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Not your typical antiques store: Alternative Furnishings features eclectic items off the beaten path
Charm Cameron offers downtown shoppers an alternative to the usual home d/cor items in her store, Alternative Furnishings. Cameron has owned and operated the store for a number of years. Brandi Hart/McKinney Courier-Gazette
By Brandi Hart, McKinney Courier-Gazette
The shop off the southwest corner of Kentucky Street and Louisiana Street is not your usual antique-filled store in downtown McKinney.
Detailed iron lamps, wall hangings, hand-painted armoires from China, and antique chairs and paintings from Ecuador make up some of the merchandise at Alternative Furnishings.
Owner Charm Cameron recently moved those items, along with the rest of her merchandise, into a new store at 105 W. Louisiana Street, which she is now calling home. She was previously located at 100 E. Louisiana Street, but had to move because Spoons Caf/ is moving into the space. Cameron likes her new store location, which gives her more light and 1,000 more square feet to work with.
Large Indian electrical and candle-based lamps some of which feature colored glass hang from the ceiling of the store. People usually walk slowly through the store as they may miss something lying on the ground or hanging high atop of a shelf that could be the very piece they’re looking for.
She gets her some of her pieces from people who are familiar with what she sells, she said. Some of those are four or five antique paintings from Ecuador that Cameron purchased from a lady who was moving. The paintings all feature a central theme, that being of the Virgin Mary and Jesus that are painted with rich browns, maroons and blacks.
Hanging around in the back of the store are numerous wall hangings, wooden and metal door frames, some of which have been painted. People purchase the door frames and build them into new homes, or hang them as pieces of art, Cameron said.
“I really have a following. It’s pretty amazing. I think they come here because it’s different. You can’t find this unique of a collection just anywhere,” Cameron said.
One of Cameron’s loyal customers is Joanna Harkins of Fariview, who frequents the square (downtown shops) weekly.
“I love this store. It’s one of my favorite. It’s interesting. It’s eclectic. If you buy anything here, nobody usually has it,” Harkins said.
Harkins is not only stopping by to check on new merchandise that Cameron may have when she visits the store. she is also checking in on a friend. She has forged many friendships with the downtown shop owners over the years.
“Charm is just a very sweet person. She’s a good friend. I have made so many friend here,” Harkins said.
Carmeron opened the store with her nephew Adam Tucker and other partners in 1998 after she stopped working as a court coordinator for then-Appellate Court Judge John Roach, who is now the Collin County district attorney. Cameron worked for Collin County for 11 years.
She opened the shop because of a love on American antiques, and she began collecting the items when she was 18. Her collection and taste has grown to include antique jewelry, painted wooden door frames, British-Indian furniture, Chinese and French furnishings and art. Much like her store, her home just east of the McKinney city limits is decorated with Indian architectural pieces, along with some country charm.
Her store also features an assortment of crosses that can hang on a wall, or smaller ones that may be worn as a necklace. Cameron also has a large collection of turquoise sterling silver rings, including some that are rather small and could be worn on a pinky finger, and larger ones that men could wear. They are not faux turquoise - they are the real thing and look as if they were just taken off of a hippie’s fingers rather than from an assembly line. The shapes of the stone are as unique as the rings themselves.
The store also features iron gates and fun and funky green, red, yellow and blue painted, wooden, hand-carved dog heads that are also from Latin America. They sit atop of a shelf that includes an antique phone, screen door, to trivets that are decorated with bright, greenish-blue peacock feathers.
Cameron credits her sister Carrie Garner, who owns the Galleria D’Arte, which also is located downtown, for finding uses for items that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
“I credit Carrie for finding the artistic value in some things. She realized the artistic value these pieces,” Cameron said, referring to the door frames and iron gates.
Stained glass pieces can be found sitting on the ground or hanging overhead, reflecting the sunlight that emits through the vast windows in the new store. Alternative Furnishings also features new iron works and paintings, along with candles, and pillows.
Searching for items to sell, and finding them is also part of the fun for Cameron as she never knows what she will find when she visits estate sales, or picks up the phone from someone who is interested in selling her an unique item.
“It costs a lot of money to run a business, but it’s a labor of love. I think for you to succeed, you have to be a hands-on vendor and not turn it over to somebody. I think you have to put in the time, for a small shop, that is. You have to put your heart into it,” Cameron said. “I believe everything happens for a reason, and God has a plan for me, and he will take care of me.”
For more information, visit www.alternative-furnishings.com, or call 972-547-0721, or 972-562-0716.
Contact staff writer Brandi Hart at hartb@acnpapers.com. To post comments online, access this story at www.scntx.com.
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