ASHLAND – A steady stream of customers headed downtown Thursday to open their hearts and their wallets to Ashland’s newest business — Fig & Oak.
The boutique’s merchandise is an eclectic mix of home furnishings and gifts ranging from small furniture, pillows, lamps and succulent terrariums to bar soaps, tea towels and candles. The store also carries a small selection of women’s clothing and accessories.
“I just tried to find unique, creative, one-of-a-kind pieces — things that were fun and eclectic,” said Julie Mitchell, who owns and operates the new store with her husband, John.
As she began acquiring products for the store, Julie Mitchell said she started to gravitate to goods from brands that have special causes and purposes, such as donation of a portion of proceeds to charity.
“We know we wanted to have some of that as well, some of the goods that give back,” Julie Mitchell said.
Julie Mitchell’s curated picks are displayed alongside one-of-a-kind furniture and lighting pieces that John Mitchell makes in his spare time.
“The handmade, re-purposed items are things that I make,” he said. “It’s pretty much anything I can find that I think would make an interesting piece.”
John Mitchell has been making reclaimed items for as long as he can remember — probably since high school, he estimates.
“But I haven’t made anything to sell. It’s all just been for ourselves, for the house,” he said.
Eventually, once the new business becomes more settled, John Mitchell hopes to take custom orders from customers and to add online sales to the retail store offerings.
While opening day Thursday was not without hiccups like a credit card reader outage, the Mitchells were overwhelmed with gratitude at the response from family, friends and downtown supporters.
“It’s amazing to see the support of our community and our friends,” Julie Mitchell said. “They’re so patient with us on a day like today that’s not going as smoothly as we hoped.”
Julie Mitchell hopes the shop will be a way to help bring the community together and to give back to the community as well.
Ashland Main Street Executive Director Sandra Tunnell was among the first guests in the store.
“It’s super exciting to see new businesses coming to downtown,” she said. “Julie and John are a great couple and they’re really dedicated to the shop. We love the vibe they’re bringing down here, and we wish them all the success.”
Tunnell said Deb Miller, a consultant from Boulevard Strategies who has been working with Ashland Main Street and the downtown merchants, recently did a market analysis and found that a home goods store would help fill a void and complement the existing businesses downtown.
“This is really filling a niche that her research had pointed towards,” Tunnell said. “That’s not why they’re here, but it is a nice thing.”
The Mitchells are just as happy to be downtown as the downtown community is to have them there.
“We didn’t really want to open anywhere else,” John Mitchell said. “We always talked about wanting to have a store like this here, so we figured we might as well be the ones that open one. We’re trying to provide something a little bit different.”
Fig & Oak is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at 112 E. Main St. in Ashland. The store can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/figandoakshop.
