Riel Roussopoulos
Greendigs Living Design Experience offers shopping, workshops and more – The Columbus Dispatch
| Special to The Columbus Dispatch
Color can be hard to come by in central Ohio this time of year.
Not at Greendigs Living Design Experience, which opened in Grandview Heights on Tuesday. The space — part store, part lounge, part video studio, part product lab and part playpen for the horticulturally inclined — shouts out its signature color, from the cascade of plants and the mind-boggling, moss-bedecked chair in the window to the patterned floor and more subtle walls and the modest and accessible rows of succulents, herbs and other plants patiently waiting for new owners to re-pot them inside.
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Guests on the opening day were intrigued. Friends Stacy Lilly and Jessica Torres of Upper Arlington came to investigate.
“It’s like the adult plant version of COSI,” said Lilly, who is planning to hold a bridal shower in the space. (Customers can rent part of the space for special occasions.) “It’s fun to see Grandview Avenue thriving again.”
“I love the whimsy of it,” Torres said. “We’re all at home so much now, and growing plants feels like you’re doing something good for your home and yourself.”
Expanding from online shop to brick and mortar
Greendigs, a concept that was developed by a team of associates at Scotts Miracle-Gro in Marysville and took flight from there, got its start online in August last year.
The online store, the inventory of which changes frequently, is designed to make shopping for houseplants and accessories easy for those with little experience. A series of questions helps determine the right plant for the buyer, and the plants arrive already potted, with full sets of instructions.
This space — the first brick-and-mortar Greendigs presence — is designed to work in conjunction with the virtual shop.
“We realized there would be a lot of benefit to a storefront so that we could test and learn with different plants, talk directly with customers and educate a little,” said Sadie Oldham, Greendigs brand director and co-creator.
Although public workshops will have to wait, the space will serve as home base for content that will be distributed via the website, www.shopgreendigs.com, and its various social-media outlets.
“We’ll start filming here this week, and live-streaming workshops,” Oldham said.
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Among the workshops to be offered will be cooking, teas, mixology, yoga, plant-care basics, working with various kinds of plants and plant-related crafts.
‘Aesthetics with utility’
For help designing the space, Greendigs turned to New York-based events designer David Stark, who has staged galas for major corporations such as Target and nonprofits such as the Metropolitan Opera, as well as clients including Brad Pitt and Glenn Close.
Designing a more permanent space, one that would be flexible enough to change frequently, added a new level of challenge.
“We wanted something neutral enough that it could change with the seasons, and we wanted a modern, stylish feel, not a farmhouse feel,” said Stark, who was putting the final touches on the space recently, creating some extra room or rearranging some plants there.
“We didn’t want it to feel like walking into a floral shop. We wanted it to be a place where people would feel comfortable coming in and exploring. It’s not enough to have nice things in the store. We want people to have an experience. ‘Experiential retail’ has become a buzzword, but it’s really what we’re doing here,” he said.
“We thought about focal points, and flow, and how we were going to use the space. It’s like architecture. Architects don’t just come up with what a home will look like, they think about how it will be used over time. We wanted to marry aesthetics with utility.”
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The space is anchored by what appears to be an inviting square butcher block-surfaced bar, with Greendigs staff inside ready to serve.
What’s served up here is potting soil. The bar boasts four deep wells that contain different varieties of potting mixtures. Customers can, with the aid and instruction of staff, have the hands-on experience of re-potting whatever plants they buy into appropriately sized clay or ceramic pots. Or they can relax while the potting is done for them.
Much of the rest of the space is set up to be flexible. Right now, a couch and chair, with plenty of cushions, provide a place to sit and talk, and a wooden table holds a partially completed (plant-themed, of course) jigsaw puzzle for visitors to work on.
But these can be moved and the space used for yoga classes, “sound baths,” classes on infusing herbs into tea or liquors, or small group gatherings.
“We want to make sure we have a constant rotation of inventory and plants and workshops, so that people have reasons to keep stopping in,” Oldham said.
Connecting with the Grandview Heights community
The location of the store makes it easy to work on cooperative ventures with other Grandview Heights businesses.
“Everybody in the neighborhood has been super-excited about participating,” said Elisa McCurdy, creative director of Greendigs.
“We’ve been seeing lots of young professionals and new families leaving big cities and settling down in communities that have a mix of urban and suburban living, and Grandview Heights felt like the perfect example of that. It’s friendly, artistic and has a hometown vibe. We knew the people here would be great to meet and talk to and test products with, and it all fell together,” Oldham said.
Products for sale line the walls. One side features indoor and outdoor gardening implements, with shiny gold watering cans, elegant misting bottles, macrame holders for plants, aprons and twine in all textures and varieties.
Another side is devoted to botanically themed crafts, from “moss art” to tea towels, embroidery kits, cards and prints.
Many of the crafts featured are made by local artisans.
Gabriel Gaffney Smith, who retired as a dancer from BalletMet last year, has woodwork available for sale.
“I started working with wood when I was still with BalletMet, and now I’ve been doing a lot more of it. I love black walnut, and I found someone in Hungarian Village, near Parsons Avenue, who had some, so I’ve been working with that,” he said.
His pieces include dark blocks, some smooth and some jagged-sided, that hold slim glass tubes for propagating plants.
Plants in the store are also locally sourced as much as possible. The succulents and many of the other plants come from Timbuk Farms in Granville, which will allow Greendigs to vary the types of plants available from week to week. Those that are a hit at the storefront will then make their way onto the website for wider distribution.
“Plants are like living sculptures. I like to put together different sizes, shapes, textures and group them to create different effects, the way an artist puts together a still life. You can create vignettes around your home. You can almost have a full-sized renovation of your home by bringing in plants and moving them around,” Stark said.
Stark, who started out in floral design and is the author of books including “To Have & to Hold: Magical Wedding Bouquets,” said, “I hope people will be surprised by how easy it is to bring plants into your world. There’s this idea that you have to have a green thumb. But everyone can have a green thumb. We want people not to be afraid. To know that it’s a really nice thing to have plants in your home, and that people here can help you grow them.”
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Published at Fri, 22 Jan 2021 16:28:28 +0000
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