Opening a new store in Boston! But with a twist~

 Boston's South End is getting a new store!

For my newer followers of the blog, Maison Decor used to have

a shop on Harrison Ave in the city's South End, but we decided not to 

renew the lease and wait for a better location.  My son Justin ran the Boston

store and has been on the lookout ever since we closed last September. 

It was a tough decision because we loved being in the city, but knew

the right thing to do was get a better spot. And a better spot I think he found!

Check out the beautiful brownstone and the corner shop with the green door.

That is going to be our new store! 

 He found it on a Saturday on Craiglist and went right in to take a look.

The next day I went back with him to check it out and I agreed~!

It looked perfect!! The broker took our photo as we stood outside the door.

It has these neat iron gates with tiny garden spaces along both sides of the shop

and then there are two large picture windows with display space for creating

a buzz for the foot traffic and the neighborhood.

This time, however, there would be a twist in our retail plan.

This was going to be a brand new concept and it would be all Justin's.

I have been his sounding board and do some consulting 

and its been so exciting and a bit strange to not have 

design control over this store.  Its like watching your kid learn to 

ride a bike, or climb a tree.  You don't put him on the bike until

you are pretty sure he can pedal off without crashing!!

And he is ready to peddle~he has been going full speed ahead

since we signed the lease about ten days ago. 

 So it was in September 2012, that I found our first Boston location. 

 It was a funky little space in an artsy district of Boston. 

I was super excited and Justin was going to run this store. 

 The more we got into the day to day operations,

 the more it morphed into something that was his own.

 We shined this shabby little store up and became a cool little shop.

 On weekends we did particularly well as there was a 

lot of foot traffic linked to the popular vintage market down the street,

 called SOWA Vintage Market.  But during the week, this street

was pretty quiet.  We felt if we could have everyday passers by find us,

 they would see what all the buzz was about that 
the vintage market goers experienced in our Harrison Ave shop.  
We had write ups in local and national design mags, 
and mentions on Racked Boston and other publications.
Lesson learned that pedestrian and car traffic is an important factor.

Justin used to live in the South End for years and has local connections.

He fits right in, and we are excited to be opening a store again in the South End

on a busy street, with more space, and that has big windows and is right on street level

instead of a walk up space like our old shop was.

The former W salon used to be in this space.  The logos have

been removed on the windows and there will be new signage coming!

However it won't be another Maison Decor.  Nope! 

Justin has a new name for his store, 

and Maison Decor is the parent company for his new shop.

I love the name,  its pretty cool!! 

I am loving every move he has made so far.  I won't be

deluded to think we will always be on the same page, but so far so good.

 I bet you would love to see a few inside pics too, right?

 This is the raw space, a large rectangular room

 with white walls and ceilings

and a kind of front and back area due to the

 division of the space with a partial wall. 

Its about 1000 square feet, more than double our old space.

 Justin got straight to work and had the ceilings painted out black

as the first step.  We loved having the ceilings painted black when we did the 

Reading store.  It makes the space feel more cozy and yet expansive.

His next move was a Billiards Green for the walls and trim.

And thats where this story ends.  I will be giving updates

on the store as it develops.  Its thrilling to watch and see the pics come

in over my phone via text or instagram. 

You can follow along on instagram

@PioneerGoods, and the Reading shop @shopmaisondecor 

or my instagram @amymaisondecor.

If you are a visual person, you might really like Instagram.

Pioneer Goods Co will sell Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan of course.

But it will be a whole lot more than that...so stay tuned!!
We will be closing our Malden Warehouse and running a blowout
furniture clearance sale on Sunday May 4th! So if you are around, 
you won't want to miss it!

We will be bidding a sad adieu to our Malden location.

Sniff, sniff.