5 min read

Meet Home Collective: a Fort Wayne shop with vintage, home decor + more

Meet Home Collective: a Fort Wayne shop with vintage, home decor + more
Home Collective is located at 3209 Covington Rd. across from Rainbow Furniture.

If you’re looking to add some character to your living space and closet, a new Fort Wayne shop opened in April you won’t want to miss. It’s called Home Collective, and it hosts the booths of 12 local vendors in furniture, fashion, vintage, decor, candles and more.

We recently stopped by the storefront 3209 Covington Rd. across from Rainbow Furniture and found it bustling with activity. Christy Drerup of Kendallville says she saw the shop on Facebook and made the trip to Fort Wayne just to check it out.

“I’m redoing a couple of bedrooms,” Drerup says. “And I found a bunch of brass pieces, a picture, pillows and more.”

We met with Home Collective’s Marketing Director and vendor of Restoration Designs, Nicole Walker, to learn more and get a few quick tips for your first visit.

Home Collective’s Marketing Director and vendor of Restoration Designs, Nicole Walker.

Tell us more about how Home Collective and how it got started.

NW: We like to say that Home Collective is "our" store. Even though we are vendor-based, we have a strong connection with all of them and love the camaraderie we all have. Many of us started off as furniture refinishers who expanded into home decor because of our extensive collections of staging items we had accumulated for our portfolio photos. Rather than allow that to collect dust, we decided to expand into home decor and the rest, as they say, is history. 

The co-owners of HC are Ashley from The Painted Acorn and Melissa from Wicked Good Candles. They originally met at a vendor show several years ago. Since then, many of us have teamed up to do different events and just became friends. We have dreamed of starting a shop that would be special and unique. We wanted a place to express ourselves where people would absolutely love to shop! This has been a collaborative effort by some amazing people from the start. Many of the vendors literally helped design the store from a large open room to the incredible space it is today. 

House of Meg Vintage offers MCM home decor and furniture.

How many partners/vendors do you work with at Home Collective, and are you seeking more? 

NW: There are 12 unique vendors who have their own styles that make HC such a special place. We were very mindful in our selection process to hand select the vendors that fit our overall goal! It is important to us that our vendors have incredible pieces with attainable price points. 

We are currently full, but have a waiting list for future vendors. We encourage anyone with an interest to reach out to us on social media to be added to the list. 

What makes Fort Wayne’s vintage and home decor market unique? 

NW: Fort Wayne is a hidden gem! It has so many things to offer without the hassle of big city living. We have discovered from hitting up plenty of estate sales and just being in the industry that Fort Wayne has a rich history of style, and we love bringing some of that back to the shopping arena for our customers!

Wicked Good Candles at Home Collective.

What do you like about your location between the South side and Southwest?

NW: We love our location! We are super close to Jefferson Pointe, but it is easy to access with plenty of parking. We are one of two businesses who have opened next door to one another, and the place is hoppin’!

Do you have any favorite products you’d recommend at the shop?

NW: We have a lot of furniture such as dressers, buffets, credenzas and chairs. We also are a hot spot for unique lamps! They are always a hot seller. We sell a lot of artwork and unique table decor. We have a great selection of pots and vessels for indoor and outdoor use. You might be surprised to hear that we also sell vintage jewelry and boutique fashion!

We have vendors who specialize in modern, farmhouse, boho, MCM, fiber art, goods for moms and kiddos, cottage and primitives. It's truly a place for all shoppers!

Home Collective offers unique lamps and wall decor.

Do you have any pro tips for first-time visitors?

NW: No pro tips required! We are 2,000 square feet, which is such a great size. We have heard from our shoppers that there is so much to see without being a place that is overwhelming. We've had tremendous feedback on the layout and the experience of shopping at HC. 

What’s next for Home Collective this year and going forward?

NW: We are talking about doing some really fun interactive experiences for our shoppers, such as candle making sessions, as one example. We are also scheduling some creative and fun events that you're not going to want to miss! Keep your eyes peeled...

Children's items at Home Collective.

Where can people follow you for updates?

NW: You can follow Home Collective on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Our inventory changes daily, and we try to keep everyone up to date on new items coming in. We have sold a lot of items by customers seeing them on social media. If something catches your eye, just message us. We respond very quickly and are happy to answer questions or arrange to secure tells for you!

Anything else you’d like to share?

NW: We love the people of Fort Wayne! It is such a great city with incredible people. Our favorite part of having the store has been meeting great people and building relationships with our regular customers. One thing we love to do is to help the customers that don't know exactly which pieces will work together to go with their design plan, or lack of one. We love helping! Check out Home Collective, and we believe you'll be hooked!