After Los Angeles and Long Island, Ivy says North Carolina has the largest concentration of modernist homes. Once, during a home tour in Durham, she saw a light fixture she liked, figured out who made it and decided to carry it in the store.
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Most everything in their store is made-to-order. “In our country, there’s been a more mass-market mindset, like ‘Oh, I’ll just have it for a few years and throw it away,’” she says. “Ikea obviously brought Scandinavian style to the masses but the furniture is very inexpensively made and not really designed to last forever.” In the era of new gadgets every two years, Ivy sees a parallel between Denmark and her husband’s hometown of Hickory – both have a dedication to quality and a long tradition of craftsmanship. But some aspects of European design get lost in translation. “All Europeans love natural wool and felt materials, and I got [a chair in the store] and thought, ‘Hm, dark gray wool in North Carolina in the summer may not have been my best choice.’” Ivy recalls. The level of quality means they don’t seek to compete with the big box stores. “I tell people I think it’s smart to invest over time because a lot of the pieces you’ll have forever and be able to hand them down to your children,” Ivy says. Case in point, one of their first customers was a couple who have been married 50 years and are still adding to their collection. John delivered a chair to the couple’s modernist home in Durham, and they showed him all the original Hans Wegner items they bought in the 1960s. “They had a teak dining room set that had held up all those years,” Ivy says. “It’s a testament to the quality.” u 44
chapelhillmagazine.com March 2015