Restoring Beauty
It was only after being hit hard by
the stock market that this former Ad Exec decided it was time
to mix the old lessons with the new and fulfill a childhood dream.
Since her furniture consignment shop again and again opened
in June 2005, Leslie Pritchard has worked seven days a week. “It’s
not for the faint of heart,” she says. When she’s
not curating the store or performing extreme makeovers on former
beauty queens, she’s trawling Dallas’s alleys,
junk shops and estate sales in her Volvo station wagon. Pritchard
has tapped into a rising demand for well-made vintage pieces. “I
think as decorating is going, people are going to want to continue
to mix old with new,” she says. It’s a design principle
she’s been following since junior high.
I understand the refurbishing bug bit you early.It did. I remember
when I was about 13, I found two old nightstands in an Oklahoma junkshop
that I stripped and repainted to match the exact yellow, green and
orange of my dresser. This was in the 1970s when the signature look
was to have black splatters over the paint. I accomplished this by
dipping a toothbrush into black paint and flinging the paint off the
toothbrush. I remember thinking that was quite an accomplishment.How
did you know how to strip a piece of furniture?I bought a stripper
at the lumberyard in town and read the directions. I grew up on a farm,
and I’d sit out in the barn every night taking the finish off
these pieces, which was incredibly difficult at first. It’s much
easier if someone shows you how to do it. The real secret is using
steel wool. They don’t tell you that in the instructions.Did
your family think you were odd?Out of five kids, I was the only one
who wouldn’t participate in the nightly ritual of watching TV.
I remember my dad, on more than one occasion, telling me he wished
I would come inside and watch TV with the family.How did you get started
in this business?I wish I would’ve had the courage to open a
store in my 20s, or even in my 30s, but I didn’t understand how
I could support myself and make money doing it. At 44, I was faced
with starting a new career because I had lost a substantial amount
of money in the stock market. I had been very successful running an
advertising business, but I was forced to find a new means of supporting
myself. I wanted to do something I really loved, and what I really
loved was old furniture, so I decided to open a consignment store,
since that requires very little capital.Did it take off immediately?No—I
found that I wasn’t getting the kinds of quality consignments
I wanted to get, so I started taking more chips and dings and rips
and tears. I discovered I could earn money by upholstering and refinishing
this furniture and making the store a one-stop shop where you buy the
piece and we transform it into the furniture of your dreams.Any lessons
you learned in advertising that are applicable to retail? I learned
that it takes about three years to really start experiencing the fruits
of your success. I’ve seen the same pattern with both businesses.
In the second year, you really start to get going. In the third year,
you begin to realize you’re becoming successful.How do you measure
success? I judge my success by building my business one happy customer
at a time. Second, by the number of repeat customers and referrals.
Letting your customers know they’re the most important thing
is a philosophy that works time and time again. They’ll reward
you for that. Every weekend, we get people who’re bringing other
people in—daughters bringing their fathers, friends bringing
friends. There’s a real happiness about the store that everyone
is inspired by—I hear that on a frequent basis. It’s just
sort of a magical place. It’s a tumble and a jumble, but you
can truly find a treasure here.
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