BUSINESS MATTERS
Jes & Gray Living
STORY & PHOTOS BY BETSY ILER
J
es & Gray Living this summer opened in a beloved landmark storefront on Broad Street Plaza in downtown Alexander City, featuring lake style furnishings and accessories. The new arrival adds a previously missing dimension to the growing vibe in the heart of town. More than a hundred years of style history still emanates from the brick walls and heart pine flooring in the building that, for more than 20 years, has been known as “the old Frohsin building.” But with the help of local designers Keith Little and Stuart Brassell, Beyond Borders’ Rebekah Osborn and Stock and Trade Design Company’s Michael Carey bring waterscape inspired home design to lake area clients. After months of renovation work that honors the building’s story, the first storefront for the new casualbright retail concept opened softly in early May with light, 10 Lake Martin Living
airy, innovative design in creams, silvers, grays and whites accented in coastal and nautical blues. “It’s geared toward the lake and coastal design,” explained Osborn, who started her career in retail furniture in Louisiana in 2005. After franchising her concept, she moved into the Beyond Borders wholesale business, spending six years in Bali and Indonesia. “That had a big influence in design for me,” she said. “I loved the bamboo, rattan, the exotic hardwoods and teakwood.” Stock & Trade’s distribution center has been located in Rockford, Alabama, for several years, and now will serve in that capacity for Jes & Gray Living as well. As she visits the distribution facility every month or so, Osborn began to look around the area for corporate housing. “We wanted to be able to spend a week and feel at
