OUr Story

I began “fixing” furniture with my grandparents when I was about 12 years old. They were retired and supplemented their income with a booth at a flea market that they called “Flora’s Trash & Treasure”. I loved spending summers at their flea market, helping my Papa fix and tinker with things for them to sell. I was blessed to spend so much time with them learning so much of what I do now and building such a strong bond with them. They both passed away far too soon and I miss them everyday.

When I met and eventually married my husband, Robert, we bought and began remodeling a cute little 1920’s bungalow on Detroit’s east side in 1988. 

My love of fixing things up grew into renovating homes! We were on a tight budget just starting out. I learned a LOT about renovation as well as restoration in that little house.

Fast forward to 1997… Life brought us to Richmond, Michigan! We purchased a shabby (that may be an understatement!) historic farmhouse built in 1897. It hadn’t been loved in MANY years – But we could see the potential! We took the next 20+ years raising our family and lovingly restoring it to make it our home. We took our time as budget would allow, and worked a little at a time with what we had. Money was tight! Three kids and always a project to do. I used my skills to find and refurbish treasures to fill our home.

As time went by I would pick up “better” finds to make our home more cozy and sometimes just to change things up when I got bored! (Which I did quite often.)

I would have yard sales to sell off the things I no longer needed to support my furniture and home decor habit. They became so successful that people would stop us while doing yard work and ask, “When are you having another yard sale?” or when we were out working on projects they would stop and ask if we would be selling whatever it was we were working on!

The time came when two of our kids had graduated from high school, our youngest was a freshman and the house was about done – My husband came to me with an idea. We should open our own business! “Lets look for something here in town that we can fix up and have a store!?” I resisted, unsure if we had the time or the talent to run an actual business. The thought terrified me!!! But little by little God nudged us in the direction He wanted us to follow. More and more people asked us about our furniture, a few even asking if I would consider doing their stuff! My confidence grew.

One afternoon a friend mentioned a building, in Richmond, was going up for sale. In that moment I knew that was our space. We went and looked at it a few days later and in October 2014 we purchased 69268 N. Main St. and began renovating our new shop and home! Bringing back our storefront to what it was in 1900 when it was built has been an amazing process! It took us about 5 years of work to renovate and finally open Flora’s Trash To Treasure in January 2019! My Gram would be so proud of the shop that bears her name. She was an AMAZING woman and taught me so much.

I’m beyond blessed to have some talented people join me in filling the shop. We all love to hunt for treasures to make your home a beautiful space. Kim and Doug do a little of everything and more! They repurpose furniture, create hand painted signs as well as home decor items and seasonal items. Nick can literally light up ANYTHING I swear! He has a great eye for taking everyday items and creating unique yet useful lighting for your home. My daughter even hand makes hair accessories to help supplement her college income. Seasonally we have a few “extra” shop stockests who bring us everything from handmade wool mittens to hand towels to pillows as well as other unique items for yourself or a gift for others. we even carry the full line of Country Chic Paint as well as ReDesign By Prima Transfers and papers!

We truly enjoy creating unique quality one of a kind items that we know you’ll love. It’s our goal to be very eclectic and mix it up! We love curating styles in an exciting way and showing you how you can too! Our goal is to have a little something for everyone!

So stop in and fall in love at Flora’s! We can’t wait to show you around!