By Myles Ma
Karen West is trying to bring back shopping. And not the kind you do from your desk chair. Real-life shopping. Window-shopping instead of Windows shopping, so to speak.
That’s why she tries to make coming to Perennial Homes, the store she has owned for nearly eight years, into as much of an experience as possible.
“Even though people shop a lot online, what people need to realize is they’re missing out on the fun of shopping,” West said.
Perennial Homes sells home furnishings, accessories and gifts, but West, 50, also offers an intimate shopping experience, one you can’t get online or in a big-box store. To that end, she strikes up conversations with customers, holds food tastings in the store and even introduces customers to one another, making shopping at Perennial Home into a social event.
“This is a very personal experience, coming to a store like this,” she said.
Obviously, one of the reasons West shuns online shopping is that she’d prefer it if people made the trip to her Hightstown store, located at 119 West Ward St., just off Route 33. She is also a proponent of shopping locally.
West says it is a greener way of business, since buying locally cuts down on shipping times, and she goes out of her way to support local artisans, artists and distributors.
“When people purchase things online, zero goes back to the community in terms of tax dollars,” she said.
The array of local crafts in the store includes handmade rosary beads and candles, table runners designed by a Hamilton artist, and jewelry, also designed by a Hamilton woman.
But not everything in the store is local. West does her furniture shopping in Atlanta, Ga., which she says allows her to offer unusual pieces customers won’t find in other area stores.
Perennial Homes also offers custom furniture made in Pennsylvania, and custom-painted wine glasses. “I think we are an eclectic organization of the things we love,” West said of her store.
Out of everything in the store, West singled out one of her favorite items, “CuteTools,” a collection of hammers, pizza cutters, paint brushes and other tools hand-painted by developmentally disabled people. West tries to bring her talent for design to the people.
On Nov. 10, she held a talk at the Mercer County Library’s Robbinsville branch, where she taught attendees how to transition the decor in their homes from fall to winter, and from the holidays to the rest of the year.
She only has one rule for decorating: “It has to be what you love,” she said.
As for West, she loves meeting new customers and helping them with their decorating problems.
“We never know who is going to walk through the door and inspire us,” she said.
Perennial Homes is open Tuesday through Saturday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call (609) 448-8830, or visit the Web site, perennialhome.com.
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