A local couple is sharing their love of mid-century, modern furniture by selling it at their store, Swanky Retro.

JB and Michelle Faires opened the store in August 2012 after they redecorated their home with furniture from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

“It really brightened up our living room, kind of opened it up and gave it a great vibe,” JB said.

He said he and Michelle noticed the difference between the furniture they were finding.

“As we were finding pieces to redecorate our house with, one of the things we were noticing about this period of furniture, 1950s, 1960s, early 1970s, was that so much of the furniture was really well made,” JB said. “A lot of (furniture pieces), they’re already 50 or 60 years old and they’re still in great shape.”

He said the store got its name from the word “swanky” after it kept popping into their heads when seeing the different pieces of furniture.

“It just gets at the vibe of the furniture, so yeah, Swanky Retro,” JB said. “It’s not old enough to be antique.”

Michelle said she and JB had what most people have today in their homes — oversized furniture.

“That’s where we were, we had huge furniture,” she said. “Now we can actually seat more people in our living room and see our hardwood floors.”

He said after the project, they kept finding and buying furniture with the same style.

“We filled our garage and storage building and finally decided, ‘well maybe we should, like pass this stuff onto other people so they can enjoy it too,’ so we decided to open a store,” JB said.

However, before the store opened at 1721 Jackson Ave., JB and Michele had other, different careers.

Both Charleston natives, JB is a musician and has worked part-time at Lake Land and Eastern and Michelle has worked as an artist for the past eight years.

Michelle said she carves gourds and didgeridoos from wood, both of which she sells at the store.

“I worked as an artist for a long time carving gourds,” she said. “They are all very natural, very earthy.”

JB said Michelle is into interior design so owning a specialized furniture store is easy for her.

On the other hand, being a musician has not prepared him for the store, he said.

However, carrying his big string bass has helped him with loading and unloading heavy furniture, JB said.

Besides furniture, the couple also sells unique musical instruments at the store.

JB said they plan on selling more handmade instruments.

The couple said their favorite part of their business is finding new pieces of furniture for the store.

“We’re always on the hunt,” Michelle said. “We’re always going to auctions, estate sales. Trying to find the furniture for the shop can be tricky sometimes.”

JB said meeting people while in the pursuit of new pieces of the store is his favorite part.

“It’s that thrill of the chase aspect that’s also fun about this business,” he said, “and the people that we meet with this kind of furniture. They tend to be pretty hip, you know, intelligent people.”

Michelle agreed with JB and said the couple meets all types of people while picking.

“You just never know who you’re going to meet or what type of person,” she said.

Furniture as well as the owner of the furniture has a story to tell, Michelle said.

“A lot of times when we buy furniture, there’s always a story,” she said. “Like if we buy from an estate sale, a lot of times it’s the people’s family that are selling the piece they grew up with.”

Michelle said one time she bought furniture that a family was really attached to.

“I’ve bought bedroom sets and the people were just bawling so I made sure the person I sold it to took pictures of it,” she said. “I emailed them to (the previous owners) so that they could see it was going to a good owners.”

Michelle also said it is fun seeing people’s reactions when they step into their store.

“They’re like, ‘Wow, I feel like I stepped back in time,” she said.

Michelle said another aspect of the business she loves is researching the pieces.

“I have gotten pieces before that I didn’t realize at the time that they were (made by) really sought after designers,” she said. “When I got back and did a little research, I was like ‘Holy cow, this chair I got for $20 is worth $1,600. There’s a little bit of that hidden treasure. It makes it all the more exciting.”

Michelle said the store gets a lot of out of town business because it is so specialized.

She said there are specialized shops like theirs in Chicago and St. Louis but it is less expensive for people to drive to Charleston, buy a piece, then have it delivered.

Michelle said she and JB try to keep the prices lower than other shops.

“We try to keep the prices reasonable,” she said. “Obviously there are going to be a few pieces in here that are expensive just because of who made them and how collectible they are.”

JB agreed and said they do not have a “collector mentality” when it comes to their store.

“We’re not one of those shops, we’d rather see someone enjoy that piece of furniture in their own home,” he said.

Michelle said they do haggle prices if a person is asking too much for an item.

“I have to buy something at a price where I can still sell it at a reasonable price because I don’t want it to be too expensive,” she said.

Michelle said she and JB want to keep prices low because of where they are located and who they sell to.

“This area, it’s not a rich suburb of Chicago,” she said. “People here can’t afford $3,000 couches. Just because someone doesn’t make as much money as someone else doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have nice things.”

Amanda Wilkinson can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].