Elizabeth Gray Fine Home Furnishings and Gifts is now open at the Carmel Old Town Antique Mall, 38 W. Main St.
But unlike some other furniture retailers, Elizabeth Gray’s wares won’t be factory fresh.
“What I do is furniture reinvention,” said Sarah Arkanoff, owner of Elizabeth Gray. “I don’t want to call it refurbishing or restoration because I take vintage and antique furniture and paint it, distress it, put my touch on it.”
Arkanoff, who studied painting and art history in college, came by her venture honestly.
“I got dragged through these kinds of places all the time when I was a kid,” she said. “If we didn’t have money to buy a piano, my mom would strip one and paint it. I learned what I lived, for sure. It’s been a passion of mine for a long time, so this is a way to marry that into something interesting to me.”
Arkanoff is a former Carmel resident who now lives in Brownsburg with her husband and three children: Lucy, Elizabeth and Grayson. It’s after the latter two that the business is named. It was her time in Carmel that eventually led to her choosing the Antique Mall for her location.
“My husband and I used to come here all the time” said Arkanoff. “We’d find ourselves with nothing to do on a Sunday sometimes and come here and wander around. The fact that it’s open seven days a week was a draw for me to want to sell here.”
What she’s selling is quality that is getting harder and harder to find.
“This is all my handiwork,” Arkanoff said. “Most of my stuff comes from estate sales and auctions. It all has a history, and what I like to say is that my stuff has good bones, compared to some of the stuff you find new in stores. Everything is so solidly built compared to current things. It’s built better and it’s budget friendly.”
Elizabeth Gray Fine Home Furnishings and Gifts
Opened: Sept. 1
Where: 38 W. Main St. in Carmel, Booth 14
Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week
Web: facebook.com/shopelizabethgray
