COLUMBIANA, Ohio – Specializing in Victorian and French antiques, Magnolia & Co. Vintage features items that elevate a home with style and sophistication.
And it’s filled with items that owner Taylor Harvey loves.
“I love alabaster bird baths and busts, but I’m the brass queen of Columbiana,” Harvey said.
She started as a vendor in another shop, Park Avenue, but outgrew that space and opened Magnolia & Co. at 8 S. Main St. about a year and a half ago.
“I’ve been doing antiquing in vintage and all the fleas all my entire life with my mom,” Harvey said, adding she took her passion and “dove into it head deep.”
One of her favorite pieces in the store is a 1950s-era mail sorter. It was originally from Connecticut, but Harvey bought it in Butler, Pa., and it was the first piece she brought to the store when she opened.
Harvey began as a collector of pieces that she loves. She buys pieces that remind her of her past, people she has known and places she has been. Those same objects often resonate with others, she said.
“I just love being here and being able to work with the community, with Columbiana, meet a bunch of people and just do what I do best and decorate,” Harvey said. “And just give people pieces that I feel elevate their home and make them feel like it’s a space that actually speaks to them, rather than just a box.”
Many of Harvey’s finds come through estate auctions – well-loved and cherished pieces.
“This stuff has lasted 100 years and will last 100 more,” Harvey said. “It just has so much character to it and so many more stories and much sturdier.”
She loves when a customer sees something in the store that sparks a memory from their grandmother’s house.
People buy the things that elicit a visceral reaction, that make them feel good, Harvey said. She believes her generation – raised in a world of throw away, big box store items – is beginning to appreciate vintage and thrift items.
“It’s becoming not just a hobby for the older crew, but also the younger ones too,” Harvey said. “I think that we love it just as much as the older ones, and I also think we’ve been raised by a lot of antique and vintage lovers, so it just rubbed off.”
And she offers space for vendors too.
Brittney O’Malley owns Charm House Décor in Boardman, but some of her items are displayed for sale at Magnolia & Co.
“Taylor is amazing,” O’Malley said. “Her shop is beautiful, and that is 100% why I wanted to be in there. … I love everything she is doing in there.”
She also gives Harvey high marks for collaboration in initiating community events.
The Market on Main events, for example, is a collaboration between Harvey and Zhenya Motry, owner of Columbiana Vintage. The events draw antique and artisan vendors for downtown events that draw participants from the Mahoning Valley, as well as Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
“That’s another passion project that I feel has been fueled from this,” Harvey said. “It’s amazing being able to connect and collaborate with other small businesses. And I think that this is just the epicenter and that it just kind of branches out and ripples outside of this little store.”
The store is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
Pictured at top: Taylor Harvey, owner of Magnolia & Co.