The thrill of the hunt—and the comforts of home
By Katie Pelech
Imagine your grandparents’ house. Toss in a few plush chaises longues, Persian-lamb coats and funky bits of mantel décor, then take away Grandpa’s stained Barcalounger, the shag carpeting, any fake-wood paneling and that mothball smell, and you’ve got a pretty good approximation of Francesca’s Fabulous Finds, a new store in Webster Groves that sells antique and vintage goods from furniture to finery. That vaguely nostalgic feel is no coincidence, either. Owner Maria Gianino devoted months to carefully rehabbing the old Webster home, determined to create her utopian shopping experience—comfortable and familiar, yet charged with the thrill of a treasure hunt.
It’s that shopping-induced giddiness that compelled Gianino, who majored in design at Mizzou, to open the store named after (and inspired by) her mother, an avid antique hound. “I like the thrill of the hunt,” Gianino says, getting excited. “I just went to an auction over the weekend that at first I wasn’t sure about. It was down in Arnold, and it was an antique dealer who had died, and he had had a store, and the store had actually been closed for 25 years!” She pauses to gulp a breath. “It was three barns and a house full of stuff that hadn’t been touched in 25 years!”
Zeal has made Gianino’s seven-day workweek, most people’s worst nightmare, into the daily adrenaline fix she requires to function. She’s constantly on the lookout for promising auctions and estate sales, and her devotion is reflected in the shop’s ever-rotating inventory. The absence of a middleman, Gianino notes, is reflected in consistently low price tags.
Francesca’s aspires to be a pet peeve–free zone. You can wander from room to room at your leisure, unencumbered by commission-starved salespeople. You can buy a spectacular new footstool, confident that your neighbor has not just ordered its twin from Pottery Barn. You can fall in love with that armoire with the cringe-worthy price tag and, if you ask very, very nicely, you might be able to swing a discount and keep your firstborn son. Those curmudgeonly grandparents of yours would never cut you such a sweet deal.
Francesca's Fabulous Finds | 7526 Big Bend | 314-647-4635 | www.francescasfinds.com
