GREENER PASTURES
Stittsville owners close ‘ big red barn’
After selling custom furniture in Stittsville for more than 20 years — inside a 10,000 square foot red barn since 2002 — Marc and Line Gendron are putting themselves out to pasture at the end of November.
“We’re happy to retire, but we have mixed feelings,” Marc, coowner of Gendron Antiques and Reproductions at the corner of Carp and Hazeldean roads, said earlier this week. “We are very appreciative to the public, but we feel like we’re kind of letting them down by closing.”
Marc Gendron, 58, has a long history in the furniture business. Growing up in Victoriaville, Que., his parents were antique dealers, who peddled unique finds from across Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes in a showroom set up in a barn next to their house. It was here as a young man that he honed his skills as a furniture maker and learned how to mix custom stains, paints and waxes.
But it wasn’t until the 1990s that Marc decided to return to the furniture business. He and Line started selling quality antiques and custom reproductions to Sunday shoppers at the now-defunct Stittsville Flea Market. One booth eventually grew to four before the couple bought their existing property in 1999.
“It was just go, go, go,” recalls Marc of the early days in business, juggling full-time jobs — he as a licensed helicopter pilot training air ambulance pilots and Line as a nurse — and raising two young children. “We worked seven days a week.”
As the business continued to grow, the couple gave up their day jobs and devoted all their time to building reproductions made from new and reclaimed pine, oak or maple with extra-wide crown mouldings, iron hardware and distressed finishes.
For about three years, the outbuildings surrounding their home and a double-car garage served as their showroom with a separate workshop on site for assembling and finishing everything from TV armoires and harvest tables to pressback dining chairs and kitchen islands. But as sales soared, expansion was again needed and in 2002, the massive, two-storey barn was built.
Located next to the Stittsville water tower, the “big red barn” with the green metal roof and multiple dormers is hard to miss.
“We’re a landmark in Stittsville,” says Marc, who admits he and Line, also 58, are looking forward to spending more time at their cottage on the Mississippi River and travelling after the store closes Nov. 30. Discounts of up to 70 per cent off will be available on remaining stock of furniture, mirrors, dishes and other collectibles.
“We have great customers,” says Line who is also looking forward to spending more time with her children and two grandkids. “That was the hardest part telling our customers we were closing. I’m going to miss them.”
Though the Gendrons have sold the Stittsville property — details about the new owners remain confidential, Marc says — their 33-year-old son Nicolas Gendron will continue refinishing furniture, doing repairs and building custom fireplace mantels. He can be reached through the old store phone number.