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What does it take to open a pop-up home design store? Ask Vicki Meany and Kara Bingaman, two Wilton, Conn. women who have done just that. They are the proud owners of Evolved Home.
"We met through our kids," Vicki says. Each has three children between the ages of nine and 15. "Then we realized we were in the same interior design program at Fairfield University," says Kara. The two started chatting about how they might combine their individual decorating businesses.
After six months of planning, including a shopping trip to the High Point Market furniture and accessories trade show in North Carolina in April, Evolved Home opened for business in a small space on Danbury Road, across from Town Hall.
The plan was to run the pop-up from mid-October to mid-November, to "test the waters." Kara and Vicki set up a sign on an easel at the side of the road and told all their friends about their venture, but they had no idea what to expect.
Business boomed as their friends told their friends. The garage-sized space was hopping for the whole month, and Vicki and Kara extended their lease.
In addition to selling occasional tables, interesting lamps, custom-made pillows, trays, vases and candleholders, Evolved Home offers interior design and decorating services. The pair is currently decorating an entire house in the Bahamas, a referral from a client in London, England. "We've been incredibly lucky," says Vicki.
Running a retail shop has its drawbacks, Vicki says. Someone always has to be there, which makes it difficult -- though not impossible -- to get to New York showrooms to shop for clients.
Evolved Home is a work in progress, as Kara and Vicki try to balance running a shop, design business and their children's activity-filled calendars. "It's fun," they say. "We're off to the Atlanta Gift Show soon."
Who knows what new treasures they'll find to fill the shelves of Evolved Home?
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