KENSINGTON, Md. — Maybe you inherited it.
Maybe it’s lost its appeal or shows wear and tear.
So, will you toss that aging piece of furniture or keep it?
There’s a third alternative — you can refresh it, said Bahia Akerele, the owner of On the Purple Couch, in Kensington, Maryland.
On a recent Saturday, Akerele, stylish with her string of pearls, black pants decorated with paint spatter and glittery sandals, urged visitors to her shop to pick up a brush and take a stab at painting, then waxing sample frames with chalk paint.
Shes’ a big fan of the Annie Sloan paint line, declaring, “We can show you how to revamp your furniture without stripping, priming or sanding!” Refurbishing your furniture too big a job? Her shop can transform that table or set of chairs for you.
Akerele said her shop is more than a place to redo your furniture, “It’s a place to create”. That in fact, is the rest of the name of the shop: “On the Purple Couch, A Place to Create.”
Akerele said the name came to her because when she thought about opening a shop, the image of a comfy purple couch just kept popping up in her head. She wanted a place that would inspire people to make their own spaces new and fresh, while making use of what they already have.
She gets a lot of young customers looking to spruce up a rental space on a budget. But she said baby boomers are very much into the do-it-yourself approach to decorating. “’We’re in D.C.! We have a lot of powerhouses here — and people need to decompress, people need to chill out.”
Akerele said during the workshops — she offers everything from flower arranging to jewelry making — there’s a lot of decompressing. “We sit around the table and talk — there’s no topic that does not get discussed here!” she said.
At the recent grand opening on Metropolitan Avenue in Kensington, as customers streamed in to browse, William Moore, president of the Wheaton-Kensington Chamber of Commerce, visited the store.
“It’s very huge when you see the passion of somebody like Bahia,” Moore said, explaining that small businesses like hers are helping Wheaton-Kensington carve out an identity as a shopping destination.
Moore said new businesses face a number of challenges, from initial financing to understanding the ins and outs of their lease agreements. He encourages all would-be business owners to take some courses and make sure they can cover themselves financially during the early stages of their enterprise “Because you have to have a little bit more than just a passion for what you’re doing to make it.”
Akerele echoes Moore’s sentiments, explaining she had originally set up shop in the more industrial Howard Avenue location — a part of Kensington that, for retail purposes, had parking challenges. The new shop has easier access and “real positive energy,” Akerele said.
At her grand reopening, there was a lot of energy, with activities for children, walk-in workshops and even a wine tasting. Akerele had opened her shop to Dani Johnson Bryan, owner of Special Gathering, an event production company that has expanded to include a line of wines. “We are in the process of going mainstream with retailing in Maryland.”
Akerele’s energy is contagious, and her ability to fuel the aspirations of others is clear. Kwame Som-PimPong, a consultant, was at the shop with his wife and daughter and was admiring one of the finished cabinets.
“I love the distressed look of it, and the subtle tones of it,” he said. Som-PimPong explained he sort of day dreams of getting into interior design, so when he heard about the shop he wanted to visit. “It’s really cool to check it out” he said, smiling.
As customers looked over small decorative items on sale or took up a frame to test out the paints with names like “French Linen” and “Paris Grey,” Akerele smiled broadly and said, “The community is very supportive … There’s so much positive energy!”
