An Update…
Late last Thursday I received a letter saying I need to vacate our retail space by 31 May 2024. This was both a shock and upsetting.
When you have a lease, there are laws that offer you and your business protection under the Retail Shop Leases Act. However, to enforce these laws it takes time and money. It is an unknown how much of each of these will be required, or whether the outcome will even be worth the investment. After how devastating and traumatic 2023 was for my little family, I would rather walk away from all of this and use my time and energy to focus on my family and growing my business.
Just because others choose to ignore facts, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. But, regardless of why this has played out this way, I know I am ready to move on. I just don’t feel the love or connection to this space after the events of recent months.
So much time and money has been poured into our retail store and there was so much that had already been planned for the year ahead. It has taken me 5 days to be able to find the words to write this, put it into the world and make it real. But, now that it is, I am planning on only focusing on what comes next and rather than what has passed. Life is too short and far too precious to waste time on silliness. The sadness will pass, with time.
Over the last 3 years so many of the beautiful people who have come to visit our store, have become cherished friends. So many of you have touched my heart in such a special way. Although this isn’t goodbye, I do want to thank you for your kindness, support and friendship over this time. It’s been appreciated.
I am now, searching for a new space. We will still have all our beautiful fabrics, wallpapers and trims. We will continue to offer our custom Australian Made furniture, cushions, lampshades, window coverings and soft furnishings. We will maintain our focus on high quality, designer furnishings, but this will be more of a design studio rather than a retail space and likely be open mostly by appointment. This will give me the time and freedom to get back to bigger design projects that I love and miss.
These changes will give me the ability to pick my boys up from school on rainy days, to spend school holidays with them and to see all of their sporting events. I desperately want to soak up the few short years that remain before they are grown. I want us to make as many happy memories together as possible. Once I got past feeling crushed, I realised that this change was giving me the ability to achieve most of my goals for the year - and some of those are really exciting.
None of us are the same person we where 3 years ago when I opened this store. Our lives have changed in so many ways. Some for the better, some not. The way we live isn't the same and even the world is no longer the same. There has been so much change in such a short time. I am choosing to put my energy into creating something new and something beautiful. Something that will bring me closer to my dreams and goals not just for this year but well into the future. Spending time with my children, building my business and understanding more how the spaces around us can encourage connection, provide comfort and heal us. Spaces that can remind us of who we are and what we value. This is such an interesting space to be now, for so many reasons.
Remembering, we all get to write our own story, and I have decided to focus on that. You will be able to follow along on as I pack up this store and write the next chapter, and to see what that looks like.
Our current store will not be open as many hours going forward as I will be adding finding a new location and facilitating this transition onto an already overflowing to-do list.
With regards to the store stock, we will have a progressive sale. I will share further details once I have finalised them. What we cannot sell for a reasonable price, I will move to our website or find a worthy charity to donate to. In times of big transition, I have always found so much beauty in travelling lite and being nimble.
Our website will become a larger resource in the coming months and will work alongside our new studio to ensure you can still easily find the perfect pieces for your home. We will still be a community, just in a slightly different way.
We aren’t really going anywhere at all - just changing form... and…I think it just might just turn out for the better, for all of us.
I will share upcoming store opening hours soon.
Kylie xx