small business spotlight
THURMONT
10
The TreasureD Workers by Elliot Jones Is there a something in your home that has a special place because it once belonged to a beloved grandparent? Have you ever visited an unassuming table at a flea market and discovered the perfect gift for a friend? Do you have a story of when you were cleaning a long-neglected attic and you discovered something so distinctive and cool that you had to rescue it? Then you know what it is to find a treasure. What makes a treasure isn’t its resale value, but in the weight of its uniqueness and meaning. It’s something that’s one of a kind, not because “they don’t make them that way any longer” but because of the journey it’s taken through time to come to you. Some are heirlooms passed down through the family; some are surprise discoveries found in unlikely places; others are one-of-a-kind gifts picked out for you by that one friend who knows you love this kind of stuff. If you come to Thurmont looking for treasures, you owe it to yourself to visit Timeless Trends Boutique. Celebrating their tenth-year anniversary this past August, Timeless Trends Boutique is the entrepreneurial undertaking of Virginia LaRoche and her family. Virginia is the heart of the business, hunting down pieces in need of rescue all along the east coast and working directly with the customers. “For me it’s about the people” she said, “matching the right piece to the right owner.” Her husband, Jay, manages the building’s maintenance and their four children Chris, Mary, Andrew, and Annie all have a unique role in the business. Mary LaRoche handles design and marketing and Andrew often helps arrange the floor setups of the furniture. Annie provides input for the details of the event planning and Chris is the craftsman who builds the unique “Farm Tables” which are a defining feature of Timeless Trends Boutique. These are tables that have been lovingly assembled from restored lumber and furnish-
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L-R Chris, Andrew, Virginia and Jay LaRoche by one of their hand-crafted farm tables. ings reclaimed from barns, mills, and other older buildings that would otherwise be abandoned. Each of these tables is truly “one of a kind” in a way unique to other furnishings, as reclaimed lumber carries with it a distinctive character not possible without the passage of time. Indeed, recycling is an important part of Virginia’s vision, as she takes pride in her business taking old pieces and breathing new life into them. In fact, some could say that the very act of opening the boutique was the first breath of new life given to the building itself. Timeless Trends occupies what was once the
Creager Furniture Store and Funeral Home, once one of Frederick’s longest running family owned businesses placing its lineage all the way back to the mid 1850s at least. Here’s a fun-fact, if you think a funeral home/furniture store sounds like an odd combination, it was actually quite common in those day, as Virginia puts it “If you could build a casket, you could build a cabinet.” Even the funeral home’s carriage house was given new purpose as the
Timeless Trends Vintage Warehouse, where instead of the horse-drawn hearse, visitors can now explore a showcasing of the more eclectic pieces being held in the LaRoches’ care. And I do mean vintage… During my brief visit, I encountered a working antique Coca-Cola cooler, a Printype Oliver typewriter, chandeliers from what looked like every decade, china closets, paintings, porcelain, and a pair of Asian lacquer wall hangings I was sorely tempted to purchase for myself. Of course, the vintage warehouse didn’t start off as the showcase for eclectic antiques it is now. Back when the doors first opened in 2009, the carriage house wasn’t even included in the store, but was instead used for overflow storage. Then in 2010, Timeless Trends began to have monthly events for the warehouse to be open, before eventually making it a permanent feature of the business. Sometimes the destinies of places and people take interesting paths, so as it was for Virginia herself. Virginia didn’t start off in the antique and restoration business, though she did love an-
