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Photos by Leah Ingram Eagle.
Style of the South offers a variety of gift and home decor products.
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Photos by Leah Ingram Eagle.
Style of the South offers a variety of gift and home decor products.
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Photos by Leah Ingram Eagle.
Beth Holsonback had never considered having her own store, until a moment during the recent holiday season.
She and her husband, Ryan, rode by a plain, empty building on a stretch of road in Chelsea — one they had passed by many times for several years. Only this time, they noticed something different.
“We saw people painting it a pretty off-white color, fixing it up,” Beth Holsonback said. “And my husband and I said that would be a neat place to have a business.”
Holsonback had worked as an event planner for many years, first as a special events coordinator at McRae’s in Riverchase Galleria and later as a fashion show coordinator at Belk at the Alabaster Promenade.
Most recently, she worked as a wedding consultant for Mr. Burch and Windwood Weddings. All through her career, Holsonback said, friends noticed her knack for creating good visuals and aesthetics.
“People I knew would say, ‘Can you come to my house and look around and give me some ideas?’” she said. “My husband and I started doing the Mt Laurel festivals, and people would ask if we had a store.”
That’s when she decided to open her first Style of the South booth at the Mercantile in Brook Highland Plaza, where she sold Southern home decor, clothing, crafts, jewelry and more. She later opened another booth as the business continued to grow.
“When we looked at the space in this building, we felt like it had a lot of character,” Holsonback said. “We knew it had a lot of possibilities.”
On Feb. 22, the second location of Style of the South held its grand opening in Chelsea. At 800 square feet, Holsonback calls the store a “continuation” of the first location’s clothing and home decor items such as soaps, pillows, kitchen accessories and lake signs, as well as tea towels and candles, two of the top-selling items.
“I look for things that you won’t find everywhere,” she said. “And that’s what people will say. They will come in and say, ‘I haven’t seen this before.’”
One such item is the “Garden in a Bag.”
“It’s a great way to say happy birthday or thank you,” Holsonback said. “It has little seeds in it, and you can grow a garden right inside the bag.”
Holsonback said the store’s Taylor Swift mugs have also been a big hit.
“I have grandmothers come in and say, ‘My granddaughter will love this,’” she said.
Holsonback said her biggest cheerleaders are Ryan, her son Dillon and his wife Taylor, and her daughter Brooke and her husband Clay. She said her customers and Shelby County residents have been very supportive.
“Working with the customers, helping them find that perfect gift, that’s what makes it special,” she said.
In the near term, Holsonback is planning for Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. But she’s also looking even further into the future.
“I know it’s still a while away, but I’m already thinking about Christmas,” she said. “I’m going to try to get Santa Claus here, and I’m already looking at trees.”
The new Style of the South is located at 16161 U.S. 280, Suite 1, next to Luckie’s Pinestraw, and is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Both booths at the Mercantile, at 5287 U.S. 280, are also still open.
For more information, visit facebook.com/styleofthesouth and @styleofthesouthhome on Instagram.
