THINK GLOBALLY AND CREATE LOCALLY

Sunnyside sources its product from around the world. We work directly with antique dealers, artisans and manufacturers, carefully curating all of our goods. It is the stories in the old wood and stitching that we find so interesting. Blending color, texture, and culture together adds a unique energy to your living space.

Our love for family, community, world cultures, travel, and our planet are the roots of our business.

#STCTRAVELHOME: Appreciating the beauty of the world from the comfort of your home.

In today’s world is it of the upmost importance that we take care of each other and our planet. Sunnyside is dedicated to doing its part! Striving to be an animal product and cruelty-free business, STC ensures that all of its new products are sourced and made ethically, and 90% of the furniture is antique or made from reclaimed woods. We started as a wholesale business, sourcing directly from antique dealers, artisans and manufacturers around the world, along the old Silk Road – rugs in Morocco and Turkey, antique furniture from China and India, vintage textiles from India,Thailand, and Africa, and antique architectural components from all of the countries we visit. This direct access to goods cuts out the middle-men, keeping the product at an extremely affordable price for our customers.

We hope our customers feel really good knowing that they are bringing a piece into their home that has helped support our world economy and the local Asheville community.

The Sunnyside showroom/warehouse in the River Arts Districts hosts speakers and meet-ups, creating a space for minds to come together and share ideas. We are here to support conversations and encourage positive action.

THE BACKSTORY, 2016

It is difficult to share the Sunnyside story without rewinding – thus the beauty of family business!

by Charlotte Hough

Back in 1979, my father Stuart was living in Boulder CO when his mother wanted to move from England to Denver and open a little antique shop for her retirement. He proceeded to help her find the real estate, and over the course of that time discovered an inexplicable interest in the European decorative arts and antiques. The floodgates opened! Stuart has spent the last forty years pursuing his passion. After operating successful antique retail stores in Denver, Aspen, and Vail, he had a bit of a midlife crisis and moved our family to Paris, France in 1995.

After ten great years living in Paris and working in the Paris Flea Market as a dealer and antique buying consultant, our family moved back to Colorado. A series of life events later, Stuart moved to the East Coast and partnered with a brilliant and eccentric designer named Tony Ibrahimi. Tony lives in Asia and is a “hunter” of cool, nomadic, tribal and bohemian collections. He travels incessantly to find new things, connect with manufacturers, and source the best product. With Tony’s many connections and Stuart’s eye, they decided to start a wholesale business out of Connecticut. They wasted no time and Tony started shipping container after container, and they began a wholesale business supplying retail stores around the US with their “eclectic” products.

I saw pictures of this product and immediately fell in love. Despite having told myself I would never want to be in the antique business (after feeling burnt out at a young age being dragged into every single antique shop we ever passed), I was intrigued by these funky chair shapes upholstered in beautiful vibrant colors. It resonated with my style. I moved from Boulder to Connecticut in 2015 to work with my dad and knew from the get-go that CT was not the right fit for us. Our warehouse was located in Stamford CT, on a beat up street in the “industrial” part of town, with giant potholes and junkyards lining the road. It was, however, almost rudely ironically,  called Sunnyside Ave, which is how we later chose our business name.

We started brainstorming where we could move the business! After some fun father-daughter trips to various cool potential locations, we still weren’t sure about what to do. And then in the fall of 2015, after completing our fourth High Point Market show, we decided to visit Asheville because we had heard good things.

We rolled into town mid-October and were blown away by the beauty and how BUMPIN’ Asheville was. After a great meal, we were walking around downtown window-shopping when we noticed one of our chairs, which I had sold at the previous HPM, in a store window! It was a sign! We had found our new home!

After that, we fell into the mystical and magical Asheville vortex where the right people presented themselves at the right time and things naturally fell into place. Through a friend we were connected to our great warehouse landlord in Old Fort, NC and shook hands and started shipping trailers from CT to NC.

A few months later, and seven 53ft trailers later, Stuart and I had completed the business and life moves to Asheville!

My older brother Will decided to pack up his car and move out to Asheville as well, after a brief, albeit overly enthusiastic, conversation we had. And in a matter of two weeks, all three of us were living in the same town again, for the first time in over ten years when Will left for college. He joined the team and we found our gallery space in Pink Dog Creative.

Over the course of our first year in business, everyone has learned so much. From general retail store management to marketing strategies, to furniture design, to conscious capitalist practices, it’s been quite the year! Additionally, to learning so much about business, our has family learned so much about ourselves, our community, and our planet.

THE REVISED BACKSTORY, 2019

As the song goes, “the times, they are a changin’…”. We completed the move from Old Fort to Foundy Street in the River Arts District where we now have an 12,000 sq ft showroom and warehouse. Stuart, with his indispensable colleagues Josh Wood and Klaus Engelhardt, is happily running the new location and has the space to show our collection of antique architectural elements and wide array of vintage textiles, rugs, and global furnishings. We also began offering Rowe upholstery, a high quality line made in Virginia.

Will began pursuing his strong interest in the crystal/mineral/rock world and in 2018 moved to Tucson where he operates a wholesale business. He splits his time between there and in Asheville. He has taken over the Depot Street store and turned it into a rock lover’s dream emporium, complete with an interior waterfall! You can follow him at Cosmic Earth Toys on FB.

I also began following my life passions, women’s health, babies, and travel. I did my doula training in Asheville and founded Wombs of the World with partner Gabby Hardin. Wombs of the World is an International Immersive Doula Program, that supports women by connecting professional doulas with international maternity clinics. The programs are designed to bring doulas from around the world together, to have a shared experience with birthing women, travel to new lands, and immerse in different cultures, while growing a powerful sisterhood of birth workers across the globe. We lead programs in rural birthing clinics in Tanzania and Ecuador and I’ve found my true calling.

Our “Sunnyside” family continues to learn about ourselves, our community, and our planet. Stay tuned for the ride….

THE REVISED, REVISED, REVISED BACKSTORY, 2025

From that last story writing in early 2019, Sunnyside has experienced monumental change, through some trying, some wonderful, and some devestating times. Having opened on Foundy Street in 2018, we were the only occupant in our building and one of the only few in the complex. The main street running through the area was a dirt road, all parking was on gravel spaces, and both locals and visitors had a difficult time finidng us. But slowly we gained traction and sold enough to continue shopping and importing from India, China, and Morocco. During that fall and holiday season of 2019 business picked up and we felt we were on the path to a successful business. Then everyone knows what happened in March 2020 – the world shut down. Like all businesses we closed, held virtual sales, but by the fall began allowing shoppers to enter. Because the space in our warehouse had such large volumes, most people felt safe shopping with their masks and distance spacing, and business slowly returned to near normal. Our success was also the decision to start putting our inventory online and with Covid still dangerous, people loved shopping from home.

By 2020 I had already spent almost forty years traveling the world, sourcing and hunting for what I thought was special and what I would be happy to live with in my home. Suddenly the method that I and most all antique dealers used to purchase global goods, was no more. I quickly began having the dealers I trusted and sourced from, send me unenhanced photos daily of their new stock. By using a magnifying glass on enlarged photos, I found that I coulde almost judge a piece as well as if I were there in person. And the advantage was that I could see the fresh stock almost daily from dealers in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Beijing, Shanxi and Shandong provinces, Marrakesh, and Istanbul. I jumped in early and starting shipping several containers over and by 2021, people were so anxious to get out and shop, as well as make their homes, as the place they spent most of their time, beautiful. Business was booming. Many, many people were relocating here to work remotely or kick back/retire, and they bought houses and needed furniture. Many had moved from major cities on both coasts and were familiar with what I was offering. Many of these homes were expensive and Asheville’s real estate market values skyrocketed. By 2024 we had settled in, business was predictable, had an above average staff, and experienced in store and online growth. Our neighbors on Foundy St were Marquee, the Wedge, 12 Bones, Summit Coffee, Grail Movie Theatre, Level 42 Glass Studio, Ashevile Woodworking, Roseabee’s Restaurant, vintage clothes stores, etc. and had become the focal point of the River Arts District, which now rivaled downtown in the number of visitors. I was working on some ideas for my graceful exit from the day-to-day operations by bringing in a younger partner I could teach the business to, share my sources I had worked with for decades, and show them the intracacies of international trade and import.

By now, everyone knows what happened to Asheville and WNC in late September 2024. Anyone who had a home, building, or business near the French Broad and Swannonoa Rivers in Buncombe county, lost it, as well as over 100 deaths. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of North Carolina.

It is now the last day of June, and many of us are still trying to figure out our next steps. Sunnyside is and will remain in business and our temporary warehouse is stocked with containers from Chiona and India. I was in India in March and bought several hundred pieces of furniture, architectral elements, interesting artwork and statuary, and any item that spoke to me at the right price :) I am having these items held there until I can figure out what and where Sunnyside’s next iteration will be. Thanks to so, so many of you who have enabled Sunnyside to continue evolving and supported us with your purchases and kind words over the last 9 years. Stay tuned in, and keep in touch, and send your loving metta our way, we will need it.

Peace, Love, and Namaste – Stuart

PS – Charlotte has returned to Paris, her childhood home, and her Wombs of the World is now sending doulas from around the world on trips to learn and work in Tanzania, Ecuador, Mexico, South Africa, and soon to India. She is featured speaker at maternal health conferences and will put on

Will, Stuart, and Charlotte at Spring Leaf ’24