DESIGN AT HOME
THE COOLNESS FACTOR
this consignment store supplies everything you didn’t know you always wanted BY ROBIN HOWARD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY HOLGER OBENAUS
thinking that about my dining room, but now that I’ve said it, I feel free. And now that I feel free, I feel excited.
Rhodes’ specialty is giving her customers permission to make their homes comfortable instead of conforming. That’s why some locals come in the store once a week, and that’s why visitors and celebrities make annual pilgrimages to Mount Pleasant.
166 CSD
Before I can even sit down, Stephanie Rhodes is pound- ing the table with an elegant fist. “Where’s Bill?” she asks, apropos of nothing. “Everybody has a Bill Murray story but me and, frankly, it’s a little sad.” With Rhodes, this is a typical encounter. Whether you just saw her the day before or it’s been a year, every interaction is a zero to 60 wild ride through funny, intelligent mini-conver- sations that can cover anything from art, furniture and pizza to Charleston culture and the Bill Murray-shaped vacuum in her life. It’s delightful.
Rhodes is the owner of The
Coleman Collection, a Mount Pleasant furniture consignment store with a cult following. The cult following is due in large part to Rhodes and her trade- mark wit and wisdom.
Whatever design coup you
are planning in your home, she is all for it. Mid-century modern sofa with an oriental coffee table? Brilliant! Pair those retro Eames chairs with a botanical Anthropologie sofa? Yes! “I think dining rooms are stu- pid,” I confess to her. “I really just want a wine bar in there.” “Right!” Rhodes says, as if I’ve just voiced a deeply important truth. I didn’t even know I was
If Rhodes’ enabling attitude is half the equation, her design sense and commitment to keeping an ever-rotating stock of interesting pieces is the other. “Everything I accept for consignment has to have some- thing special about it,” Rhodes says. “When someone emails photos of a piece they want to consign, I want it to make me say, ‘Oooooh.’ I love what I call the Random Coolness Factor. I’m not necessarily hunting for pieces I know will fly out the door.”
Some recent items that passed the Coolness Factor test: A wooden bench from a bus station in Tuscany, an antique French wine locker and an iron Alice in Wonderland bed frame handmade by an artist. These are the types of things that give a home personality and depth. “People shop here because they never know what they’re going to find. It’s excit- ing because every visit is differ- ent,” Rhodes says. “I tell people
to buy what they like then take it home and make it work. The end result is more tailored to them, more personal.” Coolness Factor aside, the
store also offers deep discounts on brand new, rare and valuable furniture, art and accessories. To wit: An original 4-by-5-foot Lee Reynolds abstract is priced at $550. Collectors browsing auc- tion sites will pay over $3,000 for similar works. A brand new Edelman leather club chair and ottoman are tagged at $1,000. You’d pay over $3,000 for the leather alone. The Coleman Collection also has Oriental rugs, antique and new chande- liers, dining tables, sofas, accent chairs and more.
The Coleman Collection
is more than just a consign- ment store, though; it’s an experience. Rhodes sums it up perfectly: “You never know what you’ll find in the store,” she says. “And you never know who you’re going to run into. This is just a sweet, small town. You may see your old elementary school teacher, and you may see Frank Abagnale.” Hopefully, you’ll also see Bill Murray. 2
THE COLEMAN COLLECTION 976 Houston Northcutt Blvd. Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 843-654-9046
facebook.com/thecolemancollection
Robin Howard is a full-time freelance writer in Charleston. See more of her work at
robinhowardwrites.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255 |
Page 256
