Gifts galore at eclectic store
Sometimes a shop just calls out to you. When I see Home James from a streetcar window, I have to get off and check it out, thereby giving new meaning to “a streetcar named desire.”
I automatically assume the name of the store refers to the old-timey movie cliché, in which the passenger says to the coach driver, “Home, James, and don’t spare the horses!”
But it does not. It is a pun, incorporating the name of owner James Lane and the imprint of the store: home accessories, decor and gifts.
Open for about three months, Home James specializes in an eclectic collection of new, vintage and repurposed decor and furniture pieces culled from antique markets, barns, flea markets and online auctions.
I immediately glom on to a goatskin stool ($235) made by one of the former owners of the recycling/ reclaiming/salvaging store Zenporium, whose space Home James took over.
In addition to furniture, there are handmade wood prints, wood coasters, tea towels, cheeky cards and wrapping paper. A wooden plaque reads, “The Words You Are Looking For Are Yes Dear,” priced at $15.25. C’mon. That just screams anniversary gift.
But this isn’t Hallmark, Virginia. The store specializes in irreverence. If you want reverence, go to church. Naughty shot glasses of voluptuous pinup-girl torsos are $6.25 each. Think stag parties.
Myself, I covet the pair of stag-head candle holders. Ditto a fun assortment of barnyard blackboards including incarnations of piggy and crow.
What I mistake for a yoga bolster made of burlap and imprinted with vintage script is actually a mini headboard to be pinned on the wall. How innovative is that for small spaces?
There are decorative but functional pieces, such as a pitchfork ($150), because who doesn’t need a pitchfork in their home? Upend it, attach it to a wall and use it as a coat rack.
An antique desk has been resuscitated and coated with black chalkboard paint on the top so you can doodle while working. That’s just upstairs. I poked around downstairs and was captivated by the old, wire sock forms at $12.50 a pair, ideal for stretching hockey socks or just hanging on the wall. There is a vintage double bed ($295) festooned with pillows, including one with a pair of Buddy Holly spectacles ordering, “Talk Nerdy To Me.”
The quintessential bang for the bucks: a pair of deer portraitures painted on burlap. The store also carries those de-rigueur steampunk salvage lamps and even lamp tables to go with them.
I linger over a Cahaya oil bar stool built from wood reclaimed from retired fishing boats that has my name on it — literally — the Cahaya Rita Stool.
Then I spot the nostalgia corner, featuring rare photos of a young Princess Elizabeth square dancing in Ottawa with her swain, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1951 ($75). How perfect for the monarchist of your acquaintance? There is even a velvet chair that looks like a throne.
Despite a danger of gifting items overload, I have to bow to Home James. ritazekas@rogers.com
The store specializes in irreverence . . . if you want reverence, go to church