CT Post Two Fairfield County natives now share more than a love for chippy paint and vintage home décor. They share a Marketplace on Main. Kate Ellsworth and Denise Houghton, both of Trumbull, opened The Market Place on Route 25 in Monroe in January after a month of renovations. “We wanted to make it feel like a home,” Ellsworth said. “We like the feeling of having these three little rooms that make people want to peek into and investigate.” Houghton said she has always been one to redecorate, developing a love for antiquing and collecting over the years that quickly blossomed into a passion for painting furniture. Opening an Etsy shop called Du Grenier (from the attic), Houghton began selling her painted furniture and launched a successful custom painting business. Originally from Weston, Hinrichsen said she grew up in a renovated 1700s barn that her parents filled with their own treasured antiques. “I was always into vintage clothing and mid-century antiques,” she said. “When I was in my early 20s, my friend’s father bought an antique store in Westport and I went to work with him learning how to run the business.” Hinrichsen went on to open her own antique storefront out of state that she would run for four years before returning to her roots in Fairfield County. She opened her own Etsy shop in 2014 called The Lyon’s Lair selling her antiques out of the basement of her Trumbull home. “I said I would never return to a brick and mortar storefront again,” Hinrichsen said. That is, until she got together with Houghton. With two extensive home inventories of collected pieces, Houghton and Ellsworth decided it was time to pull their resources together and open not an antique store but a marketplace. Signing the lease for 115 Main St. on Dec. 13, the duo immediately got to work. Formerly housing offices for the Department of Transportation, the second-floor space was lined with commercial grade carpeting and drop ceiling tiles. Today, the space is divided into four different areas of inventory, one larger space that houses an armoire-turned-bar, china hutch and a beautifully restored mantle from an estate in Wellesley, Mass. Three smaller rooms have been curated to blend Houghton’s painted furniture with Hinrichsen’s antique finds. “Typically antique stores are packed from floor to ceiling with antiques — and that’s not what we wanted to do here,” Houghton said. “We thought the word ‘showroom’ sounded too stuffy and settled on marketplace, because that’s really what this is.” Handpicking pieces from their personal collections, the 660-square-foot space is filled with treasures ranging from a steel apothecary-style cabinet to a hand-painted antique dresser with detailed lace stenciling. “When you walk into the space, it’s not about what we are selling you, but about a design,” Houghton said. “You might see how to place something on a mantle or what you can put under a window and get inspired, like, ‘We can make our house look like that for that much?’” Linda Greenwald, of Hamilton, Mass., said she has already visited Marketplace on Main and found the space “warm and inviting.” “The hunting and sifting has already been done, and the rooms are put together so nicely that you’ll want them to come home with you to redecorate,” she said. Alison Zajac, of Trumbull, said Hinrichsen’s and Houghton’s ability to see beauty in things that might be overlooked is “magical.” “Denise has an eye for color and style, and Kate finds so many gorgeous items that can be repurposed and displayed that it is hard to not want everything they sell,” she said. “Not only have I purchased many items from them, but Denise also painted my kitchen cabinets last year, which revived that room tremendously.” While the storefront will not have traditional business hours, it will be open by appointment and once a month for open houses. In addition, Hinrichsen and Houghton plan to host outdoor pop-shop-like events in warmer months. “If we wanted to rent a store space on a Main Street wherever, it’s going to mean overhead resulting in higher prices. It’s going to mean a change in our attitudes and a pressure to sell,” Ellsworth said. “Every piece has a story, where it came from, how we got it that we have a passion for telling. I want to share the story of how I picked up a table on my back and carried it up a flight of stairs or how Kate’s fingers were black for weeks after sanding that steel cabinet.” Hinrichsen said the local antique movement, with an increased interest in upcycling and repurposing, has coupled with an the availability of online tag sales through Facebook groups like Fairfield County Vintage and Antique Tag Sale that Hinrichsen started about four years ago and that has grown to more than 4,600 members. She said people have become more open-minded about the way they decorate their homes and the way they might handle family heirlooms. “Years ago, people would want to go into Pottery Barn and pick out a matching living room set,” Hinrichsen said. “Now, there is such an eclectic mix of styles. People don’t just want function, they want pretty, they want vintage.” The next monthly market is scheduled for the first weekend of March. It will be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Makayla Silva is a freelance writer. makayla.silva@gmail.com
THE MARKETPLACE ON MAIN
115 Main Street Monroe, Connecticut 06468
(suite 12- tucked away in the back of the building)
115 Main Street Monroe, Connecticut 06468
(suite 12- tucked away in the back of the building)