The love of furniture: 5 Questions for Kelley Palmiscino - Grand Forks Herald

For 5 Questions this week, the Herald speaks with Kelley Palmiscino, who, along with her husband, Steve, runs Picks, a home decorating shop located at 1224 S. Washington St., in Grand Forks.

Q: Tell us about your shop. How long have you owned it?

A: We're coming up on our sixth anniversary in October. We're hoping to be here for quite a few more years. My husband and I decided to become partners, so I'm in this with my husband and we have a lot of fun doing it. The nature of our shop is to keep good furniture from going to a landfill. I like taking furniture that's thrown away and just giving it new life. We try to repurpose and reuse all kinds of vintage items and rework them into new life for the customer.

Q: How do you source your items?

A: That's always a problem. My husband does a lot of picking for me. He drives around the city and tries to find throwaways, and he picks up a lot of good pieces that I can't believe people throw away. We attend auctions, estate sales; we attend rummage sales, we go thrifting. We buy from people. We often get donations from people. We have to search high and low though to find really good pieces.

Q: What's a unique item you found or sold recently?

A: Probably my best item that I found was just on spring cleanup, this last couple weeks. It's an antique cabinet that is probably from the 1930s, and it’s in pristine condition. I haven't sold it yet but it is here in the shop, and it is beautiful. I can't believe someone threw it away.

Q: Tell us about your affinity for these items.

A: I love furniture. I love everything about it. I can't stand seeing furniture thrown away, so every item I get in here I just have to nurture and love it until it is going to someone's home. It just breaks my heart to see, not the new furniture ... but the old hand-carved, beautiful dovetailed furniture that gets thrown away.

Q: How has business been during the pandemic?

A: Honestly, our sales are up about 25% from last year at this time. I think it's because people are at home, they're in their house, they have nothing else to do, so they want their house to be cozier when they’re there. When we were closed through March and April, my husband and I were working 12 to 14 hours a day, filling orders and getting things ready for pickup. It was insane. People that are in home improvement and home decor and those types of businesses are really doing well right now. I feel sorry for the businesses that are hurting, but we have incredible customers and we have an incredible following. Grand Forks and the surrounding area has been so good to us, and we just love our customers.

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