New Consignment Store Filled With Gently Used Treasures

Give me some cold hard cash and turn me loose downtown and I’m heading straight for my favorite thrift and antique stores and collectives. If there’s one thing Petaluma knows how to do, it's collect, restore and display lovely things from generations past.

The newest kid on the block is , which opened April 16 in a former Sack’s thrift store location at 322 Western Avenue. The shop, owned by Janet Highfield, is a glorious, airy 4,000 square foot space that sat empty for nearly four years before Highfield saw its potential.

“Sack's used to have a wall blocking off the back, so when people come in they can’t get over how much space we have. I think it’s a beautiful space,” Highfield said.

Highfield grew up on the Peninsula and lived in Nevada for two decades where she built homes on spec while she raised her daughters.

“But when the younger one left for college, I thought it was time for a new place to live and something new to do,” she said.

Highfield did something that strikes me as incredibly brave. Having never visited Petaluma in her life she bought an existing business off an ad on Craigslist that sold up-cycled, recycled and previously loved décor.  She ran the business from inside a yellow barn out on Bodega and Thompson for about three years.

“I found I really enjoyed the business, but the old location was half the size of this new space and when you use an old barn it’s freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer," she said. "It was time to come to town."

Highfield enjoys seeing “lovely people” all day long and is now a regular at the  next door. Recently The Find was a pit stop on a downtown , which drew close to 100 people to the new business.

Highfield has no partners and says the majority of her stock is items she found and restored or up-cycled. She likes things like dry sink cabinets and low cabinets with drawers. She recently worked on a breakfront to which she added stained glass doors. She has one hard and fast rule with furniture: nothing wobbly, rickety or cracked. Everything has to function.

The butter yellow walls display loads of local artists’ work including lovely small canvases by Wendy Franklin and the cow portraits and jewel box-sized rooster oils by Jonnie Baldwin.

It's a competitive business. So it doesn’t hurt that Highfield has not one, but two, secret weapons in the form of her very creative daughters.

“One of my girls works for InStyle magazine in New York and the other is a visual merchandizer for Anthropologie. So when they visit they always come in and do my windows and show me great ways to display things,” she said.

On the day I visited, a seller stopped by to show Highfield some small pieces of consignment furniture that could be re-purposed. The two exchanged opinions on what customers might like, what would be true to the piece, and supplies and techniques that might accomplish a shared vision.

While Highfield welcomes inquiries about placement of goods in her stores, she begs that people don’t call or pull up with a car full of wares to sell.

“I’m still looking for a few things and I’d love it if people would just e-mail me a little note with pictures. Because I have to be available to customers in the store, that’s the best method for me.”

A quick way to reach Highfield and see everything new on the floor is through her Facebook page. You can also email her at thefind.petaluma@gmail.com.