Vivid Hue Home Boutique

Vivid Hue Home + Gifts

769 Farmington Ave | Farmington CT  06032

860-677-0301 | vividhuehome.com

Hours:

Tuesday        10-530pm

Wednesday   10-530pm

Thursday      10-7pm

Friday           10-530pm 

Saturday       10-3pm

Sunday         10-3pm

Monday        closed

Contact: Heather Grahling  hgrahling@gmail.com | 860-677-0301

What do we sell? 
Everything from custom made pillows and furniture to unique gifts and greeting cards.  We have perfect items for dorm rooms, hostess gifts, house-warming, engagements, birthdays and "just because" gifts.  We carry whimsical and preppy products.  Our shop has a very nautical feel.  Visitors say they feel like they are in Palm Beach or Nantucket.  Despite our name and love for all things color, we do carry some neutral products for those that are a bit less daring about color!

We gift wrap and sell gift cards.

Online?
Shop our Instagram feed.  We will ship most items to U.S. and we frequently list our current selection of items online.   If you see something you'd like for us to ship...please ask!  We will ship!  

I last left ya'll with the renovations inside the shop.  I promise to revisit more of that journey in a future post.  Here's a reminder of the transformation:

I decided to take some pressure off of myself by planning a "soft opening" where I would just open the doors to the public at the end of April with only word-of-mouth advertising.  I handed out postcards to friends and Connecticut locals, but other than that, there was no big fan fare.  This would allow me (and my team of two) to work out the kinks in the process.  We could practice the checkout process, work on better staging the products, and get an idea for what customers were interested in.

 I'd be lying if I told you this was a stress-free soft launch.  I woke up on the morning of April 30th with my stomach in my throat.  What if people absolutely hated the shop?  What if Connecticut wasn't ready for my splash of colorful gifts?

The soft-opening weekend was exhilarating, overwhelming, tiring, rewarding, exhausting, thrilling and every other similar synonym.  People did come to visit.  And they visited in droves.  Personal friends showed up.  People that have followed Vivid Hue Home through social media came to check it out.  Some saw the porch display and stopped to check out what we were up to.  

 I was overwhelmed with the number of you that have read my blog and knew about Vivid Hue Home through social media.  (One woman entered the shop,  made a beeline towards me and the first words out of her mouth were, "I want to know what you consider to be the armpit of Texas!?"  (Reference my about me section here).  

Opening Day Flowers for Soft Launch

Much of the initial inventory flew off the shelves during the first weekend and I would go home at the end of the night to place additional orders for back-up inventory.  I stayed up til 1-2am most nights trying to catch up on the paperwork and ordering.  (Now to be fair, customers seemed to like the products I was offering, but also, I started out with smaller inventory quantities because I wasn't sure what would sell or not).

Vivid Hue Home was featured in a few local spotlights, here and here.

Vivid Hue Home Window Boxes Starting to Bloom

We have been opened for about 2.5 weeks now and already I have learned some tricks.  For starters, I have doubled/tripled the size of my orders from vendors so that I don't have to place new orders as frequently.  It's cumbersome to issue PO's, enter skus into inventory, receive inventory, pay invoices.  So it makes since to do it once for larger quantities versus 2-3 times for smaller order amounts.


Also, I find myself continually tweaking the look of the shop.  When we opened, the shelves appeared like this:

I was never thrilled with how each shelf displayed so much inventory.  The shelves were cluttered and too much for the eyes to digest.   Recently, I modified the items so there are mostly clusters of pillows and throws.  It's a bit more visually pleasing and I imagine that I will continue to tweak.

The gurgles now have their own dedicated spot within the shop.

Custom pillows in these fabulous textiles have been the talk of the town.

And, of course, the vintage palm beach chairs are a popular resting spot among visitors.

Thanks for continuing to follow along!  If you're a new follower, thank you!  And you can always check out what's happening in real time on Instagram here.  

Vivid Hue Home in local CT Feature

Farmington Small Business Spotlight: Vivid Hue Home

Our small business series shines a light on local business owners in the community.

By WENDY ANN MITCHELL (Patch Staff)May 6, 2015 

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Every local business has a story worth sharing with the community. And that’s the belief behind this exciting series — to shine the spotlight on all our favorite local businesses, and to learn a little about the ones we may not know that well. 

• Business: Vivid Hue Home
• Owners: Heather Grahling
• Website: http://www.vividhuehome.com
• Address: 775 Farmington Ave., Farmington

How did you come up with the name?

I started a popular design blog 3 years ago called,Vivid Hue Home. I believed that everyone could use a dose of color in their lives and I loved to mix patterns and colors in decorating. The blog ended up being a platform for the decorating projects in my own home located in Farmington, CT.

Why start a business in this town?

I am a Farmington resident and have wanted to bring a unique gift shop to our area. I wanted to create a destination that locals could visit frequently and always find something different and unique for their homes. One of the historical cottages became available along the row of buildings on Brick Walk Lane and I thought that would be a perfect spot for my type of gift shop. The boutique is located within walking distance from Miss Porter’s School, the Hillstead and the Stanley Whitman House.

What business are you in?

My gift shop offers stylish “must haves” for the home. Vivid Hue Home is the perfect destination for a hostess gift, greeting cards, dorm room décor, small home furnishings, pillows, art, tabletop accessories, colorful accessories and other gifts. I am also featuring a few brands of furniture that have never been offered in Connecticut. While I will provide staple items that you can always find, I want to always have rotating inventory so that when my customers come into the shop, they will always find something unique and different that they won’t see anywhere else.

What’s the most difficult challenge you’ve faced as a business owner?

So far there have not been any, other than all of the preparation involved with opening up a small, locally owned business.

What’s been your proudest achievement since opening?

We opened on May 1 and the feedback has been tremendously positive. Local residents have stopped in to check out our space and have said it reminds them of a gift shop they’d see in Palm Beach or on Martha’s Vineyard. Many customers come into the shop and make themselves comfortable on the sofa and vintage chairs and sit and socialize. I love the idea that we’re not only a gift shop but a local destination for the community.

How does your business give back to the community?

I hope to participate in local charities and offer a fun, unique destination for my customers.

Local Press for VHH Retail

Vivid Hue Home was featured in this week's local Farmington, Connecticut publication, The Farmington Valley Press.  Click here for a link to the full article! 

The countdown is on!

Cheers,
Heather

Prep for Retail Shop: Temporary Wall Covering Solutions

I've been focusing on getting the store ready for the opening which is why I haven't posted much here.  The last photos I shared with you were those of the raw space before I took over the lease in December.  One of the challenges from the start was how to give my shop an updated, more modern look without permanently altering the structure on the inside.

The landlord/owner was very clear that he wanted the interior walls to remain unaltered.  He was open to the notion of me using removable wallpaper during my lease term, but when I moved out, I needed to leave them with the wood as seen in this photo.  This building is historical and resides in the Historic District in Farmington.

Here were my attempts at non-permanent wall decor:

1. Inexpensive Removable Wallpaper

Many may recognize this pattern from Target's line of removable paper.  At $30 per roll, it makes
experimenting very budget-friendly.  Right from the start, I noticed a problem.  The grooves in the paneled wall showed right through the paper.  And to boot, when I stripped this off the wall, the varnish came right off of the wood finish.  Bust.  (See where I've used removable wallpaper at home and it's worked brilliantly.  Another view here).

2. High End Removable Wallcovering

I splurged on higher end removable wallpaper.  This is Hygge and West Raindrops Blue/Gray.    The better quality paper was enough to cover the grooves in the wood paneling; however, when I striped this little tile from the wall, it still stripped the gloss finish from the walls.  Also, this single tile is a hefty $30 so if I'd decided to cover the entire wall, it would have cost me thousands of dollars.  

On to brainstorming about another option.  

3.  Gift Wrap as "Faux Paper"

Out of desperation to hide the panel wall, I purchased numerous rolls of colorful gift wrap and attempted to thumb tack it to the wall.  At one point, I think I'd half convinced myself that it wouldn't be half bad.  (Ignore the seams).  But, after about two hours of looking at this nauseating polka dot pattern, I came to my senses.  I had dreamed too long about opening up this shop to skimp corners in its appearance.

4. 1/4" Luan Wood Frame

I was starting to get to the end of my rope in creativity.  I am sure I could have found a way to use fabric to drape along the walls to cover the out-dated wood.  However, one day, I was talking to a friend of mine (who is also a very talented Kitchen & Custom Cabinetry craftsman).  He suggested framing out the entire perimeter of the shop with a thin luan wood panel on top of the existing wall.   From there, I would be able to install professional (permanent) wall paper and paint.  The idea would be that when I move out from the shop, I will be able to remove the faux luan walls that have been place in front of the wood paneled walls and the original walls will be there, untouched and in their original state.  

Bingo.  

First step was to remove all of the molding around the ceiling, window and door trims.  Next, they adhered the wood to the walls at the very top and very bottom with finishing nails.

And finally, the wood molding went back up around the ceiling, floor, windows and door frames.  Here are photos of the project after the luan wall was installed.  Still lots of work to be done, but now I had a clean palate to work with.

Note:  This was a rather costly solution.  It would have been much less expensive to slap a few gallons of paint over the wood paneled walls, but because that wasn't an option, I pursued this one.  It was a few thousand dollars, which is not a solution I would recommend for a home project.  But given my constraints and lease requirements to preserve the existing walls, it was well worth the budget because it then allowed me to paper and paint as I wanted.

5. Professional Wallpaper and Paint 

If you've followed me for awhile, you already know that I'm a huge fan of Meg Braff Designs. 

See mudroom here.   I wanted the future shop to have a West Palm Beach/ Hollywood Chic feeling to it and I found this vintage trellis paper from Meg Braff and fell in love!  

And so, the install began!  The seams between the luan wood were sealed.  I decided to paint the old fireplace (full of soot) with a refreshing Benjamin Moore Dove White over the black.

And slowly, the future shop started to come together.  You'll notice in this photo that I also replaced the drop ceiling tiles with updated vinyl tiles.  Still no paint.  Still no changes that couldn't be undone.  And of course, my eye was immediately drawn to the molding around the ceiling of the room (still wood) and the wood around the doorways.

Initially, I had two walls in the shop covered in wallpaper and the other two walls painted in a turquoise.  But with the dark wood still around the windows (and the vision of future colorful accessories), I decided to have the painter go over the turquoise with Benjamin Moore Dove White.  Yes, even I sometimes opt for less color when it makes sense.

This is the progress of the shop around mid-January.  At this point, my mind was still racing about many things, including:

• How would I "mask" the remaining dark wood trim in the shop without painting?
• What window treatments would work?
• What would I do for product shelving?
• What about accessories (lights, rugs, mirrors)?
• Without being able to update the floor, how would I modify the floor covering? 

Check back to see further progress on the shop (and if you can't wait and want a few sneak peeks, hop on over to Instagram to see up to date photos).  

Thanks for your continued support and for following along this journey!

Cheers,
Heather

Bare Bones! Raw retail space

Today I'm going to show you the bare bones of my retail space.  These are the original photos I shot on the initial walk through.  I hadn't made my mind up to open an actual store front, but I thought it may be a sign that this space opened up in a location I'd had my eye on for awhile.  

(Please visit prior posts about getting to this walk through here and here).  

I loved the front porch (Can't you just see inviting chairs out there?)

The ceiling of the porch was turquoise...a color I've often adopted with Vivid Hue (a sign?)

The building was slotted for an exterior face lift even before I signed the lease.  The entire exterior was sanded and scrubbed and resurfaced.  

View of the Space from the Back Entrance

And on the interior, there was one large room with two smaller office type rooms behind it.  (Don't you *love* the paneling?  More on this later) 

 So, while there were a handful of "cons" (drop ceiling, fluorescent lighting, outdated wood paneling, small space), I saw tremendous potential.  The space is approximately 500 square feet and I was actually ok with this.  It seemed like a small enough space that I could fill with products and not have it look too bare.  (Ironically enough, I think I may quickly out grow this space as I get more and more inventory in, but this is a good problem to have).

One question I asked right from the beginning was whether or not I could paint or wallpaper over the wood paneling.  The owner was very adamant about NOT disrupting this surface.  He stated that it was part of the charm of this historical building (though the interior wood itself is not historical, he felt that it was part of this cottage's Connecticut charm).  Note, the building itself is located in the historical district in our town and is from 1880.   I asked if he'd consider letting me use a removable wallpaper as long as I left the paneling exactly in this state when I moved out.  (As long as I provided a sample, he'd consider).

Another appealing aspect to me when I looked at this space, was that the lease term was only a year.  To me, unsure of how this venture might turn out, I liked the idea of having the option to shut this down if it ended up being a total and complete flop.  Lastly, I had researched retail space in other areas in Connecticut just down the road from Farmington, and the price of retail space in those areas was literally TEN TIMES more than this space.  So, the lease price wouldn't break my budget, the lease term was only 1 year to start, the location was some place I frequented already and I felt was just BEGGING for a retail gift shop....

I pictured the wood paneled room to be the main selling space.  The below photo is one of the back rooms with a door leading out to the parking lot.  I envisioned this also being a potential selling space with the 3rd small room being used for excess inventory and my office.  Cozy but doable.

In the end, it just seemed too good to be true.  It seemed like an opportunity I just had to act upon.  So  I moved forward with pursuing the space.

That bench out front is just begging for some throw pillows and staging! 

As I was in the lease negotiations, the exterior was undergoing a renovation.  I knew it must be a positive sign when the owner/ landlord let me have input into the color of the door and porch ceiling.  

 Of course, I selected a vivid color!  Benjamin Moore Poolside Blue!  (What better way to let people know where I am...look for that turquoise door)

I had the back entrance door painted the same turquoise.  The side and back have planters that aren't pictured here that I can fill with over flowing flowers in the spring and summer seasons.

Join me in future posts to learn more about the lease negotiations, the creative ways I tried to work around that darned wood paneling without making a permanent change, and see some of my thoughts about inventory to carry in the space.  Also, learn about the review process it takes to get a business sign approved (particularly in an area where the building is located in a town's historical district).

And of course, if you'd like a sneak peek into the most recent developments with this space, follow me on instagram for daily photos.


xoxoxo Heather