By Kady Cramer
Related Second Chance Home Furnishings relocated from Stilwell, KS to the heart of Martin City, 13442 Cherry Street, and officially opened their doors on June 28.
Most recently a vacation rental, the historic home now features a sophisticated collection of home furnishings. The new storefront features unique, modern pieces with a cozy ambiance, fitting right in on Martin City’s main street. Upscale, second-hand furniture is the main appeal – with pieces from Pottery Barn, Bernhardt, and Nell Hills – but also includes everything from shelves, pillows and throws, picture frames, mirrors and rugs, to lamps and even kitchenware.
Growing up in Stilwell, owner Kim Volker and three of her four daughters put their imaginative minds together to build the second-hand home décor and furnishings shop, Related, in 2019. It just so happened that Volker’s brother had a commercial warehouse space open in Stilwell.
Due to evolving family and career life, only one sister remains in the business – Denise Boyd.
“My uncle owned a building in Stilwell so we just decided we would try it for a month and it went really well,” says Boyd. “We took it month by month and now here we are four years later.”
Volker and Boyd just recently celebrated the boutique’s fourth anniversary, deciding to make a move to a community known for supporting the success of its hometown businesses.
When Debbie Van Noy, owner at Jess and Jim’s, mentioned the rental space to Kim, she jumped on it. School mates and long-time friends, Volker immediately said, “okay!”
“I think I kind of shocked her,” laughed Volker.
Instead of sectioning off areas of a warehouse to stage room furnishing concepts, the pair now have actual rooms inside an actual house.
“This house is perfect. It’s a much better fit for our business,” says Boyd. “And the house is so charming, too. We take full advantage of it.”
Moving in within a space of just a few days, the two quickly staged everything as people started knocking on their doors to see what was going on.
“The atmosphere of Martin City is so much more fun,” says Volker. “I just think we get a lot more people walking through.”
A newlywed, Boyd comes from an elementary school teaching background, and is busy at home as well as at the office with a three-year-old boy and one-year-old baby girl.
A retired hospital nurse, Volker worked for almost 20 years at The University of Kansas Health System. When she wasn’t on the job, she found herself spending time exploring estate sales and other venues where gently used décor was priced to sell quickly. Over time, she developed a skill for identifying rare pieces that were exceptionally high quality but at a low cost.
Volkner jokes, “I would go to estate sales and just think, ‘dang, I wish I had a place for this…dang I wish I had a place for that’.”
“We started out going to garage sales and estate sales but now a lot of the time we work with real estate companies or people moving out,” says Volker. “We have people calling us all the time to see if we want to buy things. My favorite thing about starting this business is the people. They’re so fun to be around. Not just the customers, the people I’m buying from are almost always super nice.”
“I feel like a lot of our country right now is crazy big business,” says Boyd. “We’re striving to bring a small town, Christian-based, family-owned business vibe.”
Related is open Wednesdays, 8am-3pm; Thursdays and Fridays, 11am-6pm; and Saturdays, 11am-3pm. For more information, visit their Facebook page at Related Home Furnishings.