The George is a new vintage, mid-century household furniture store in Del Ray. Highlighted here: a Broyhill Sculptra gentlemen’s chest, a Lane surfboard facet table, and a Gunlocke arm chair. Photograph courtesy of Teri Brake.
Awareness, layout-obsessed Washingtonians: There is a new vintage furnishings store in the location.
The George Classic & Style, which opened earlier this summer in Del Ray, specializes in midcentury-contemporary goods. The 1,000- sq.-foot keep, positioned on Mount Vernon Avenue, carries vintage home furnishings, rugs, glassware, and other property extras, as effectively as candles and artwork by Alexandria makers like ISO Candles and artist Nina Louise.
The operator, Teri Brake, is a longtime lover and collector of classic and midcentury pieces. Pre-pandemic, she was living in New York and functioning in company The united states as a main of staff members. But when Covid strike, she took off on an prolonged street trip that in the end introduced her to Alexandria. She loved it so much, she decided to continue to be for very good. She also decided to turn her passion into a full-time gig. She released The George in June, naming it immediately after her 7-yr-outdated Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Shoppers can normally obtain the pup, who’s named following George Washington, hanging out in the retailer. “He usually takes his obligations as greeter incredibly very seriously,” Brake suggests.
Brake centered the retail store all over midcentury home furnishings since she loves it, but the style’s clean up strains and simple buildings also make it something of an aesthetic chameleon. “Vintage midcentury pieces are simply placed into any style and design for the reason that they don’t conflict with what folks usually have,” she claims. She sources all the parts from across the country herself, and will take care to curate a choice that is higher quality and in very good situation. Brake supplies style providers, also, assisting purchasers repurpose and rearrange already-owned objects from their property, and sourcing new pieces for them.
While most of the objects in Brake’s shop are from the 1960s, she also carries a few from the ’50s and ’70s. Her favored pieces now for sale contain a pair of 1960s Milo Baughman-influenced tub swivel chairs in unique orange velvet, a few merchandise from Herman Miller (the home furnishings firm driving famed pieces like the Eames chair), and a established of 1960s Danish teak eating area chairs. And Brake normally carries a assortment of vintage barware and coffee and tea mugs, which are also favorites of hers.
Whilst replicas of first midcentury-fashionable fashion are commonplace in today’s large box stores—think West Elm or Target—Brake claims it’s greatest to maintain out and wait around until you come across an reliable vintage piece you genuinely really like. It may possibly price tag more up front, but a perfectly-preserved piece of initial midcentury-fashionable household furniture will possible be a better expense and higher good quality. “Sminimal layout is the very best design and style,” she suggests. “Be affected individual with a space.”
Brake’s favored part of her new occupation is the comprehensive-circle mother nature of classic looking: “It will hardly ever be shed on me when another person will come in and they find anything that I have sourced and curated and they want to include that into their very own households,” she claims. “I’m genuinely grateful for that. It won’t ever get aged.”
The George Classic & Layout 2210 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria Thursday to Friday: 11 AM to 6 PM Saturday: 10 AM. to 5 PM. Sunday: 11 AM to 3 PM.
Dwelling & Features Editor
Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She’s penned for The Washington Publish, Garden & Gun, Outside Journal, Washington Town Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Initially from North Carolina, she now lives in Del Ray.
