4 minute read
Amazing vintage, antique and collectible shopping
A shop as unique as its name POPPi Vernon
BY BONNIE EISSLER
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Elizabeth Gray/POPPi chose the name for her home goods store, a showcase of unique vintage eclectic finds, as a tribute to her late father who was called POPPi by her kids, and to her childhood home located on Vernon Drive in Cortland, New York. “My dad was also the one who took me to flea markets and old barns when I was a young girl,” she says, recalling how they sought out hidden treasures together – seashells, feathers, a plethora of fascinating oddities of uncertain origin. This was her earliest experience being a “picker” long before “American Pickers” premiered featuring two pickers “scouring the countryside looking for amazing vintage, antiques, and collectibles buried in people’s garages and barns.”
Years later, perhaps inspired by those earlier jaunts with her father, she was a vendor at Elephant’s Trunk, a famous flea market in New Milford, Connecticut, where treasure hunters, antique collectors, and entrepreneurs of all kinds have flocked since 1976. She was even featured several times on Flea Market Flip, another popular reality television show where contestants buy and repurpose flea market finds to earn a profit.
Four years ago this July, POPPi moved to the Texas Hill Country from Connecticut after her husband accepted a job offer in the area. This would be a big change, but any concerns about moving to the Lone Star State didn’t last long. “We really love Texas,” she says.
She spent some time getting settled and decorating her new home, but it wasn’t long before she was ready to branch out in her new home state. “Once I got the house in Kyle organized, I felt the urge to get back to work,” she says, “it was a bumpy ride for a while being a vendor at other places.” Later, she thought she had found a place in New Braunfels, only to learn that her insurance was denied because of storm damage to the building. “I was at my wits’ end,” she says, but after I found this place, it seemed to me that this was what I’d been waiting for. I’m thrilled to be here because I know that I’m supposed to be here.”
There are so many wonderful items, large and small, in the store and the collections are always changing. Arrangements composed of such diverse pieces can easily appear cluttered, but there is nothing cluttered or chaotic here. With her keen eye for detail and natural talent for interior design, she organizes plants, old books, mirrors, a small statue on a stripped down shabby chic dresser as a delightful composition that resembles a theatrical set piece. An oil painting of a turbulent sea, a huge piece of driftwood, stacked stones and a rusty fish sculpture comprise an intriguing
See POPPi, page 17
tabletop vignette. POPPi’s style encompasses shabby chic, French country and garden. “I love white, chippy, shabby anything,” she says, “I’m also very sentimental, old photographs and books will always draw my attention.” She mentions that it may seem surprising that she doesn’t enjoy history.
Rather, her interest is in “rescuing the unloved and seeing the potential in a piece that is perfectly imperfect, that may have a scratch, or an old quilt with a tear or stain, rusted metal bowls or tarnished silver, and my reward is when someone else sees that potential too and finds a place for it in her heart and her home.”
Vintage hardback books are also hard to resist. Perhaps, in this increasingly digital age, she sees books as less loved and more expendable than they once were, in need of rescue. She buys them not so much because she loves reading, but because she likes the look and the feel of old books and appreciates their value as home décor. There are books throughout the store, including multiple books strung together vertically to form a sort of book sculpture that dangles from the ceiling, books with plants inside of a birdcage, books stacked on a table as a base for a small lamp, or more traditionally displayed with rows of books on shelves.
The array of furnishings, accessories, and collections at POPPI’s offer a great source for staging, Airbnb’s and second homes. Her furniture arrangements and decorative vignettes provide inspiration by example to many of us who are never quite sure how to arrange items on a wall or a shelf, who can’t see what needs to go and what needs to stay. Three other vendors on site add their own individual flair to the store. Photos courtesy POPPi Vernnon.
FYI • POPPi Vernon is at 103 FM 2325 in Wimberley. The shop is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, but the store has been known to have its doors open later on a beautiful night. In addition to POPPi’s collections, three more vendors add their own individual flair to the charming shop. For more information and to see photographs of some of the treasures you’ll find in this lovely store, follow POPPi on Facebook and Instagram.
