Calico Corners Has New Digs in Old Town!
by Amanda M. Socci
On January 9, a crisp winter night in Old Town, Calico Corners celebrated the grand opening of its new retail space at 817 King Street, just across from its former store at 814 King Street. Festivities began at 5:00 p.m., with former Mayor Allison Silberberg assuming ribbon-cutting honors.
Calico is a public showroom that provides custom-made home décor goods, including window treatments, pillows and bedding, and upholstery. The new store is a visually stunning rectangular space with every inch dedicated to fabric swatches, wallpaper samples, decorative trim, and furnishings.
Calico’s staff members were all smiles as they greeted patrons and invited them to feast on a spread of sandwiches, seafood and desserts. Each guest also received one raffle ticket, with a chance to win a copy of the home décor book, Prints Charming by Madcap Cottage: Create Absolutely Beautiful Interiors with Prints & Patterns, signed by the evening’s special guests, John Loecke and Jason Oliver Nixon, the famous interior design duo from Madcap Cottage.
Based in Thomasville, NC, Loecke and Nixon travel widely, sharing their meticulous insight and intuitive connections on all things lighting, design, and décor with audiences throughout the United States. In Virginia to renovate a home in Burke, Loecke and Nixon spent an hour entertaining Calico’s guests with witty anecdotes from Prints Charming and their outlook on home décor trends for 2019. Calico staff broadcast the talk live on their corporate Facebook page.
“We’re very much about timeless,” noted Nixon. He amused the audience when noting that “avocado and orange are from a specific point in time” and that perhaps Calico clients might not want to duplicate colors from their mother’s kitchen.
Calico Corners invited Loecke and Nixon to be its special guests at the grand opening as part of the debut of Madcap Cottage’s new fabric collection, “A Life Well Lived.” It is a collaboration with a formidable player in the home textiles and furnishings industry, the Robert Allen Duralee Group. The whimsical prints in the collection reflect the inspiration Loecke and Nixon experienced during recent travels to various states and countries and, according to Calico promotions, “celebrate the art of travel and gracious living.”
Calico store manager Kisha Killingsworth, who greeted guests and officiated the raffle, brings a degree in management and merchandising to her position, an ideal mix of design and customer service. “Your home is special,” she said, “the first impression is everything.”
Edward Haddad is another Calico employee who brings meaning to the job. Now in his 70s, Haddad has been with the company for 18 years and serves as chief designer at Calico Old Town. He stressed the importance of “working with women on collaborative communications,” which he says is the balance between listening carefully to the client’s home décor wishes and providing thoughtful fabric and design recommendations.
Calico offers in-store design consultations and services as part of its custom order package. Its local workroom will fulfill custom orders in eight to ten weeks.
