‘Amazing’ response to pop-up shop hosted by luxury interiors business on a Northants high street
There was an “amazing” response to a pop-up shop hosted by a luxury interiors and soft furnishings business for one-week only on a Northamptonshire high street.
Louise Miller-Chalk is the founder of Miller & Chalk and she designs, sources the fabrics and hand makes all the products on offer.
The soft furnishings span across feather cushions, made-to-measure curtains and blinds, table linen and blankets – and Louise is the mastermind behind the meticulous attention-to-detail that goes into creating the country soft furnishings.
The business’ online store allows shoppers to access an evolving selection of home decor across a variety of interior design styles.
The journey began in 2016 when Louise launched the business under the name ‘Gracie Lu’, selling luxury pet products. Four years later, in 2020, she rebranded to Miller & Chalk.
The founder went through a lot of life changes – from leaving a relationship, moving back home and being made redundant from her job – and says this is what pushed her to take the business on full-time.
Since then, Louise has brought her vision to life by building her business’ online presence and loyal social media following.
The latest development was that Miller & Chalk opened a pop-up shop at the heart of Towcester in Watling Street West from August 2 to 10.
Louise told the Chronicle & Echo: “It’s been amazing, and I didn’t realise how amazing it would be. A shop was never on the radar as I thought it would be too much to juggle on my own, but it’s been incredible.”
The founder received particular support from members of the Towcester community, as well as others who praised the concept of pop-up shops for businesses to trial it out in the short-term.
“This naturally felt like the next step, as I’m established online and on social media,” said Louise. “I wanted to get the name out there more and for people to physically see the product.
“I send out fabric samples but it’s better to see it in person, to touch it and see the colours. This was the natural next step and doing it in Towcester was the best move. A week was definitely enough and I purposely did it to cover two weekends.”
Louise admits she did not have high expectations for the pop-up shop as running a business is “really up and down”, but the outcome “way exceeded” what she had in mind. She believes this was helped by her active social media presence.
“Towcester was quite on brand for me and it wasn’t just people there who visited,” said Louise. “The location was great. It has good footfall, a sweet high street and everyone said how much it suits the brand. It was just perfect.”
With a cocktail and wine bar opening opposite where the pop-up shop was located, Miller & Chalk is pleased to be supplying them with cushions off the back of Louise’s presence in Towcester.
“Having a physical shop front has helped with new opportunities,” said Louise. “It has actually changed my view on everything, having been tied to being online.
“Being directly in front of customers has massively helped and opened up ideas for the future. I’d love to do more pop-ups but I don’t have a fixed plan.”