Bend Modern’s Kelly Zimmerman On the Recent Move and What’s Coming!
Karen Malanga: Hi, I’m Karen Malanga with another [edition] to House Talk. Today, we’re fortunate to have Kelly Zimmerman here from Bend Modern.
If you’ve never been to Bend Modern or seen some of the furnishings that they have, you would love to visit our model in Saginaw Sunset. They did an amazing job with the staging, and it’s a good way to see some of your product, Kelly.
I’ve heard recently that you changed locations, and I would love for you to explain to our audience where you are and what you have to offer.
Kelly Zimmerman: Great, great! Well, thank you for having me.
Karen: Yeah.
Kelly: Well, we’ve been in business for two years. We had a location on Wall Street. We moved here from the East Coast, so we felt like we needed to get the word out a little bit. So, having that Wall Street location was key the first couple of years.
And we were looking for a little bit different location, a little bit more visibility, and we were approached by Angela Dietrich who owned Rescue Collective. And she approached us about taking some of her space. And we moved to 910 Northwest Harriman in the old Boomtown building.
Karen: I love that building.
Kelly: Yeah. So, we’re actually doing a little bit of a collaborative type of a business. We’re remaining Bend Modern. She, in fact, changed the name of her store to Casa Cura, which I believe means an Italian curated object. So, we’ve opened up the space. We just moved in July 1st.
Karen: Wow!
Kelly: It was very quick. And we’ve gotten great feedback, and it’s more of like a lifestyle store. The shopping experience is very unique and we are really happy with the move.
Karen: I was on your website this morning and looking at the incredible collection of furniture that you have to offer.
Kelly: Oh, thank you.
Karen: You and Serena have such a good eye I think for what you bring into Bend Modern whether it’s the furnishings or even the vintage watches which I have a passion for.
Kelly: Yeah.
Karen: But just the timeless style of the pieces that you seem to collect, it’s amazing.
Kelly: Well, we’ve been collectors for 30 years.
Karen: That helps.
Kelly: So, both of our homes are all mid-century modern. I’m a huge ceramic and glass—Scandinavian glass, Italian glass—collector.
So, we’ve been coming to Bend since ‘06, and we saw the change in the building—a little bit more modern. And we decided to try to jump on that a little bit with the mid-century. No one else in town was doing it.
So, we’re hoping to educate and to just be available for people to see what’s out there. A lot of our business we do online, as well as local, so we’re shipping to Chicago, New York, L.A, so that’s exciting.
But we would really like to penetrate a little bit of a local market. And that’s where doing the house at Saginaw was great. Jim and Nunzie were really great to work with, and they really took a chance on us putting our furniture in their house. But when they did it, they bought everything. It was perfect. It was great.
Karen: Well, when they love something, they have such passion.
Kelly: Yeah, yeah.
Karen: And that home with its contemporary lines…
Kelly: Yeah.
Karen: Yeah. And if any of the listeners would like to see the furniture in there, we have that home open on the weekends, so it’s a fun spot to stop in.
Kelly: Yeah, it’s a great house.
Karen: It’s a beautiful house.
Kelly: Yeah, a great house.
Karen: And your furniture compliments it perfectly.
Kelly: Yeah. Oh, thank you. Yeah.
Karen: So, how do people find you the best then, your website or your new location?
Kelly: Yeah, I think coming to the new location is great because the space is amazing. We’ve got amazing artwork and accessories.
We’re actually beginning a new line of furniture in addition to the vintage, because the vintage stuff is hard to source.
Karen: Well, I would think.
Kelly: The other reason that this new venture with Casa Cura was such a good move was because they’re open seven days a week. And we can be on the road, and they’re still open. So, in effect, Bend Modern is open seven days a week.
Karen: That’s great.
Kelly: We’re going to be in the store as much as we can, but when we’re on the road they’re open. So, in addition to the fabulous mid-century modern furniture that we have (which is hard to source), we’re actually picking up a new line of furniture which is so cool.
Karen: I can’t wait to see it.
Kelly: We have amazing accessories, and we’re also going to start getting in some new accessories. In addition to my passion, which is the vintage glassware and tea candle sticks, and stuff like that, we’re going to start picking some new accessories—glassware and stuff like that.
And we also have textiles that we bring over from Europe, throws and pillows that we get from a mail-over in Europe.
Karen: Oh, that’s wonderful.
Kelly: Yeah.
Karen: So, now, what’s your new address again?
Kelly: So, the new address is 910 Northwest Harriman. So, we’re on the corner of Greenwood and Harriman. You can’t miss it with the big windows and so forth. And the parking is great.
Karen: And right across from the Blacksmith.
Kelly: Right across from the Blacksmith. And literally, it’s 300 feet from our other location.
Karen: Oh, that’s terrific. And then, what’s your website?
Kelly: So, our website is BendModern.com. We’re not so computer literate, so sometimes it takes me a while to update and cancel furniture that just sold, and so forth.
But we’re pretty active on Facebook and Instagram. So, when we get new pieces, I immediately load it up to Instagram, Facebook, and the website.
But you have to come in and see the furniture. You have to see it. You have to touch it. It’s more beautiful in person.
Karen: Oh, I think that’s true with anything, isn’t it?
Kelly: Yeah.
Karen: Well, Kelly, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it.
Kelly: Oh, thank you.
Karen: And it’ll be fun to see your new location. I’ll stop in there tomorrow. I can’t wait to see it.
Kelly: Great. Yeah, I’ll bring the watches. Because they’re not always with—I carry them back and forth. When we’re not in the store, we don’t leave the watches.
Karen: Yeah.
Kelly: But yeah, it’s fun to put some great watches on people here in town.
Karen: I love to see how Bend is changing, and it’s fabulous to have resources such as yours right here in town.
Kelly: Thank you!
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