Stòr Living
So excited to hear about a new online homeware store Stòr Living.
It was set up, here in Scotland, by my lovely friend and designer colleague, Donna Caira, in partnership with her daughter, Julia, I could not wait to hear more and was delighted to nab an early interview with Donna about their new project.
It includes beautiful local pottery…
Gorgeous natural skincare...
And wonderful fine art prints
AG: Please tell me about your inspiration for Stor Living?
DC: I’ve always loved art and simple design and I’ve been dabbling in interiors for as long as I can remember, dipping my toes in the water when my girls were younger, but never quite finding the time to fully realise my dreams of having an interiors shop. Over the years I’ve also developed a bit of a knack for sourcing things, and I get asked a lot about where my furniture and homewares are from, hence the idea for our brand name Stòr which means “to source” in Scottish Gaelic. When my daughter Julia recently graduated, we decided to join forces and create a platform where we could sell our own designs, but also those from local artisan makers. We love that most of the things we are selling from our website are homegrown in Scotland and our long term goal is to support small businesses.
AG: How long did it take to set up?
DC: It didn’t take long , especially when Julia is so tech savvy and has an excellent eye with her lens. We started looking out for products and before we knew it we’d built a website and were all set up within a couple of months.
AG: I understand you are working on it together with your daughter – how are you getting on together?
DC: Julia has always shown an avid interest in design and is very artistic, so she’s an absolute invaluable asset to the business. So far we’ve managed to operate without many hiccups as we both identified early on what our roles and responsibilities would be.
AG: What are your roles?
Julia takes care of most of our social media platforms and content management and does every single piece of photography, including creating her own beautiful prints which we sell. I’m very fortunate, she has such a great eye and makes everything look effortless. I love nothing better than styling and curating. I’m also very much a people’s person so do quite a bit of our customer service and of course making the all important cups of tea to keep us going.
DOE print by Julia Caira
AG: What are your hopes for the future?
DC: It’s early days and neither of us really planned we’d be staring an online lifestyle concept store but life sometimes takes a twist and a turn and it’s exciting to see what the future holds. In the short term we hope that we can continue to grow our followers and customer base and in the longer term, eventually have a physical space where we can showcase our products. It’s been a lot of fun so far and I hope for the future that Stòr will eventually be synonymous with unique and carefully curated interior products with a minimalist edge.
AG: Thank you Donna, Stòr Living is definitely an outlet to watch and should be a go-to for anyone with a hankering for a cool, minimal aesthetic, with cosy, Scottish overtones.
Stòr Living were the supplier of one of my prizes for a recent challenge in my Facebook group, Home Style Hub. I was delighted to be able to offer this gorgeous hand woven basket.
I have always admired Donna's design work immensely, she is an absolute icon to me and I return to her over and over again for style inspiration. You can find out more about Donna's interior style here.
