CHARLOTTESVILLE
Thomas Jefferson's town has long been known as one of the best places in America to go to college, and a terrific place to retire. A 2004 Frommer's survey ranked it as the No. 1 place to live among 400 U.S. cities.
We'd like to nominate it as one of the best places in the Washington region to shop for furniture, antiques, linens, fabrics and home accessories in a friendly, charming, often walkable historic venue.
As the fall colors begin to light up the Blue Ridge Mountains, consider taking the two-hour drive southwest from Washington, a familiar trek to parents of University of Virginia students. But perhaps they haven't realized that the historic town is also chockablock with independent home furnishings retailers. And no, not everything has stirrups or bridle bits on it.
Charlottesville, a laid-back kind of place of about 40,000 people (plus 20,000 students), mingles tradition with modern living. The hills have vineyards and lush horse farms; the town has wine bars and chic fusion-style cooking, plus lots of good cheap student eats.
Lots of new businesses have generated a buzz in Charlottesville's downtown area, which consists of an eight-block Main Street pedestrian mall and narrow side streets. (Beware of confusing one-way roads.)
In the past several years the mall has become a happening place with a lively blend of merchants, sidewalk cafes and street vendors; between April and October, Fridays After Five enlivens the mix with live music outside. On the southern side of the mall, the Downtown Design Center building (a former lawn mower repair shop) now houses stores like Quince, which specializes in Mitchell Gold upholstery and pillows made from things like faux beaver or pink fringe; and 2 French Hens, which offers distressed painted furniture and monogrammed linens worthy of a Parisian flat.
The city's reputation as a great place to raise a family has brought new customers with cash and class.
"Young professionals have chosen to live in Charlottesville looking for a certain quality of life," says Carla Mullen, who opened her urban chic home furnishings store, Lush Life, on West Water St. two years ago. "There are lots of people both from the East Coast and West Coast who have settled here. We're giving them some great choices."
Courteney Stuart is senior editor of the Hook, a weekly local newspaper that energetically covers the changing retail climate. "It's a very boutiquey scene here," she says. "We don't have a lot of big chains." Indeed, in two days of checking out Charlottesville shopping options, we found nary a sign of Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel. "The little independently owned kind of shop is expanding beyond the borders of downtown," says Stuart. "Now people don't have to go to Richmond or Washington to shop."
In fact, Richmond and Washington shoppers are coming here.
"I love to shop in Charlottesville. There are great antiques, and I love walking the pedestrian mall and ducking into little shops," says Washington area decorator Barry Dixon, who is working on a Georgian farmhouse nearby.
Washington designer Jose Solis-Betancourt discovered the town's allure because he also has had clients in the surrounding hills. "Using local sources when we're doing a house always adds a different layer to the project," he says.
Another bonus: You'll rarely have a bad experience with a salesclerk who doesn't know the merchandise. That's because the owner of the store is probably the person helping you.
Here's a sampling:
And George
A savvy mother and daughter teamed up three years ago to bring uptown style to the west side of Charlottesville. They call their shop And George, in honor of the English bulldog who is both mascot and muse of the five-room store located in a quaint cottage that served as a fried chicken joint in the 1950s.
Co-owner Jan Roden worked in interior design in Northern Virginia for more than 20 years before moving south to set up shop with her daughter Christy Roden Ford, once a New York photographer.
"She's a little more Elle Decor, and I'm a little more Southern Accents," says Roden. So the familial partners made a deal: Each would buy what she liked for the store and they would display Ford's edgier, lacquered Japanese trays and high-back sofas alongside Roden's European and American antiques, earthy lichen-covered logs and giant shells. The intergenerational mix works well.
Romantic 18th-century botanical prints floating in glass frames ($400 to $800), chunks of petrified wood ($1,200 and up), red leather-bound books ($25) and hand-woven cotton rugs from England ($200 to $600) set off an ivory-colored round convex mirror ($2,695) by British designer Julian Chichester. Pillows hand-embroidered with coral motifs are shown on traditional-style upholstery in neutral shades. Vintage sofas and chairs are covered in Belgian linen.
Do you know of another place where you can buy tiny cappuccino-colored Hungarian partridge eggs for $3? Eggs ($3 to $29) are a specialty of And George: mammoth ostrich eggs, Colorado goose eggs, fragile guinea hen eggs. "I have always been taken with eggs because they represent immortality," says Roden.
Stop by for cupcakes and champagne on Nov. 19 for George's annual birthday bash. Dog biscuits are available all year.
By the way, their antler shipment (shedded, of course) arrived last week from Minnesota.
3465 Ivy Rd.; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; closed Monday. 434-244-2800 or www.andgeorge.com.
Artifacts
For four years, Todd Hill sold antiques in the Shenendoah Valley and at antique shows around Virginia. But his real love was mixing traditional with contemporary. "I'm not sure if I'm a traditionalist who likes modern, or vice versa," says Hill.
In June 2002, he opened a small shop a half-block off the downtown mall where he could combine his interests. Many of his accessories are modern but with a classic twist -- like a traditional baluster-shaped lamp made of cement ($375). The store is a great place to pick up a classy wedding gift that doesn't appear on a bridal registry.
He has a good eye. We liked the optic glass candleholders ($68 each) and the wax candles shaped like traditional candlesticks ($8 each). Red Japanese ceramic teapots ($30) and foot-high ceramic chess pieces ($175 for a set of three) entice accessory lovers. Vintage furniture and period antiques, like a late 19th-century Eastlake-style mahogany-and-marble hall mirror ($1,295) and a painted Pennsylvania blanket chest circa the 1860s ($995) change regularly. Hill also specializes in old and new lighting. One favorite supplier is Kansas City designer Barbara Cosgrove, whose table lamp with a round grooved base of resin made to resemble wood costs $215.
Hill's look can be described as masculine and well edited. And that brings us to another refreshing thing about Artifacts: The shop doesn't smell cloyingly of scented candles.
109 First St. South; Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 12:30 to 5:30; closed Monday. 434-244-3559.
Circa
Students flock to Circa for its funky frat-house style in three cramped buildings on the edge of downtown filled with a jumble of previously owned furniture. But local insiders -- and savvy campus denizens -- know that trolling thru the jampacked aisles can unearth serious treasures, such as Herman Miller coffee tables, antique wicker or 19th-century transferware.
The six-year-old establishment appeals to almost anyone who gets a charge out of bargain hunting and may be looking to score a $165 couch or a surfboard-shaped coffee table ($125) to go with it. (The beer-bottle-cap-studded table on display the day of our visit was pure "Animal House"; John Belushi would have loved it.)
Circa is the first stop for U Va. visiting professors and foreign grad students who often arrive in town with nothing but their laptops. Here they can pick up retro salt and pepper shakers, fireplace screens and porch furniture. See that guy over there? He could be a dealer from Richmond or Washington who is taking advantage of the great prices to pick up a bargain to then flip.
Owner Jackie Binder calls her place "an affordable antique store." She gets a lot of her stuff from auctions and estate sales. "You know -- the leftovers from death, divorce or downsizing," she explains, describing her niche in the market as filling the void between junk shops and antique stores. Merchandise arrives daily and turnover is swift. You might find coffee tables ($75 to $125), club chairs ($65 to $125), lamps ($15 to $25) or chests of drawers ($100 to $200).
You'll discover used home furnishings of all kinds: rugs, barstools, beds, bookshelves, deco dressers, mirrors and trunks. Sometimes Binder buys stuff back when students are moving cross-country. But not everything. "If a fraternity calls and asks me if I want to buy a sofa back, usually I say no."
1700 Allied St.; Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. Call 434-295-5760 or visit www.circainc.com.
Kenny Ball Antiques and the Shade Shop at Kenny Ball Antiques
Head west from downtown Charlottesville to an unassuming shopping center where you'll find two elegant stores owned by knowledgeable antiques expert Kenny Ball. This is one of the favorite Charlottesville stops of interior designers, including Washingtonians Jose Solis-Betancourt and Barry Dixon as well as New Yorkers Bunny Williams and Charlotte Moss, who admire his $5,800 French walnut writing tables and $5,500 Swedish painted clocks.
"Kenny has a great eye for antiques that have beautiful crusty finishes on them that beautifully temper the new furniture you put in a room," says Dixon. "And he has great lamps."
Ball has been in the antiques business for 15 years, specializing in European pieces. He travels to France every couple of months to add to his inventory, which appeals to serious collectors and the decorator crowd, plus clients as far afield as Texas and New Orleans.
Five years ago, Ball decided to add an extensive lamp department to his business. He now carries a wide assortment of lamp shades, and supplies and specializes in custom shades as well as repairs. Ball estimates that he has 2,000 shades in stock, from shirred red silk to black-and-white stripes to retro-looking squares and ovals. If you're in the market for a pale green faux ostrich lampshade ($22 each for chandelier size), zip on over. (Here's a hint: If you make the trip for a new shade, make sure to bring your lamp so it can be fitted properly.)
If you get lost, ask for directions to Foods of All Nations, an exotic and fascinating grocery emporium next door that's been a magnet for foodies for decades.
2125 Ivy Rd.; Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by appointment; 434-293-1361; www.kennyballantiques.com.
Lush Life
When Carla Mullen was an architectural history student at the University of Virginia in the early 1990s, 218 West Water St. was a tire showroom. Now it is Mullen's own slice of Charlottesville's design pie. Mullen is part of a new group of urban pioneers who are filling the side streets of Charlottesville's downtown with fresh takes on home decor.
When she opened her shop in June 2002, Mullen's goal was to bring a sort of chic and sophisticated Elle Decor attitude here. "Even if people are living a country life and have traditional taste," she says, "they sometimes like to add modern things. They want something special to make their houses look different."
Her shop is well located for that objective -- a few doors from hip women's clothing purveyor Eloise and a block south of Charlottesville's new Downtown Design Center, drawing an urbane clientele to the area. "A lot of my customers are in their 30s," says Mullen. "They're buying high design for the first time, so it has to be affordable."
Mullen has found a cadre of designers with her attitude: Tricia Guild for boldly hued linens for Designers Guild ($350 and up for a set of queen-size sheets); Babette Holland's spun aluminum mirrors and lamps in jewel tones (mirrors are $265 to $350); Jill Rosenwald's graphic pottery ($50 to $760); and Pine Cone Hill quilts and fleece blankets in colors like celery and chili red ($75 to $420). A tweedy, loosely woven chocolate- brown-and-cream throw by New York designer Ilene Antelman for Fig ($165) is so chic you could even wear it out at night.
Mullen says some customers are surprised to find so much uptown design in such a bucolic corner of Virginia. One woman from San Francisco told her, "Gosh, I've only seen these things in magazines." Not bad for a former tire store.
218 West Water St.; Suite C. Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a. m. to 6 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday; 434-979-0002.
Read & Co.
Tiki thatch can be hard to find in the Virginia horse country. But luckily it's in stock at Read & Co., a lively multi-culti shop on the downtown mall where, for $48, you can pick up a four-by-four section of genuine Haitian palm leaves woven into a square suitable for tiki bar roofing. Or an old Delhi oxcart bench, an antique English leather suitcase, mudcloth from Mali, carvings from New Guinea or masks from West Africa.
The store, which opened three years ago in a former florist shop, beckons customers with its moody music, like Argentinian tango masters Gotan Project. There's usually a lineup of colorful round Ghanaian market baskets ($36) outside, suitable for holding toys or magazines or for shopping at your local farmer's markets.
The proprietors Lisa and Simon Harvey had both worked on private yachts all over the Mediterranean and Caribbean. "Traveling to all these exotic places gave us the inspiration for this shop," says Lisa Harvey. "As a young girl I was interested in anthropology and different cultures and primitive art. Simon has wonderful taste and loves to shop. We combined all of this in our store."
One particularly eye-catching lamp has a wooden base and a shade painted with strong colors and simple graphics ($256). It's the work of English artist Cressida Bell, who no doubt gets her sense of pattern and decoration from her avant-garde forebears, members of England's famed Bloomsbury Group. This well-known cadre of artists and intellectuals in the early 1900s included author Quentin Bell and artist Vanessa Bell, her father and grandmother. We think her very cool relatives would dig Read & Co.
418 East Main St.; Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday. 434-244-9876; www.readandco.com.
The Second Yard
The Second Yard is a mecca for that subset of shoppers who are perpetually hunting for the perfect fabric. Started in downtown Charlottesville in 1977 by Evelyn Marshall in a stately 1853 Greek Revival brick house, the store has had various Washington-area branches, first in Falls Church, then in Alexandria and today in Fairfax. But there's nothing like the mother store, with 17 rooms and thousands of bolts to ogle to your heart's content. The fabrics are offered at discount prices and are grouped by colors. Don't miss the Green Room.
There are cottons, silks and upholstery-weight fabrics by makers such as P. Kaufman, Braemore, Covington, Sunbrella, Richloom, Waverly and Stroeheim & Roman. Prices range anywhere from $2 to $60 a yard, but most cottons tend to be about $14 a yard. You will find deals on discontinued and close-out fabrics. The staff is helpful and knowledgeable, and there are decorators on staff for frank opinions. Twice a year, in January and August, there are clearance sales offering up to 40 percent additional savings on fabric.
The business is run by Marshall's son, David, and his wife, Alice, who also keep it stocked with a wide selection of traditional furniture, lamps, rugs and accessories as well as wallpaper, at discounted prices.
Customers often come in clutching torn-out articles from Southern Accents or Traditional Home featuring fabrics they are coveting. "If you see it in the magazines, we will have it in the store," says Alice Marshall.
307 East Market St.; Monday to Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sunday. 434-295-6054.
Yves Delorme
Virginians fond of sleeping under posh French linens as well as saving money have made the drive to Charlottesville for years to the Yves Delorme outlet. The store stocks a variety of items for bed, bath and table, including discontinued patterns and overstocks. But be advised -- some of the merchandise in the front of the store is marked at full retail price.
(By the way, until three years ago, Yves Delorme linens were sold in the United States under the name Palais Royal, but now they have gone back to the same name they use in Europe.)
The company has been producing fine linens in France for more than 150 years; the florals, geometrics and solids are embellished with hem stitching and sateen borders. Such luxe doesn't come cheap: For a queen bed ensemble at full price, expect to pay $336 and up for a set of Yves Delorme Egyptian cotton sheets, says store manager Darlene Campbell. So if you can't afford full price, the outlet offers the same goods for less -- but you have to be flexible about mixing and matching.
According to Campbell, mixing patterns is the French way to go anyway. "When customers first come in here, they say they want everything matching, but when they find out what a full-price sheet set costs, they often reconsider," she says. "We teach them that the French rarely have a totally matching bed, they put things together their own way. The Yves Delorme patterns are meant to work together year to year. You can change your whole look by changing a few pieces. It looks like a designer did it for you."
So what's the savings on the towels, rugs, nightgowns, mohair throws and the rest? Discounts start at 20 percent and keep going up, depending on how long the pieces have been in the store. By the time they reach the 60 percent reduction, the selection is pretty thin, according to Campbell. At 80 percent off, it's usually odd pillow cases and placemats remaining. We saw brightly colored cotton napkins marked from $18 to $14 and pink quilted boudoir pillow cases marked from $108 to $43, plus lots of sheets, quilts and tablecloths on the sale tables.
The shop also carries the linens of Le Jacquard Francais, at both full price and discount.
Put this on your fall calendar: The store traditionally hosts a clearance sale, lots of bits and pieces, the week of Thanksgiving. This year it's Nov. 22 to 27.
311 East Main St.; Monday to Saturday, 10 a. m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sunday. 434-979-4111; www.yvesdelorme.com.
