Shop resurrects old furniture, home goods

Mary Dale Reynolds (left) and Margaret Baker (center), the owners of The Resurrection Shop, show Linda Vitale around the store. It was Vitale’s fi rst time in the store and she left impressed with the sheer quantity of goods inside. “I think it’s very interesting here,” Vitale said. “I like antiques and I like southern decor. I’ll be back.” Tanner Cole/HERALD

Kierstin Kirk

Nestled on Nutwood Street in a single-story green house lies a small little shop that seeks to find antique diamonds in the rough, breathing new life into old furniture. 

Sisters-in-law Margaret Baker and Mary Dale Reynolds found they could indulge in their passion of restoring furniture through The Resurrection Shop.

The store specializes in selling paints and products to restore old furniture, and teaches customers to make their antiques new again.

“To be able to find things that are fun and help people with their decor or their gifts and help them bring an old piece to life is amazing,” Reynolds said. 

Baker started thinking about opening a shop when she found herself constantly looking for good quality furniture paint. She finally stumbled upon one and saw the need for it to be brought to Bowling Green.

“I had come across chalk-type paints, and I was having to go to Nashville or Louisville or Lexington to get these products, and I thought that was ridiculous,” Baker said. “Nobody in town is selling this so we did some research on different brands out there and then we came across Maison Blanche and just absolutely loved their product.” 

The paint is now sold in the store along with the furniture. The paint comes in two different sizes, sample and quart, both of which are under $50. 

“Before we had the paint, people were just using the enamel paints and the latex and were having to sand and strip everything and then put new paint or stain on it,” Reynolds said. “With this line of paint, the Maison Blanche, you don’t have to.” 

The paint is also very versatile, which is one of the main features the sisters love about the product.

“The beauty of this type of paint is, say you’re kind of in a wild mood and paint a piece peacock blue, and then a couple of years down the line that’s not your style anymore, you can paint right over it,” Baker said. “It’s very adaptive.”

Along with the paint and furniture, Resurrection sells everything from small gifts, like hand-decorated pillows, to funky decorations, like cat clocks with ticking pairs of eyes and tails.

“There are antiques, there are funky junk, we do have lovely, inexpensive gifts for people that need stocking stuffers or just a little expensive gift for birthdays or anniversaries,” Reynolds said.

Finding the items for the store has been easy for the sisters because they’ve always loved old furniture and décor.

“I don’t have a problem saying ‘hey mister trash man, can you pull that out for me,’” Baker said.

They mainly go to estate sales, auctions and yard sales to find their items. They also have built relationships with their customers and they send them pictures of items they have found.

Reynolds compares the style of the store to that of her sister.

“She is very eclectic and funky,” Reynolds said.

Overall, the sisters agree that the style is just fun and meant for people to be able to have fun when choosing pieces to decorate their homes.

“I think our style is very fun, eclectic and we just like to have fun with it,” Baker said.

To help people discover their creative abilities, Resurrection offers classes at the store. Participants pay $50 and bring in an item they want to restore and they learn how to paint and renew the item while they are served food.

“We eat and we laugh and we eat some more and we do paint and a couple of hours later, they are all done and they are very proud of their work and we are too of their accomplishments,” Reynolds said. 

The main goal the sisters hope to accomplish with Resurrection is to let people know they are here to help them decorate their home. They want to let people know that restoring items can be fun and everyone has a creative side. 

“We love sharing it with people because a lot of people will say they aren’t creative and they get in here and find they are more capable than they knew, so it’s nice to give that gift to people,” Baker said.