By Sara Poirier Correa
Sentinel Correspondent
After 38 years, a store is bound to see repeat customers. Not only is this true at Estate Treasures, storeowner Harriet Roughan said, but also now the children and grandchildren of former customers are forming a new client base for the long-standing Riverside consignment shop.
“It’s a phenomenal thing to have two generations, and sometimes three generations, shopping here,” she said, adding that 90 percent of her customers are repetitive.
“I feel like I’m woven into the fabric of this town because I’ve been here so long,” Roughan said. “I want to be here to help.”
Estate Treasures, touted as “the largest consignment shop in Fairfield County,” is 7,500 square feet of wall-to-wall merchandise—everything from fine China to sterling silver tea sets, to prints and paintings for the wall, to pristine, custom-made but previously owned couches and chairs, to desks and library bookcases, and much more.
“I think that we’re here to service everybody,” she said. “If you want to come in here and buy a $12 cup and saucer, we sell cups and saucers. If you want to buy a piece of upholstery, we have that.
“We are trying to have a lot to make people come in and not think that, ‘Gee, prices are too expensive, I’m really not looking for a piece a furniture.’ So we like accessories.”
“We are very reasonably priced,” she added, “and the value is tremendous.”
On a recent visit to the store, one could find a like-new custom made couch, ready for sinking into, for around $500. If new, Roughan said, it probably would sell for $3,500.
“If it’s move-in condition, no sun fade, no soil, no tear, it’s good for Estate Treasures.”
The nearly four decades of business seem “like a lifetime,” according to the Riverside resident. But what has kept her coming back, seven days a week for the past 38 years, she said, has been her customers.
“There’s always the challenge of who is going to come in and what consignments are coming in,” Roughan said of her business.
With a background in decorating—with education from the New York School of Interior Design—Roughan said she enjoys putting pieces together that have come from different places, to present them in a way that will make the individual pieces appeal to shoppers.
“It’s fun trying to put it together and hope that you’ve taken in what people want, and trying to set it up as nice as you can,” she said. “There’s such an art to it.”
She added: “That’s the part of the business I love, the decorating, the placing it; trying to put a sofa with someone else’s coffee tables, with somebody else’s chairs, and trying to make a vignette out of it. That part I love to do. That’s my end.”
In addition to taking in and selling antiques and other furniture, Estate Treasures sells previously owned jewelry and antique reproductions that are newly made in England and Italy. The store is also a distributor for Lee Industries, an upholstery company.
With so much to offer, Roughan and her staff also provide design consultations for customers looking for the right product, as well as work directly with designers and decorators shopping for their own clients.
“We work with new people that have just bought a house in town and are overwhelmed with the thought of decorating that big empty space, and think, ‘Where do I start?’” she said.
After so many years in business, Roughan added that the industry has seen its share of ebbs and flows when it comes to what customers are looking for. Right now is what she referred to as a “transitional period” of “simpler lines” and modern looks.
“I think the young people, because it’s so popular today, they’re going to go with it and in a few years find that it’s cold,” Roughan said, adding that for her, comfort is always in style.
“I find there are certain things that are out of vogue right now,” she said, referring to large pieces such as armoires and entertainment centers.
“Certain things go out of fashion, just like clothes do, but if you hang around long enough, it comes back,” she said.
For more about Estate Treasures, stop by the store at 1162 East Putnam Avenue, call 203-637-4200 or visit estatetreasures.com
