Angelus Home & Garden in Walworth is a decor store with a flair for unique items
Walworth — While many of us will be clicking our way through much of our holiday shopping, there is still value in taking time to visit brick-and-mortar stores. Especially a store like Angelus Home & Garden.
Located in southern Wisconsin, Angelus offers a retail experience for holiday decor, home furnishings and gifts that you won’t find online. You’ll need to check it out in person.
If you go, be prepared to feel inspired. Get ready to stare, study, smell and touch. There are so many home decorating items and ideas, it’s hard to halt its contagious creativity.
Owned by sisters Therese Turnbaugh and Jeannene Clark, Angelus originally opened in 2011 to sell Annie Sloan decorative chalk paint.
When the sisters decided to open a shop in the aftermath of the Great Recession, the odds were against them. With no capital to speak of, they set up in an empty 1940s car dealership in this town of barely 2,800 an hour southwest of downtown Milwaukee.
The building came with its own vintage character, including the hydraulic lifts for servicing cars that are still present but out of the way in the basement. Big-box giants dominated the retail landscape and online shopping was expanding rapidly. The outlook looked dim for small, independent retailers, especially for fledgling endeavors.
Nevertheless, Angelus somehow flourished and even branched out in its modest surroundings at 325 Kenosha St. to now comprise 12,000 square feet of retail space.
With a unique combination of sibling sense and sensibility, Turnbaugh and Clark work to fill a niche for shoppers looking for both interesting products and a pleasant retail experience.
The home, garden and lifestyle store, which draws customers from southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois and tourists visiting Lake Geneva, sells a full range of home furnishings, including riveted upholstered chairs, light fixtures, slipcovered sofas, rugs, mirrors, barware, even one-of-a-kind reclaimed architectural pieces.
It also offers boutique clothing and jewelry, gourmet treats, gift items and personal products such as Barr-Co. soaps, lotions and candles, and the staff now numbers seven.
You could call it a classic American success story.
The sisters’ self-described “freelance” style comes not from following trends, but mixing together items that inspire them, they said. Right now, anything hand-made for the holidays is hot, such as Christmas signs, along with whites, neutrals, wood and metal accents, and all things plaid.
Because of their reported flair for stylishly outfitting interiors, Turnbaugh and Clark have been hired to stage empty homes by Realtors and builders.
We asked Turnbaugh about home decorating, the shopping experience at Angelus, and its upcoming eighth anniversary. Arguably the more creative of the two sisters, the younger Turnbaugh handles all displays, design and buying.
Question: What is the Angelus Home & Garden store like?
Answer: Angelus is best described as an experience, and a joyful one. The shop itself is around 12,000 square feet of retail with vignettes and scenes everywhere. Each room or display is created with themes as if you were at home.
It smells divine when you walk in, and on weekends we greet you with coffee and usually a wood-burning fire. There's a variety of home furnishings and artwork here with a unique mix of vintage, artisan and repurposed salvage as accents among new sofas, chairs, lamps and tables. It's a relaxed atmosphere with emphasis on lake, cottage, farm and cabin home interiors.
Q: Angelus is inspiring to visit. Is that intentional on your part?
A: From day one, we have to say that everything about this business was inspired and we have always thought of ourselves as offering God-given talents to the public, as we weren't formerly trained to do this.
We love what we do and we love that people are inspired. … It's what keeps us going every day.
Q: Where did the name come from?
A: Angelica came to my mind. That same day, my sister found a reproduction painting called The Angelus in a thrift store, and it clicked! What we realized is they both mean angel or messenger. This was the beginning of feeling inspired to do this business.
Q: Has Annie Sloan paint been instrumental in your growth?
A: Absolutely! When we started Angelus, we had no capital to speak of. We opened during the recession after so many people had lost their jobs (and) homes and there was an overall unstable feeling in the economy.
We started with fixing up old furniture by way of painting it, and we were using a lot of toxic materials. We were introduced to a new line of paint by our sister-in-law, which was claiming to be water-based and able to adhere to just about any surface. It was such a great product we knew we needed to purchase large quantities and we wanted to sell it.
We went through training to become “stockists” of the product and offer instruction and workshops to the public. Annie Sloan Chalk Paint had a marketing program that led people to our store. We had no … advertising budget and our store was strictly drive-by, word of mouth and social media. Most people in the U.S. hadn't even heard of the chalk paint yet, so their company marketed us and we educated the consumer on the product.
Q: What other factors have contributed to your success and how have you thrived in a competitive retail world of online shopping and big-box stores?
A: Big-box stores and online shopping are a real concern. We know that there is an economic factor as well as a convenience factor that people want, but we look at it this way: we can't compete with them, so we don't. We offer the human connection, the experience, the joy. You can't order that online.
If one of our products from a vendor ends up on the shelves of a big retailer, we change products or vendors.
We also have a variety of vintage, artisan and reclaimed/repurposed items that are one-of-a-kind. That's another reason to come into our shop, as it won't be found elsewhere.
Q: Which HGTV designers do you like?
A: We don't watch much TV, but of course we love Chip and Joanna Gaines. Joanna is like a long-lost sister to us. Lots of similar tastes.
Q: Any upcoming special events for shoppers?
A: Yes, we celebrate our anniversary and hold a Christmas Spirit Celebration the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year’s event will be our eighth year anniversary and held Saturday, Nov. 30. We have refreshments, storewide sales, giveaways, music, and horse and carriage rides. It’s a wonderfully fun event for us and the community.
Q: Any new plans for 2020?
A: Because it's an old building, we are constantly updating. We hope to update the exterior a bit. Inside we will continuously be changing up the rooms. We will offer more art and paint classes and expand our boutique.
Q: Other comments?
A: We are blessed for the opportunity to share our talents, offer jobs to people, bring products with meaning to customers.
Incidentally, when visiting the store, note the paintings hanging behind the sales counter. They are all reproductions of The Angelus, including the thrift store original that inspired the name. Now, every time we see one, we buy it.
Jennifer Rude Klett is a Wisconsin freelance writer of history, food, and Midwestern life. Contact her at jrudeklett.com.
Festive decorating tips from Angelus
At Angelus Home & Garden store in Walworth, anything hand-made is in demand, including holiday signs and art. Pillows, throws, wreaths and greenery are popular for easy but effective zhuzhing (zhuzhing, as in making something more attractive with minor changes).
White and neutral-colored furniture, festive plaids, plus smaller metal items such as white distressed snowflake tree toppers are also sought after, according to sibling owners Therese Turnbaugh and Jeannene Clark.
To get your home ready for the holiday season, the stylish sisters offered these quick tips:
Bring the outdoors in. “We love to incorporate nature,” Turnbaugh said. Use twigs, branches and berries set in urns or other creative containers.
Start with a focal point, such as a fireplace or mock fireplace. “I love to choose themes, whether it be a color theme, or texture, like metal objects or wood objects, or a character like Santa, snowman, angels,” she said.
Add soothing scents with a candle or stovetop potpourri. “Simmering cinnamon sticks with vanilla extract, cranberries, orange slices and a sprig of rosemary in water can make a house smell divine,” said Turnbaugh.
Stick with warm lighting for a pleasing ambience. According to Turnbaugh, many of the new LED lights are harsh and too cool on the Kelvin color temperature scale. Seek out warm lights for exterior lighting and Christmas trees.
Change out pillows, throws and towels to reflect the season’s themes and colors.
Remember, less can be more. “When in doubt, keep it simple,” she said. “Holidays are about love. Some people like to decorate everything, but sometimes the simplest decoration can evoke the most pleasant emotions.”