SOUTHERN MERCANTILE ANTIQUE & DESIGN CENTER 107 E. BUCHANAN ST.

When walking in the front door of the Southern Mercantile Antique and Design Center, there is a distinct sense of moving backward in time: Owner and store designer Carrie Kass has taken great pains to keep the natural beauty of the building — built around 1886 — at the forefront of the design. Look up to find the original bead board ceiling; look down to admire the original wooden-planked floors. Look at the west wall to see the original brick of the building, weathered and beautiful, giving the 8,000-square-foot shopping area a kind of glow.

Larry Nelson, who is assisting Kass in the renovations, is pretty familiar with what the space used to look like; he once owned the building, having purchased it in 1988 from the estate of a family member of the original owners. Nelson, in fact, is the one responsible for revealing the beautiful brick when he painstakingly chipped away the plaster on the 16-by-100-foot wall.

In 1988, says Nelson, there were still plenty of remnants of the history of the place to be found.

“[There was] a whole bin of old buggy whips, wagon wheel rims — things that would go back to the last century,” he says. The building operated as a mercantile all the way up until 1988. “It was like a monster hardware store. You could buy feed, barbed wire, coffins — [it] literally had everything.”

Kass says she hopes the new look will be antiques “with a twist.”

“I want it to be an antique boutique and cater to the customers,” she says. “We’ll have high-end antiques, along with more affordable items. I’ll have my boutique clothes and soaps and jewelry, but the main theme will be antiques.”

Kass, a designer and stylist, has been in the antique and vintage business for 25 years and will be offering her residential and commercial design and consulting services through the store.

There will be 50 distinct booths, and artist Tiffany Foster Smith of The Painted Jackalope will have a studio in the balcony space (as well as a retail space on the main floor) where she will work and teach. Kass also plans to have a beverage bar where tired shoppers can refresh themselves. A grand opening celebration will be announced in the coming weeks.

“We really want to cater to everybody,” says Kass. “We want to be one-stop shopping for everyone who loves antiques and vintage.”