New vintage art boutique comes to Homewood

The owners of the new vintage home goods boutique, Shoppe on Broadway, have known each other for years. All Homewood residents, Hannah Johnson, Katherine Bailey, Jonathan Lambert and Courtney Myrick have worked in the art industry for many years, all owning their own businesses.

Now, they all have come together to share each of their unique specialities in the form of Shoppe on Broadway.

“My wife actually works for Katherine, and one day she was like ‘Katherine is thinking about downsizing her studio’ so it was kind of birthed out of that,” Lambert said. “I knew Hannah really well from just being in the same business.”

Johnson added that they’ve run into each other multiple times at vintage pop-ups and impromptu boutique appearances at certain venues.

“I already had the space, so it made sense, with the storefront, to have a more retail front,” Bailey said. “It was just finding the right people. We knocked it out.”

The boutique offers several home decor items including paintings, art pieces and vintage clothing, among other things.

Johnson specializes mostly in vintage clothes such as leather jackets, fur coats and sweaters dating from the 1940s to the 1990s, but also in art pieces. “My favorites are from the ’60s and ’70s, I’m a hippie,” Johnson said laughing.

Lambert and Myrick specialize in vintage home decor, which compliments Bailey’s interior design studio, where she sells home decor items such as pillows and furniture.

“We really mesh,” Johnson said.

Bailey, Johnson, Lambert and Myrick all find their products by traveling, Lambert said.

“All of us gather for our regular jobs,” Lambert said. “We are sourcing things from all over the Southeast. We get a lot of stuff from New Orleans, Charleston, Nashville and Austin. It’s become ingrained in our lives. You’re on a family vacation in Maples, Florida, and you’re like, ‘Sorry kids, we gotta go to the garage sale. Let’s go.’”

Johnson said the name of her business, WerTheGoodz, was inspired by the thrift stores she visited with her family and was surprised by the items she found. “We would go to thrift stores about 10 years ago and say, ‘This stuff is so worthy. Why are people throwing this stuff away? It’s so cool.’ That’s where it [the name] comes from,” Johnson said.

They said they are currently working with Homewood artists Julie Tucker and Brittany Cowart and looking for emerging artists in Homewood. “We hope to offer people that walk in off the street and other designers a place to come and gather items, curated accessories,” Bailey said.

Lambert said one thing they all have in common is that they are energized by the hunt. “Finding the value in things that are, for lack of a better word, discarded. I think we all enjoy the challenge, which brings the four of us together,” she said. “We love finding beauty in the unwanted.”