“They’d shop and we’d be refinishing right in front to of them. I think they thought that was interesting, and it helped sell the product,” said the store’s owner.
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A furniture and home goods store that started as a personal pastime recently opened its second Biddeford location.
The additional White Door Home Store is in 3,500-square-foot lease at 118 Shoppes Way in Biddeford, seven miles from the flagship store in a 9,000-square-foot least at 81
Elm St. in downtown Biddeford.
The 118 Shoppes Way location is in the Biddeford Crossing retail complex, where other tenants include national and regional retailers such as Market Basket, Five Below and L.L.Bean.
White Door is owned by Elizabeth Townsend. Bryan Plourde of the Dunham Group brokered the lease.
“I stopped in her new store the other day and it looks great,” Plourde said. “To me, this is an example of a small-town local business making the big leap to compete with the national credit tenant chains.”
He added, “She’s extremely hard-working and I wish the best for her and her business.”
Painting in the backyard
Townsend is a former stay-at-home mom who enjoyed repairing and refinishing discarded furniture that her husband, a painting contractor, brought home.
Turning out pieces for the family’s own use, she started posting them on social media, attracting attention from family and friends. That developed into a home-based business with part-time hours, which evolved into a storefront.
Townsend recalled a time when her family’s hallway was filled with furniture that she would work on.
“I was painting on a tarp in my backyard,” she said. “It became a business at my home.”
People grew curious and suggested she might want to start a shop. In July 2017, she opened a store in a leased storefront on U.S. Route 1 in Saco and called it the White Door.
At the time, she didn’t have enough money to buy a sign to put up on the pylon. But her husband had plenty of vintage doors.
“We took two doors, power washed them, sanded them so they’d look distressed and screwed on metal letters,” she said.
Voilà, she had her first sign.
“It was all very haphazard,” she said with a laugh.
People were interested
That summer, she worked five days a week, using the space as a workshop and scavenging 20 to 30 pieces every month from house cleanouts, refinishing them and staging them.
“I quickly realized, within two weeks of opening, that people wanted to come in and they were interested,” she said.
Building on her previous experience in retail, working as a manager at places like the Gap, Townsend started to scale up, bringing in some wholesale furnishings and “smalls” such as lamps and décor. Her local following grew and people were dropping off furniture for her to refinish. She stocked do-it-yourself inventory like paint and taught classes.
“It culminated to be the perfect job for me,” she said. “They’d shop and we’d be refinishing right in front to of them. I think they thought that was interesting, and it helped sell the product.”
Online sales
The real shift in the business took place during the pandemic.
“It pushed me to sell things online on Facebook,” she said. “Which quickly evolved into a weekly live sale” — like a local QVC.
The online viewing, which lasts about an hour, draws a huge following, she said. Everything is on sale during the viewing for discounts of up to $30 per item.
“Social media has kept me alive when foot traffic is slow,” she said. “I have done it every Tuesday night for four years. We love doing it because it keeps us connected with our community.”
The business was self-sufficient from the start.
“There was always enough money coming in,” she’s aid. “I didn’t have to take out loans.”
Biddeford following
Eventually, she moved the business into a 9,000-square-foot lease at 81 Elm St. in downtown Biddeford. The store has a strong following, she said, due to housing construction in recent years, such as a 51-unit market-rate apartment complex at 10 Upper Falls Road that was recently wrapping construction.
She decided to look for a second location and, with Plourde’s help, got the 3,500-square-foot lease at 118 Shoppes Way, seven miles from the flagship store.
The first store focuses on vintage and new furniture and smaller merchandise and has an eclectic feel. The second location features lamps, pillows and other “smalls,” but no furniture.
“I wanted something a little more manageable,” she said.
Renovations to get ready for move-in included pulling up old carpets, installing new flooring and paint, and configuring the layout to include offices and bathrooms.
The second location opened mid-July. There are nine employees between the two spots.
The second location required financing for the merchandise. Jeanette Garvilles from Saco & Biddeford Savings helped Townsend secure a business loan.
“I could not have done it without her and Bryan Plourde from Dunham,” Townsend said.
Townsend’s family has been there from the start.
“My husband Pete, my father and my sons are all handy,” she said. “They have helped me build my dreams And my mother and daughters have all worked so hard at the store and been so supportive.”
She also credited her employees.
“They have been with me a long time,” she said. “Everyone of them is so special to me and has their own special skills they bring to the table. I could not have grown without having people I can trust and believe in me and the business.”
