Homespun Treasures is the subject of this week’s SooToday Mid-Week Mugging.
David Nicholson, who owns and operates the home decor and giftware shop at 762 Queen Street East with his wife Ruth, chatted with us and received a pair of SooToday mugs.
Nicholson, a retired high school math teacher, established the business with Ruth in 2011.
“We started it from our home and it grew from there, we originally didn’t really expect it to grow as much as it did,” Nicholson said.
David and Ruth opened the store at its current downtown location in September, 2014.
Homespun Treasures sells home decor and giftware in the ‘country primitive’ style.
Country primitive items have a non-mass produced, antique appearance, in earthy colour tones.
Items for sale at Homespun Treasures include scented candles, a wide variety of linens, quilts, dolls, wreaths, kitchen accessories, mugs, lamps, clocks, carvings and more, including signs and plaques with family friendly sentiments printed upon them, such as ‘Life is always better when we are together.’
With summer here, Homespun Treasures has bird houses, bird feeders, garden accessories and other seasonal items for sale.
“Every season our stock changes with fall themes and Christmas themes,” Nicholson said.
“We bring a lot of our merchandise in from the Amish people in the United States, as well as Canadian merchandise.”
“I enjoy the store. It’s family owned, it’s not strenuous. I enjoy meeting people and talking to them, that’s what I really enjoy most about it, the customers themselves.”
“We have some pretty regular customers who are here a lot, and we’re pleasantly surprised at the number of tourists we get. We’ve had them here from England, Australia, a lot of Americans, we get a good variety.”
“In fact, we have one lady who comes from England, and every time she comes to visit she brings an empty suitcase to fill it up with items she buys here,” Nicholson smiled.
“The store’s interesting, I think it’s meeting a need here in the Sault for this type of giftware. You would expect to see this kind of store down in Petoskey.”
The store is staffed mainly by David and Ruth and their daughter Marion.
Ruth also has a home-based quilting business.
Homespun Treasures is currently open on a part-time basis from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
From September to December, its hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
“The reason for that is so I can enjoy retirement and still do some work at the same time. I’m not a sit around type of guy,” Nicholson said.