Miss Pixie has joined the party on 14th Street.
Pixie Windsor, who has sold vintage furniture in Adams Morgan since 1997, recently moved her pink awning and her store, Miss Pixie's Furnishings & Whatnot, to join the growing mix of independent retailers clustering around 14th and U streets NW.
Known for her eye for finding Shabby Chic-style sofas ($300 to $500) and mid-century lamps ($45 to $150), Windsor and business partner Geoff Dawson, a local restaurateur, have opened a more spacious location in a former car dealership. I can carry more and bigger pieces, like rock crystal chandeliers, pairs of sofas and garden furniture, she says. (And stay tuned for a possible food component to the business.)
As before, her shop at 1626 14th St. NW is open Thursday through Sunday. The rest of the week, Windsor trawls auctions in Delaware, Pennsylvania and their environs for wicker furniture, dice-theme fondue forks, purple-goth fireplaces and orange-tufted wing back chairs. She once snagged the leftovers from the estate of Katharine Graham, the late publisher of The Washington Post, including several dozen pink-and-green Christian Dior padded clothes hangers.
Shoppers who live within a four-block radius get delivery for $20 in Miss Pixie's 1969 orange Chevy pickup.
-- Jura Koncius (June 2008)
When antique furniture store Miss Pixie's moved to 14th Street last year, Pixie Windsor and her business partner thought of turning the shop's 1,800-square-foot back room into something more conventional. "We wanted to do pool tables and a bar," Windsor says. Instead, people go to the Backroom Palace for theater, storytelling and even parties.
Unlike the other proprietors here, Windsor doesn't throw her own events; arts groups come to her to make use of the outrageously girly hot-pink space. In February, Ganymede Arts staged a run of "After the Garden: Edith Beale Live at Reno Sweeney" there and will return in September to hold its GLBT Fall Arts Festival; a promoter is doing a series of small club-style events at the venue.
It's not exactly a pool hall, says Windsor, but, "I think it's the next best thing."
-- Lavanya Ramanathan (July 24, 2009)
