If you’re looking for a birthday present, a shower or house-warming gift or just something out of the ordinary with style and sophistication for yourself, you might want to try a trio of bespoke boutiques tucked away in an unassuming corner of the Johns Creek Home Depot strip mall on State Bridge Road.
Haven Lane Design, Blossom & Vine and All Inspired Boutique are three different yet tangentially classy retailers that offer floral, home goods, interior design and fashion — run by female entrepreneurs that understand their customers.
All Inspired owner Karen Brown hit the nail on the head when she suggested sending the husbands to the big box home improvement store and have the ladies luxuriate in the sights, scents and sensations down the way.
Haven Lane Design
Andria Parker, lead designer and owner of Haven Lane Design, chose her Johns Creek location for its proximity to high-income customers from nearby affluent areas. Peachtree Corners, Berkeley Lake, Alpharetta and similar cities are a 20-minute drive (or less) away.
“We are very much a part of the Peachtree Corners shopping world,” she said. “That was part of my strategy of picking this location. I wanted to be in the world where I’m pulling from this little quadrant of places — Peachtree Corners being one of them.”
Parker has been in the area for the past eight years and just this last year decided to go from a home office to a full storefront.
“It’s something I’ve been working towards for several years,” she said. “Most people don’t start a business without some thought in their head of what it’s going to look like, what it’s going to be like. So this was always an extension of what we’ve already been doing for eight years as a team.”
Parker is a 1998 graduate of the University of Georgia and has been in the design business in some form or fashion since graduation.
“I worked for other designers. I ran a showroom down at the Merchandise Mart. I worked at ADAC,” she said, referring to the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center. It’s a large campus in Atlanta’s Buckhead community, serving as a hub for interior designers, architects, builders and design enthusiasts. ADAC houses numerous showrooms and design studios.
Balancing motherhood and design
Parker stepped away from working as a full-time designer while she raised her four children.
“When I went through the early throes of motherhood and couldn’t really be a full-time worker,” she said. “I was still doing consultations and always running some sort of little project here or there for neighbors or friends of friends, things like that.”
Eventually, she wanted to branch out and do larger projects and get back to being a full-service design team.
“I wanted a place where we can truly come in and implement a project for people, whether it’s renovation or just refinishing, refurbishing a family room or bedroom or something like that,” she said. “I really wanted to take it to the next level and have an actual location [where] people can come in and see us and see what we’re all about.”
A brick-and-mortar space
Parker explained that showing inspirational photos of what a room could look like and then not being able to obtain the exact piece of furniture would be frustrating for her and the clients.
“Sometimes, as a designer, it can be hard to portray things to a customer just through a photo, just to say, ‘trust me, this table is quality, and you’re going to love it,’” she said. “So it’s easier, even if I don’t have that exact table in my store, it’s easier to point to this table I do have … and tell them that it will be great in their space, and it’s from the same company, so the quality is the same.”
A brick-and-mortar space also allows customers to see her aesthetic right away and understand how she pulls things together.
“Having a location definitely helps with the design business,” she said. “It helps the client understand we’re a legit business that has good resources, and we know how to curate beautiful things.”
Another perk is walk-in customers.
“Sometimes the customers are not necessarily wanting to jump into an entire project, they just want new throw pillows, a new lamp, or some accessories or gifts,” she said. “We have lots of gifts, so it’s been really fun to be in the community and get to meet people.”
Blossom & Vine
Amy Rider has had different occupations professionally — including foster care and adoption and physical therapy — but she’s always had a love for gardening and flower arranging.
“I was a stay-at-home mom for a period of years. And about a year before we opened our store, I went with my sister and took a class at a flower shop downtown, near the zoo area,” she said.
She fell in love with the class and thought about becoming a florist for her next act.
“When I went to that class, I told my sister that I could do this every day,” she said.
Her husband, Tim, was in a transitional phase of his own — selling his business and contemplating what he’d like to do next.
“He said I should look into this and think about opening a shop,” Rider said. “So I started kind of dreaming about it and wrote a business plan.”
A spring break trip to New York turned out to be the perfect opportunity to check out floral shops there.
“We just went around to a bunch of different shops,” she said. “One of the floral designers told me that if you want to change careers and go into floral design, I should go to Paris and study with this lady named Catherine Muller.”
A week in Paris
World-renowned floral designer, Catherine Muller, has Flower Schools in New York, Paris and London. According to her website, the international florist’s specificity is to “reproduce what she can see in nature, using only fresh and finely-arranged elements so as to turn her work into a little jewel.” She’s known for saying that Mother Nature is varied enough so that you don’t need to use any artifice.
“So Tim said, ‘yes, we should definitely go to Paris, and you should definitely do this,’” recalled Rider.
She enrolled in a class called “A Week to Become a Florist.” The week-long course had participants from all over the world.
“There were women from the Congo, Jordan, Mexico, Singapore, Korea — all over the world. But [Muller] teaches her classes in English,” said Rider. “It was a class of just floral design all day long. And, of course, you can’t really become a florist in a week, but it’s a great start, and it gives you a lot of design experience right off the bat.”
The experience confirmed her initial desire to open a florist business.
“I got home and finished writing my business plan, started looking for places, and step by step, moved through the process of opening a shop,” she said. “We’ve never done retail before, so there’s a lot to learn, but our classes are one of the things that I think really set us apart.”
Classes and unique experiences
Indeed, twice a month, Blossom & Vine offers flower arranging and sometimes painting, as well as private classes.
“This summer, we’re doing even more — four or five a month, because traditionally, the summer is kind of slow for florists,” she said.
A June event featured a local author who did a book signing and mini lecture. Rider has also planned to add plant rescue classes where attendees can bring in sick houseplants for some TLC.
“We’re trying to offer some experiences that maybe you just don’t get every day,” she said.
As soon as you open the door, you can tell it’s not a typical flower shop. The store’s garden-style florals and bespoke arrangements are named after Georgia towns.
There are also many plant-adjacent products, such as floral-scented linen spray for bedding, wicker picnic baskets, embroidered tea towels and books about gardening, flower arranging and cooking — not to mention original works of art.
“I feel like we really have a curated selection of things that you don’t see everywhere else,” she said. “We have three local artists that we offer their original art.”
Of the three shops, Rider has been in business the least amount of time. Open since November 2024, she’s optimistic that she made the right choice and that she’s providing a service that resonates with the community.
Her husband plays a significant role in the business, providing leadership, guidance and support in various aspects, including financial management and delivery. Without a retail or marketing background, Rider said she’s going somewhat by instinct on what’s best for her shop.
“When we started the shop, I wanted it to be a hospitable environment,” she said. “I like hosting at my home, and I wanted our shop to be a place where you just walk in and relax, get a glass of infused water and have kind of a mini vacation.”
All Inspired Boutique
Karen Brown and her daughter, Kelly Pierce, purchased All Inspired in 2022, aiming to create a female-focused business that boosts women’s confidence and careers. With corporate backgrounds in marketing and professional development, they shifted gears post-COVID to start this venture.
“Like everyone else, after 2020 and the coronavirus, we decided we wanted to try something different,” she said. “We didn’t want to wait and continue doing the same thing we were doing. We wanted to go into business together. So we took this leap, and it’s just been amazing ever since.”
With the desire to find an opportunity to help women, the two had been looking at several types of businesses to purchase.
“We had looked at different businesses, from a health spa to more options in the retail-oriented industry,” Brown said.
But the thought of the synergy of female-owned stores really appealed to them. And even though the post-COVID era has seen many large retailers fold up, Brown said both her online sales and brick-and-mortar business are doing well.
“Our online is doing very well, but our specialty is the experience when you walk through our doors; you’re treated like a visitor in someone’s home, instead of a customer,” she said. “I tell the girls all the time that I want everyone to feel a little bit better when they walk out than they did coming in.”
An uplifting shopping experience
Brown said the level of customer service is really part of the appeal.
“We really make an effort to uplift women,” she said. “If you think about it, sometimes trying on clothes in the dressing room is not always a positive experience because of the way we feel about our body image or about ourselves.”
That’s why her fitting rooms try to boost confidence.
“Our dressing rooms have sayings in each one,” she said. “Phrases like ‘you are beautiful’ [or] ‘you are luminous’ are meant to be uplifting in a place where women sometimes struggle.”
All Inspired isn’t just the name of the store, it’s the philosophy behind it.
“We have women from all different walks of life that are coming in,” she said. “Either they’ve had a baby and they’re having to go up a size, or they’ve lost a lot of weight and they’re going down a size; or they’re going on a trip and they want a whole wardrobe, or maybe they’re buying a gift for a friend that’s going through chemo.”
Community events
Being inspirational is the kind of retail therapy Brown and her associates provide. But the retailer also shares inspiration in other ways — drawing the community into the shop for charitable events and themes is a way to give back and add a spark to someone’s day.
“We do an event called ‘Gathering for Good’ where we host a private shopping event for different charity groups — typically after hours,” she said. “They will shop, and I give back 15% of the proceeds to that sponsor charity.”
Other fun events are Galentine’s Day, holiday open house, theme parties and raffles.
“We do a lot to welcome in the community,” Brown said.
The store caters to women aged 30 and up, focusing on trendy, real-woman clothing and accessories. Like in the other two shops, Brown strives to work with local vendors — especially other women.
“We work with local female jewelry designers,” she said. “Some of our candles are the same way. So we try to get local [female-made items] as much as we can.”
One for all and all for one
All three women are happy and excited about their shared energy and cross-promoting of each other’s stores, though it was a happy accident that they ended up near each other. Blossom & Vine and Haven Lane Design are two halves of what used to be a FedEx store. Neither needed the entire space, but it works well as two parts of an interior-design type of vibe.
They’re all just getting started with the shared possibilities they can create.
“We all have goods that work together, but are different enough that we’re not in competition,” said Brown.
They also have similar retail philosophies as far as giving customers a memorable experience in a community-focused atmosphere with great, high-quality products.
One of Parker’s favorite things is hosting mahjong events at the store to build community and customer engagement. The events include wine, appetizers and a 20% off shopping pass for participants, making it a fun social experience.
“We have an instructor that comes, and we make it a fun girls night,” said Parker. “And then, of course, we offer the full mahjong sets and all the cute stuff that you can buy to play mahjong.”
Rider said they all have the kinds of places where you can come in every now and then if you just want a cute little thing.
“Sometimes, especially ladies, we like cute things to put in our space, just to freshen our space,” she said.
And they all refer customers to check out the neighbors.
“If you can’t find what you’re looking for in one shop, you’re bound to come across it in one of the others,” said Brown.
This article was originally featured in Peachtree Corners Magazine.
