It’s Monday morning, just past 10 a.m., when the shop opens to the public, and Jon Hunt is already holding court in a room dripping with crystal chandeliers.
For the past 30 years, Hunt has been at work six days a week at Jon Paul Designs and Collectibles, his antiques shop in Richmond Heights. The shop is always open on Mondays, when other antique stores around town are closed, because a lot of people have the day off and want to shop.
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“Everyone wants to see me here because I’m the one who can show them what to do [with the light fixture,]” he says of his demanding six-day work week. “I help them pick them out. I tell them if I can shorten them, stretch them, change the crystals, if they want to change them, or whatever.”
The self-taught restorer of chandeliers counts interior designers, collectors, and homeowners from across the country as loyal clients, though each of the burnished fixtures that dangle from the shop’s ceiling have been found in historic St. Louis homes and businesses and repaired in Hunt’s downstairs workroom or at the front desk if he’s the only one working at the store that day. Originally from Mississippi, Hunt, 65, began his career managing an art gallery in Clayton. He says he always wanted to run his own antiques shop and was confident that he could make it a success. “I knew I could do it, and so we just did it,” he says.
Word that Hunt plans to retire and close the shop at the end of the year has started to reverberate in circles where the subject of houses, fine antiques, and grand chandeliers are part of the daily lexicon. “They’re all freaking out because we get the good stuff, and it’s in good shape,” he says.
With the shop’s lease set to expire in December, Hunt and his partner, Paul Mroczkowski, are retiring. Everybody asks Hunt what he’s going to do next. “We’re just ready to go,” he says. “We want to travel and do stuff before we get old.” At the top of their wish list is a trip down the Nile; Hunt is a collector of Egyptian statues from the first century BC.
Between phone calls and clients, Hunt shared about his career, why he loves restoration work, and some final tips for decorating with chandeliers.
You first opened in a storefront on the corner of Big Bend and Clayton. What was your goal?
I just wanted to find neat stuff for people’s houses. My specialty is chandeliers.
What attracted you to chandeliers?
I like tearing them apart, rebuilding them, and making them look good. I loved getting [the chandeliers] to look beautiful again because they come in looking nasty, dirty, filthy. We’ve got them from The Chase Park Plaza. We got them from Union Station. We got them from homes.
How long does it take you to restore a light fixture?
It depends on what kind of parts it needs, how hard it is to get the wires out of the arms. Sometimes they break off in there, and sometimes it’s hard to get them out and all kinds of stuff. I can get them done pretty fast, but it just depends on what’s going on with them.
What precipitated your decision to retire?
Thirty years. We’re just ready to go. We want to travel and do stuff before we get old. Our lease is running out, so we just decided that’s it.
What are you doing from now until you close?
We’re selling everything off. We’re still getting new stuff in, but we’re only taking the good stuff that’s high-end and ready to go unless it’s something that we can get done right away. I got a Waterford chandelier in the other day. We sold it right away because I redid it. I rewired it. New sockets, everything. I just sold the two Waterford [chandeliers] over the jewelry drawer cases on Saturday.
So people are still hungry for chandeliers and this particular look?
Two weeks ago, we sold probably 20 of them to one person.
Have you thought about selling the shop to someone who could take it on as a business?
It would never be the same. They wouldn’t know how to style, redo the chandeliers, and make them perfect. We restyle them; we add things to them. We change them, stretch them, shorten them. I put ships and airplanes in them. I put tea sets in them. I can pretty much do anything to them.
What has been the secret to your success?
Having fun with the people and never yelling at the kids. You yell at their kids, and they’ll never come back. We let the kids pick up anything they want, and they have never broken a thing. And if they did, I’d just write it off. Who cares? People get so upset over that kind of stuff. I’m like, ‘Why?’
What is the best way to decorate with chandeliers?
Don’t get them to match—just coordinate. Look at them all in here together. They have different metals, all different kinds, but they all coordinate, right? We put them in bathrooms. We put them in our closets.
