This past April Carolyn Lewis, who has worked full-time as an artist in her home since 2018, took a big step. She rented a retail space at 5846 Macklind in the Princeton Heights neighborhood.
She’d long ago outgrown her laundry room studio at home, a space she shared with a washer, dryer, two children, and pets. “I was overtaking the dining room and the hallways with my stuff–art materials, tools, canvasses stacked up and in-process. It was time to move into a separate space, and give our home back to my family,” she says.
Get a weekly dose of home and style inspiration
Subscribe to the St. Louis Design+Home newsletter to explore the latest stories from the local interior design, fashion, and retail scene.
This former art therapist approached the move with purpose. She created a wish list for the gallery, which she named Carolyn Lewis Designs. The location needed to be close to home with lots of natural light and large enough to work, display her art, and teach classes to children and adults. It would also function as a space for private events held after hours. “I told myself, ‘I would take as long as I needed to find that magical perfect space’,” she says.
Today, Lewis’s paintings, multi-media works, sculptures, and jewelry hang on the walls and are on display in store fixtures, like a secretary that once belonged to her grandparents and that Lewis stripped and painted red.
Bright paper globes and chandeliers hang from the ceiling. Vintage kitchen tables and chairs provide a place to sit, chat, and take class. Lewis creates her original artworks in limited collections, like the current show of brightly painted ice cream cones, dishes, cups, and sundaes that hang on the walls. An ice cream diorama fills the front window and casts playful shadows across the wood floors.
“When people walk in, I want them to have an experience. I wanted to create this space as a place to experience joy, strength, and happiness. I feel like I’ve accomplished that,” she says.
A patterned mural, flanked by one of Lewis’s signature empowerment birds, lights up the space. Like all of Lewis’s whimsical avian ambassadors, this one wears red shoes. “They wear red shoes because I wear red shoes when I need a little extra confidence,” she says.
“I painted the wings gold and left them blank so that every single person that walks in the studio can add words of empowerment to them,” she says. “I’ve been open since April 29 and they’re almost filled up—but we’ll make space for more. When people come to my store, I want them to feel strong, brave, and empowered.”
Carolyn Lewis Designs
5846 Macklind Avenue; St. Louis, MO 63109
Hours: Shop hours run Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
