Think Secondhand
Owners Doug and Maureen Strobeck closed Encore Consignment Boutique’s two locations for nine weeks at the start of the pandemic in 2020. When they reopened in late May of the same year, sales volumes for about three months were “business as usual,” says Doug Strobeck. Then, they began to notice a steady uptick in sales.
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“In quarter three, and certainly quarter four of 2020, things just really took off,” he says. The owners attribute the boom to a strong housing market, which yielded all kinds of furnishings from homeowners who decided to move; long lead times on furniture as a result of global supply chain delays, and the appeal of paying 30 to 70 percent less than retail. To draw customer’s attention to the immediacy of buying resale, the couple altered the shop’s tagline to, “You can buy it today and get it today.”
Shopping for secondhand furniture is one way to sidestep the frustration of waiting months, in some cases up to a year, for the delivery of furniture and fabrics. Deborah Shields, general manager of Ditto Family Resale in Warson Woods, says the shop had its best fiscal year-to-date last year. But it’s difficult to know how much of that success is related to supply chain and shipping challenges. “However, numerous customers have commented that because ordering new has such a long lead time right now, they’re excited to see our stock and find pieces they can enjoy immediately,” she says.
According to the Chairish 2021 Home Furnishings Resale Report, in 2020, over the next five years, the resale home furnishings category is projected to grow by 54 percent, more than three times faster than traditional retail. Pre-pandemic, home furnishings accounted for 11 percent of the resale market. In 2020, the home category became the fastest growing resale segment and is expected to reach $177.1 billion in online sales by 2027.
With the popularity of resale on an upswing, shoppers on the hunt for treasure are smart to maintain a steady mix of patience and persistence. “Once the item arrives [to the store], I’ve only got one and once it’s gone, it’s gone,” says Stroebeck. Some tenacious customers stop in once every three weeks to see what’s new on the floor. Arrivals are posted to Encore’s Facebook page, and employees call clients based on a wish list to let them know about a new chair or sofa that’s hit the floor. Working with a white glove delivery service, furniture is typically delivered in one week. For one oversized piece, or a few smaller items, Encore will partner with Pick Up Now. “You book them online and very often you get your furniture the same day,” says Stroebeck. Lead time: none
Redraw the Walls
Sara Zigman has been creating custom murals for more than 20 years. When Covid-19 prohibited her from spending time in clients’ homes and businesses, she adapted. Using high-tech printers, Zigman now sells digitally printed wallpaper and vinyl murals through her design company, Sara Beth Designs. The design concept can either be Zigman’s creation or a collaboration with the homeowner. “The beauty of this new technology is that someone doesn’t need to spend hours painting in your home. You can get something completely customized to your space and color scheme and install it as though it were wallpaper,” she says. Once a design has been finalized, it is printed and ready to be installed. Lead time: 2-3 weeks, depending on design time
Decorative painter and artist Susan Greene, owner of Paint Imagery, has sensed a general feeling of panic among some of her designer clients. “There’s this energy of, ‘I can’t get it so I’ve got to hurry and get something.’ Let’s say they can’t get the wallpaper they want. They use me and the result is really kind of more spectacular,” she says. “Designers are having to think out of the box. I’m having to think out of the box.”
With a gallon of paint, Greene wields the power to not only transform walls but also furniture and home décor. Recently, when a client couldn’t get the mirror she wanted delivered fast enough, Greene was hired to paint and glaze the existing mirror frame, which revealed a completely new look. For another client, Greene distressed a pair of existing chairs to be more in line with the room’s new design direction, a French Country aesthetic. “Instead of buying new chairs—it was going to take eight months [for delivery] and they were $2,000 chairs—the client asked me to distress them.”
Creating a unique look for a client is a specialty of St. Louis muralist Peter Engelsmann. While the artist’s work may not always cut down on lead times—it can take weeks just to hash out and narrow down the final design—when he’s finished, the client will own a one-of-a kind creation. In some cases, a mural can take a few days to complete. “But in most, for the stuff I’m doing now—landscape scenes, similar to French-style scenic wallpaper, but completely original—I can spend several months,” he says. To this point, Engelsmann recently took four-and-a-half months to paint an 800-square-foot mural in the hallway of a home. Lead time: 3 weeks for a simple mural design; several months for a detailed room-size mural
Make it Clean
Hiring a professional window washer and home organizer results in a big pay off in almost no time. Mike Rood, owner of Squeegee Clean based in Maplewood, recommends a biannual window washing schedule, but the location of your home will often dictate the frequency. “If your home is surrounded by big oaks and maples, trees that drop a lot of stuff, you’ll want to get your windows washed more often,” he says.
Other than enhancing curb appeal, maintaining the windows around your home will improve their longevity and increase heat efficiency by allowing more sunlight into the rooms. The cost for a standard sized window with two panes is $4 for the exterior and $6 per pane for both the interior and exterior. Lead times: Winter and Summer: 1-2 weeks; Spring and Fall: up to one month
The founders of STL Refresh can make your kitchen and pantries look Pinterest-perfect. In fact, the popularity of posts on social media that show impeccably organized spaces and rooms has helped the two founders grow their business. “People see beautifully organized kitchens and want that for themselves,” says Mia Fitzgerald, who launched the company in 2020 with friend Claire Lillis. The duo will sort, toss, vacuum, and clean your kitchen before even reorganizing the cabinets and drawers. “We make a huge mess before we clean up!” says Fitzgerald.
Recently, the two women have received more requests from clients for help organizing family and toy rooms. “Everyone is overloaded from the holidays,” says Fitzgerald. “Lots of things coming in [to the house] and not many things going out. We’ve received requests to clean and purge playrooms, basements, and family rooms—anything that has to do with where kids and family are spending time together.”
Fitzgerald and Lillis focus on reusing homeowners’ bins, baskets, and other containers before shopping for more. An average kitchen and pantry project takes approximately six hours to complete. Lead time: 1-2 weeks
Take Inventory
Shopping your home can satisfy the desire to create new surroundings without buying anything, and the kitchen is full of inspiration. Designer Marci Marsh updates the ambiance in her own by making small tweaks, such as moving a table lamp from the living room onto the kitchen counter. “This creates an especially inviting mood when entertaining,” she says. Restyling floating shelves and open cabinets endless options for shifting what you see every day. Marsh has been known to swap out the brightly colored dishes that she keeps in the butler’s pantry for her set of all-white plates and bowls that she stores in the kitchen.
But there’s no reason to limit changes to small objects. Moving furniture around the house is less intimidating than one might expect. In general, says Marsh, people maintain their preferred color palettes, either cool or warm tones, consistently throughout their home, which makes moving such items as an occasional chair or even an area rug from one room to another, relatively seamless. “The next thing you know, you’re grabbing a throw [for the chair] and fresh flowers,” says Marsh. Lead time: none
Giving an old piece of furniture new purpose is equally satisfying. Blair Kweskin, of Blair Kweskin Design, recommends taking a pretty dessert plate, or a piece of crystal that sees little use, and giving it new life as a soap dish in the bathroom or as a receptacle for rings and other small jewelry. Clients often ask Tim Glastetter, a decorative painter whose skill set also includes woodworking, what more he can do to save them time and frustrating wait times. In the past year, he’s painted ceiling fans for a client who couldn’t get the color he wanted in a reasonable amount of time, redesigned a dated television armoire into a trendy drinks bar, and reconfigured kitchen cabinets to be more user-friendly. “So many people are throwing out good furniture,” he says. “My brain sees things differently. I look at the structure and ask myself, ‘Can I add layers to it? Can I change out the hardware? Maybe alter the funky application on it?’ It’s looking at the piece and saying, ‘What can we do differently?’ Lead time: 1 week from the time Glastetter takes possession of the item
Go See Art
Now is the time to explore the local art scene, discover what moves you visually, and learn about collecting art. Homeowners can start today by visiting a museum (Saint Louis Art Museum reopened to the public yesterday), walking into a gallery, or, simply, taking the time to thumb through an art book (Tip: According to local artist and ceramicist Maggie Robertson, Central Library, in downtown St. Louis, houses an incredible collection of books on art.)
Mostly is projects+gallery’s latest exhibit, presenting work by a variety of artists in a salon-style installation. In tandem with the exhibit, the gallery is hoping to offer
programming this spring for those wanting to learn more about collecting art. Interested parties should check the gallery’s website or Instagram for regular updates.
Robin Hirsch-Steinhoff, the artistic director of Art St. Louis, says the single most important tip for buying art is to love it. “You’ll be living with the artwork day in and day out, so be sure that it’s something for which you have strong feelings,” she says.
Works that are purchased at Art St. Louis, founded in the 1970s to exhibit the work of local artsits, can be taken home just as soon as the exhibit ends. “The artist will deliver or ship the sold artwork to the buyer,” says Hirsch-Steinhoff. “If a buyer wants or needs an artwork immediately, then we can always contact the artist to see if there’s something similar available in their studio.” Lead time: 4-6 weeks, depending on length of exhibit
