Nina and her co-founder opened Relationships, a Brooklyn shop that sells vintage home goods, art, and coffee. They source from estate sales and flea markets, added a coffee program to build a regular customer base, and use their website to tell the story behind each object.
Relationships is a space for art, design, and coffee in Brooklyn, New York.
The initial idea was to create a space that would show everyday objects in a new light, the beauty they create when they come and meet in relationship.
Nina and I met in college. After we graduated, we both went different tracks. Nina went into the art world working in galleries, and I opened up my first retail store. When we decided to do this, we started brainstorming how we could kind of marry both our interests, thinking Thinking about vintage furniture and home decor, new designers or artists, that was kind of how it all developed. Most of the vintage is sourced through various estate sales, flea markets.
The way that we go about sourcing objects, we do a lot of research online or going on studio visits, discovering new things.
Coffee came into play because we knew that it would bring people in on a more regular basis. It was also something that was kind of foreign to both of us, so we thought it'd be great to be able to bring a third idea that we both would have to learn together.
I think in my past, there have been a lot of skills that I didn't know would be valuable now.
Some skill sets that I've had to learn, obviously the coffee, and then also just kind of having a partner. And it is like a marriage. Yes.
And I think we still really value our differences. The website has really helped at reaching so many more people and telling a story about the business that is cohesive and quickly understandable.
You really can define and get to see the outcome. There's like so much instant gratification.
The best part of running and owning your own business has been being your own boss and taking charge of your own life.
Her strengths, my strengths, I think is why relationship is where it's at. And us being at the age that we're in with the tools that we already had, and then also being able to listen to each other and learn from each other. It just, just feels like we have the capacity to create something really amazing.
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