Home Away From Home
Buy now and keep these 10 Instagram-worthy treasures forever
Store and objects photographs by Scott Rounds
I was introduced to Pillar Home Goods by my cousin, Heather. She sent me the most fantastic gift. It was a box of great smelling incense, candles, and a small tray. They were packaged perfectly with a sweet note in Heather’s handwriting. My kind of gifting! The wares made my home and office smell incredible.
After stalking the store on Instagram, I reached out to the owner, Kira Corbin, to tell her how much I loved her merchandise and eye. We chatted and I asked if she would work with me on a story about her favorite things.
This was something different for The New Maturity. When I concept a story, it has to answer the question ‘how will this share kindness’? Of course the gift Heather sent me was pure kindness. But prior to meeting Kira, this concept was just coming off as a shopping story. I had done plenty of those in my previous life at a shopping magazine. And frankly, I didn’t want to relive the past again.
I was heading out to Portland to spend some time with Heather and asked Kira if I could stop by her shop for a quick interview. What was supposed to be a 15-minute drive by turned into a 2-hour conversation about both of our passions. I got to hear about her roots as a prop stylist and how that evolved into this charming store. We both traded stories about running small businesses. I got to pick up and feel her merchandise, and ask questions about where it came from. This is something you obviously can’t do via the internet. I was struck by her passion of evolving her day job (prop styling) into her next great thing.
Going back to the seed that starts all TNM stories, ‘how will this share kindness?’ I got my answer many times over. Kira had such excitement for what she was doing. Over the course of our conversation, I had made a new friend. Her journey to create a brick and mortar retail store has not been easy. However, her passion and dedication for what she does put the biggest smile on my face. And to me, that is an incredible way to share kindness.