In Business of Home’s series Shop Talk, we chat with owners of home furnishings stores across the country to hear about their hard-won lessons and challenges, big and small. This week, we spoke with Will Hunt Lewis of Hunt & Bloom in Houston.
Lewis’s career arc looks like a zigzag. After opening a home furnishings store in his small Mississippi hometown, he moved to New York, where he worked in merchandising for Jonathan Adler and One Kings Lane, then spent nearly a decade at Kravet, finishing his tenure as senior vice president of merchandising. He pivoted once more, moving back to the South—this time, to his husband’s hometown —and returning to indie-retail life when he opened Hunt & Bloom in 2021.
Ahead, the proprietor discusses what he learned from multimillion-dollar budgets, the quirky animal item his customers go crazy for, and how digital innovations make his job both easier and much more time-consuming.
What made you want to move to New York when you already had your own store?
I grew up in Mississippi, I went to college in Mississippi, and all I knew was Mississippi. I was 30 years old and thought, “You know what? If I don’t make a change now and experience another part of the country, I’ll never do it.” I decided on a whim to pick up and move. I sold part of my store to the person who was acting as my manager, and she took over day-to-day operations. I still kept a bit of the ownership. I thought it was going to take a long time for me to find a job in New York, but it happened very quickly. I got my job for Jonathan Adler, who I’m still indebted to him for taking a chance on someone from a small town without a lot of corporate merchandising experience.
How similar are your first store and your current store?
Completely different. Growing up, my grandmother and mother were very into home decor, making a beautiful home and having beautiful things. I grew up around antiques and collections of inherited pieces. My store in Mississippi catered to the clientele of that region. Looking back, there are a few similarities, but I think I’ve come into my own sense of what I like and appreciate.
And this was 22 years ago, so we had no e-commerce presence, barely an email address. We were still doing things by phone and fax. I still cater to the audience coming into the store every day, but now I have such a wider net that I can cast, so I can be a little bit freer with bringing what I like into the mix.
Can you talk about how your time at major brands influenced the retailer that you are today?
Jumping into these higher-level merchandising roles, you learn a lot of negotiation tactics. You learn about working with a budget. If you spend too much money or go over budget working for these large corporations, you may be answering to a CEO, a COO, investors. It taught me how to work within the constraints of someone else’s parameters rather than my own. And these are big, big numbers that we’re working with. It took a lot of adjustment [to realize] that, “Wow, I’m in these businesses that are [spending] millions and millions of dollars.” Yes, we’re doing a lot of volume, but you still have to pivot and make decisions that you will have to answer for: “Hey, why did you do this, and why didn’t it work out?” As opposed to me spending a thousand dollars on a new line of candles for my store that flops.
Tell me about the aesthetic of your store now.
Frenetic and eclectic and curated and collected. You can go into beautiful stores that have beautiful things, but it’s very clean and it’s very organized. I love stuff. I’m not a minimalist. I’ve tried to be a minimalist! My husband’s a minimalist. When we moved into our first apartment together, I decided I was going to do clean lines and very minimal accessories; that lasted about six months. [In] my store, no surface is visible. I’m talking about the floor, a chair—I will use any surface to display product. I like it to be a treasure hunt, where you need to spend a lot of time to actually see everything.
What are some of the really whimsical items?
I have always loved color. I’ve tried to assume the kind of California cool vibe, with neutral boucles and that kind of thing, and it’s just not me. Right now, I’m looking at a pair of hot pink Staffordshire-style dalmatians on a kelly green base. I’m looking at an orange gluggle jug. I'm looking at Bridie Hall paintbrush pots. They are beautiful, refined pieces, but you’re going to see whimsy everywhere. I think there should be a story around something that you have. I’ve spoken to people who need to fill bookshelves immediately, and I always say, “Don’t you want to look at your bookshelves and see books that you’ve read, but also this piece that belonged to your grandmother or this piece you bought on a fabulous trip, rather than going out and buying everything at one time and filling it just to fill it?”
What is your sourcing process like?
It’s so different because 22 years ago, I was going to trade shows multiple times a year and having sales reps come to my store with their dog and pony show: a trunk full of new samples to show me a new product line. That was the only way that I found product—[that] or by doing competitive shopping in other people’s stores.
Then I start doing corporate merchandising, and we’re making our own product. So I was fortunate enough to get into that realm where we’re designing product in-house, then sourcing globally to find someone to make it. Now I’ve come back to my own store, where there are so many different avenues. Wholesalers have shoppable websites, so I can be in my bed, on my iPhone, saying, “Oh, I need to reorder so-and-so.” One particular company that I buy a lot from, I’ve never actually met the sales rep, which is so different than it was 22 years ago!
Faire has disrupted the entire wholesale marketplace. You can shop all of these brands in one place at 10 o’clock at night. I am on Faire all the time, even just looking for inspiration. So I use that, I use markets, I use Instagram so much, just digging around and DMing an artist: “Hey, I love this stuff. Do you sell in the U.S.? Can you ship to me?” It’s nonstop, and that’s so different. Long ago, I left work at 5:30 and I was done sourcing. Now I’m working all the time, and luckily I enjoy that, but it never cuts off.
Will you tell me about the artist collaborations you do?
So again, an Instagram thing! A friend of mine had found this wonderful woman in Georgia who makes beautiful intaglio soaps. We started DMing, and she makes these adorable Staffordshire dog soaps, and we sell tons of Staffordshire dogs. I said, “You have blue and white, but I think it would be so cool if we did a collaboration on a certain color.”
Then, I have this thing for tea towels and dish towels. I just love picking them up in random places. In my store, I sell tons and I started producing my own. When Paulette Pearson went out on her own from Luxe [with a custom illustration business], I thought, “Oh, it would be so cool to collaborate with her.” It’s all about exclusivity. I think a key differentiator for a successful business is finding those kinds of collaborations, those products that aren’t available everywhere else, and giving your customers a reason to come to you.
Who is your typical customer?
I’ve done a lot of research on this, and I want to be able to say my customer is a 44-year-old woman who makes $150,000 a year, but I can’t do that. Our customer base is so broad. Luckily we’re in Houston, and there are a lot of designers around here. Designers come in and source for their projects, and they’re vital to this type of business because they are boots on the ground. There are so many people who trust their designers to buy for them, and I’m not just talking about their furniture or light fixtures; I’m talking about their dinnerware, their dish towels. Luckily [the store has a] social media presence, and so many have discovered me that way. But if it weren’t for social media, I don’t know what I would do. Houston is a giant metropolis. In my town in Mississippi, I knew everyone. I didn’t have to advertise. People were waiting for me to open. Here, who am I? Why are you going to come to my little store that’s on a side street? So designers and social media have driven people to the store. We moved our location in March and we’re seeing more [foot] traffic now, and word-of-mouth.
I have a male customer in Nashville who’s 89 years old and buys random things from our website, and people in their mid-20s buying these hot pink Staffordshire dalmatians. So I can’t pinpoint who my customer is. I do know that they love color, and maybe the quirkiness of the mix of the assortment.
What is your own favorite product or category in the store?
Right now, my favorite product in the store is an antique French Palissy ware platter, a dimensional type of majolica that actually has ceramic figures on it, and this has insects and snakes, and it’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen. I think it’s so cool. It’s very expensive. I keep praying no one’s going to buy it, and eventually I’m going to take it home. I think it is so, so cool.
Is there a certain object that flies out the door?
I feel sometimes like we’re a Staffordshire-dog reproduction store because I’ve had to source so many different types. We have them in traditional whites and traditional glazes to pop pink, and I’m looking at lavender. People are obsessed with these. I’m constantly reordering. It’s insane. I’m looking on Instagram, on Faire. I’m looking at makers to find the next style that I can bring to the customers. That’s one of my constant chores right now.
How would you describe your e-comm strategy?
There are so many great e-commerce sites out there, but what I’ve found is many are over-SKU’d and oversaturated. There’s just too much product. You go to their table lamp category and there are 4,000 you have to sift through. I want to stick to a curated mix. I want our table lamp category to have 50 to 100, and maybe you won’t find exactly what you’re looking for here, but we have a curated point of view. You don’t get scroll fatigue. We sell Fornasetti and Lee Jofa wallpaper. I could add all of their wallpapers to my website, but I don’t. You're not going to find every single thing from every single company. Hopefully that differentiates us from the sites that do have so much stuff. I certainly can’t compete with the giants on free shipping and discounts all the time, but what I can compete with is a curated mix.
Another thing that I really strive to excel at is high-touch customer service: responding to people, finding them what they need, answering their questions. If they say, “Oh, my gosh, I got my shipment in the mail and it’s chipped. What do I need to do with it?” We’re going to send you a replacement right away, no questions asked. And a lot of people will say, “OK, send me a [return label] and I’ll return the chipped piece,” [but] I’m not going to make you go out of your way. Either we didn’t wrap it well or the carrier broke it. Even if I could resell a chipped piece at 40 percent off, I’m not making you go out of your way. Keep that piece, donate it, throw it away.
It’s funny, when I was dealing with some of the major [retailers] that have sent me things in error, I’ve always gotten so annoyed when they want me to take time out of my day to repackage it, print out a shipping label, and drop it off at the UPS store for a mistake that they made. I think that our level of service differentiates and makes up for us maybe not having the lowest price or not offering free shipping every day.
Can you tell me about some of the things that you have found surprising or perhaps challenging about operating in Houston?
I feel like I have the benefits of living in New York, with the diversity of the population and this great variety of food—I think Houston rivals New York in cuisine any day of the week—and the people are so nice. You’re in the South again, where people are super nice and say hi.
The challenge in starting my own businesses [was that] I didn’t have a built-in network of friends and family here who were ready to come shop with me. Luckily, I was able to leverage some connections: There’s a great showroom here. I know the staff; they connected me with people immediately, which was great. The design community is stellar, and it is diverse. These designers aren’t just doing one-note things. If you want an amazing contemporary designer, there are plenty. If you want an amazing traditional designer, there are plenty. That’s what I’ve found so refreshing: I feel like I’m in this quaint community while still being in a big city.
What’s your favorite day at the shop?
My favorite day is not being tied to my desk [doing things like] reordering, checking stock, looking at what we’re out of, what we’re about to be out of, answering emails. My favorite is being on the floor and turning it upside down, redoing displays and merchandising. I love merchandising. If I could just be on the shop floor all day long, I would do that. Unfortunately, I feel like I don’t get to do that nearly enough. I am tied to running the business. But that would be a perfect day for me: turning the music on and turning the store upside down, making it look new. We always say in retail, “If you move a product around in the store, then all of a sudden it becomes new.” Someone who comes every day is going to see it and say, “Oh, you’ve got this in. This is so cute!” and you’ve had it for six months.
