopeful that I would be
disappointed.....I had to keep my feelings under
wraps and just let the day unfold...
Some more pics of the store~
Vintage iron planters, one like a bird cage are new for this shop...
a lot of the other items have been sitting in my Malden shop for 3 months!
Mirrors and chandeliers~my favorites can be found here.
And then it was time to open the doors.
For the first two hours we had a lot of tire kickers~
and no sales....I started to really get nervous...
it was unbearable to think about what if...what if no one wanted to buy anything?
I had so much riding on this store....Justin and I would look at each other and
as groups of shoppers would come in, ask about a price, or the paint and then leave
without a purchase...well it was tough. Most of them were heading to the Vintage market
next doors. So they came in, and they left...but then it started happening~
They started coming back...
The shoppers started coming in droves....
Lots of them...I counted several times we had 14 people in the store at once!
Of course I was so busy I couldn't snap pics then! We had two iPads ringing sales,
and both of us fielding questions about Chalk Paint™ and our furniture!
We had all kinds of people~
couples, and families, and yuppies and buppies and dogs!
See their brown paper bag?
They bought something! It was contagious~
more and more sales as the day wore on....
This little girl was so darling~she played with the colored samples of the Chalk Paint™.
I asked her mom if I could photograph her hair,
and her mom said it was her "Fairy Hair"!
How cute is that? Its just a pony tail and then
you feed it back through the top of the pony!
I am going to try making Fairy Hair myself as my hair is getting long~
Justin ringing up a big sale~she bought our pretty French Shell mirror!
It sat in my Malden store~no one seemed to appreciate it...later in the day
a woman came back to buy it and cried when she saw it was SOLD!
People were so complimentary about the shop~
they loved our selection and our reasonable prices they said.
This area has a ton of dogs, and most shops welcome them.
Say hi to Gerald!
Gerald's mom is a professional furniture painter~
she was so captivated by Annie's paint.
She spent hours in the store~buying paint, wax, a wax brush and a color chart~
she is thrilled she won't have to prime a set of chairs for her customer!
This young couple from Montreal perused the color samples~
The guys were just as into it as the girls~
I was glad to snap this pic of Justin in the thick of it!
This lady has an art studio in the neighborhood
and she works with Polymer clay~
I told her about the gilding paste and how she can use that with her
clay work, and she was intrigued and went home with a tin to try.
At the end of the day we had sold three pieces of furniture,
a large mirror, lots of home accessories and of course Chalk Paint™!
It was indeed time to reflect and enjoy the moment.
I couldn't let myself go...I was still kind of stunned by the success~!
the feedback, the awesome clientele, the wonderful neighborhood spirit~
Its more than I had hoped for~and that was something indeed.
We know its gonna fly~its gonna work!!
It just was an amazing opener~
Justin and I are totally pumped about it!
Nearing the end of the day, he looked over
at me a few times and said quietly,
"Can you believe this???"
And I had a hard time believing what was happening...
I really did. I think I was afraid to dream that big...
to think those thoughts, even though deep down inside
I thought our store would be great there.
I headed out of Boston with the Provence settee
in the back my car for a delivery~
two streets over in a quaint Boston neighborhood
was where this little bench can be found.
A cute young couple saw it in the window and went home to measure~
it turned out it would fit perfectly in their entryway.
He works for the Boston Red Sox~How fun is that?
Its this kind of stuff that puts the cherry on top~
the nice people that are going to be our customers.
They loved our store and said they'd be back!
Its time to restock~!!
Here are a few of the new OLD items I have coming to the shop!
A bombe style French Provincial chest~
A petite armoire~perfect for smaller apartments or baby's room!
Great vintage condition with classic details.
A small bombe chest
A mind blower of a piece~this huge Map/Document Chest!
All original condition with stellar hardware and in fabulous shape!
And a pretty faded rug for my store~Justin told me he wanted a faded out oriental rug...
and after seeing Laurie's Prayer rug at Heaven's walk, I had to have one too~
but it had to be bigger! This one is 9 feet long! I can get another one if anyone is interested.
So that is the way our opener in Boston went~so glad you stayed with me along my journey.
I haven't been able to blog hop like I used to~I get to check in on Mondays (my day off).
Thanks for all the great comments, its so fun hearing what you have to say.
PS~yesterday Napoleon sold right out of the front window~!
I think he will be found in a neighboring shop for double the price!!
So if you are looking for great pieces without the high Boston prices,
check our store or look online at the furniture there~
www.shopmaisondecor.com
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