The Art of Closing (It's More Complicated Than It Looks)

Closing a store, it turns out, is not a single act. It is a process. A reckoning. A mildly humbling tour through every decision you've made over the past fourteen years.

Most might think the end of The Drawing Room would look like turning off the lights and locking the door — a clean, cinematic goodbye. What most do not see is that even after years of editing and curating, the sheer volume of stuff that accumulates in a creative retail space over a decade has a way of quietly multiplying (and multiplying). 

There is the perfect display case, acquired with great purpose. The fabulous piece of furniture refinished in just the right color. And then there is the fixture I was genuinely convinced would be brilliant (it was not). 

Easels. So many easels.

Risers in every height. 

Baskets. 

Vases.

Three closets that apparently became autonomous over the years: the hardware closet, the shipping materials closet, the kitchenette.

Once the closets are addressed, the administrative unraveling begins: utilities to cancel, change-of-address requests for accounts created in a moment of organizational optimism and never touched again.

Through all of it, something lovely has happened. Friends and longtime customers have been checking in…some to make sure I'm okay, and a few who are still quietly convinced this is all an elaborate bluff. It isn't. We are not moving. The Drawing Room is closing.

And yet, I find myself genuinely at peace with that. More than at peace, actually. Over fourteen years, this place developed a life and a personality entirely its own. One of the reasons to close now, while it is still wonderful, is so that it can remain exactly that in our collective memory: the fantastic, warm, surprising place it became because of all of you.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. What I feel on the other side is not loss, it is possibility. New ideas. New freedom. A lot of mental space I didn't realize I'd been filling.

But first, there is inventory to rehome.

One last flash sale: Friday, April 24, 11am - 3pm. Come find something you love. The movers arrive next week, so this is your final chance to shop in person.

(The online shop will continue — revamped and very much alive.)

The Drawing Room is closing. My New Bedford story is not.

Cheers,