Duo Home

For shop owners Vicki Rulli and Tom Heaphey, Duo Home has evolved into an unexpected hub of creativity, custom furniture, and a community which they have since started calling their “Duo-Friends”. These two are the team which make up the “duo’” in Duo Home. “I would say it’s a couple of things; yes it's a place where we sell furniture and gifts, but it's also become a place where people gather and visit. A bit of a community center where they can learn about design and interesting or well-made pieces. Not just a place to come in and shop, but to be a part of something, and that was unexpected,” Rulli explains.

Heaphey goes on to describe how wonderful it is to observe people’s reactions and responses to the things they learn in the process of developing custom pieces or shopping the floor of the space.

“Being visual artists, it seems to have become a creative playground with an educational aspect.” They believe if someone can leave the store even ten percent more knowledgeable about the industry, it helps everyone. What items are made of or why the tables they sell are from Denmark, or why some cushions are better for one client than another. These services are pro bono because, “if you want the very best quality in your price-range but don’t have good information, you’re never going to get that. It feels better for both parties and just makes it more enjoyable. We want to make lives better because they chose to work with us,” says Rulli. She continues to describe her “4 Goods” of shopping retail; good people, good craftsmanship, good design, and good stories.

Rulli and Heaphey purchased the space about 10 years prior as a location to house their initial photography business, Itinerant Studio. When the Covid 19 epidemic reached this region, uncertainty for the future of their enterprise became a reality for the pair, as it did for many. For their daughter, a ballet dancer, it meant the studio she regularly practiced in, was no longer available. But as happenstance would have it, the dancer found the vacant floors above the main level would be suitable to the cultivation of her art. Upon restoring the building’s floors the Duo were delighted to discover this started to bring out more of the building’s interior charm.

As many projects do, this one took on a life of its own independent of original intentions. As Ruli explains, “We thought we were going to make a showroom for Itinerant, and bring designers in, which would promote the community. Then the longer we worked on it, and talked over coffee, we started to think about the amount of chain stores there are in the Midwest for design…for better or for worse, even I shop at them.

“But there aren’t as many Independently owned stores, like those you might find on the coasts, which possess all of the higher-quality and well-designed products… As we kept sanding, and working, and planning, we landed on selling retail. We didn’t know what we were getting into, but we’d met working together so this is a natural quality of ours.”

The name “Duo Home” comes from the partner’s time working together under former Mayor Gregory Lashutka of Columbus, Ohio, who had been known to call them his “dynamic duo”. It only takes one visit to the shop to understand just how dynamic this operation really is. The scope of Duo Home aims to provide “real interesting products that never see the light of day because people don’t know how to access them or work with them,” as Heaphey describes it. What’s more is that every month they also host creative classes such as table-setting, potting herbs, and other various forms of design. Duo Home takes efforts to couple each of these events with nonprofit organizations—  meaning that while they are typically free to attend, it is suggested that a donation be made, which Duo Home will match, and the sum will be presented to that organization.

The couple chose to settle down in Springfield because of similar rationale. “We liked the idea of raising our daughter in a community that worked together. A mixed socio-economic community that looks more like the world, so we could become a part of and do something productive while not going too far from family and clientele.” The Winchester Carton Building they base their businesses out of had always been in the back of their mind, but upon making connections around town they came to find it could be theirs for adaptive reuse sooner than they imagined. Built in 1911 as a wholesale grocer, the location on 149 West Jefferson Street is located downtown Springfield. Whether you're stopping in to socialize or shop, there is plenty to take in at Duo Home.

Duo Home will be hosting a pop-up shop with Olivewood Designs, featuring light snacks and refreshments, this weekend on July 26th and 27th.

Visit https://www.duo-home.com/ ) for information about store developments, programs, and future events. You may also find them on Facebook or Instagram @duohome_springfield .