Off the beaten path, but still located on the massively popular Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock, we discovered a lovely little store that offers up a beautifully curated collection of both home and garden needs called Acorn. Upon first visit there’s a chance you might miss the exterior space in the back but it’s well worth perusing the mini garden center for plants, pots and all kinds of items for outdoor living! Acorn is a collaboration between owners Erin Tanaka, Laura Tanaka and Maggie Lobl. They’ve created the perfect spot to shop for a unique gift or perhaps a special treat for yourself. They offer a lovely variety of home goods, jewelry, plants and pottery. There is also a conscious effort on behalf of the owners to consider the impact on the planet by offering environmentally friendly items. We had a chance to sit down with Erin & Maggie recently to discuss how the shop came together, their efforts in reducing & reusing, the products they curate and what makes their collaboration run so smoothly.
{Editors note: Unfortunately owner/partner Laura Tanaka was unable to be present for our interview.}
Tell us about how you all met.
E: Maggie and I went to College together. I was an Art major and Maggie was an Art History major. We were in the same building all the time and had a lot of mutual friends. But we actually didn’t meet until sort of the end of our college career.
M: We go back a way, like to the early ’90’s and had been in touch ever since. There were periods when we weren’t as much in touch because Erin moved to Seattle and was traveling all over China.
E: But we crossed over a lot in our work, as we were both in retail…different parts of it but both in merchandising.
What brought you back to LA?
E: My job ended in Seattle where I’d been for almost 8 years. Los Angeles was home and I missed it. I didn’t think it was going to be such a big thing but when you’re away from it for that long you really do start to miss it. It’s a different vibe in Seattle. It’s growing but really different. Los Angeles knows its identity.
M: L.A. is just messy but awesome at the same time. So much to offer and you can just find anything you want here. All three of us are born and raised Angelinos.
How did Acorn come about?
M: Erin was back in L.A. and her Mom and Dad needed some landscaping updated at their home in Pasadena. So it was a really fun project to work on with Laura who was spearheading things. One day we were standing in the driveway and just chatting about how fun it would be to have a little store with some plants and housewares and some pots, etc. We just started brainstorming about a little shop. I’d been doing landscaping for about 10 years at that point and always had this fantasy about having a retail outlet for the landscaping side of the business. I had a bit of a retail background although not as much as Erin. Erin came out of the house and joined in the conversation. Next thing you knew we were driving around Eagle Rock looking at spaces…just for fun.
E: Initially Maggie’s idea was about doing a ‘Pop Up’ store. I thought that sounded interesting and suggested we should go see what something like that would even cost us, if it was even a possibility. So we did…we literally started driving around that afternoon and seeing what stuff costs. We wanted to be somewhere in this area as Maggie lives in Highland Park, Laura and I both live in Pasadena and I grew up in Silverlake, so we focused on locations within those general areas. We quickly found out that doing a ‘Pop Up’ didn’t really make sense, as it was a lot of money for a short amount of time. The idea really evolved quickly into needing to be a retail space and what does the retail space need to look like…because we wanted to really focus on indoor and outdoor plants, the sort of California lifestyle, we needed a backyard space. In Los Angeles having retail space with an outdoor area is almost impossible to find. Also keeping in mind we were looking for pedestrian traffic, what made the most sense for the demographic we were after. Then this space happened.
M: Eagle Rock is perfect for us as it’s very walkable; there are a lot of young families, and a really supportive community. There is a lot of support between the business owners. We also love that we get to know our customers, their kids and dogs…it’s just very friendly.
How long did it take you to find this space?
E: We were actually on the tail end of looking at a lot of different things. Some were out of our price range, others just weren’t working. Maggie was actually across the street at Trader Joes shopping one day and thought this was a total long shot but there was a sign in the window so we called. This used to be a paintball accessory store. We had to really stretch our imaginations!
M: Really stretch. It was dark, with dark grey paint, low acoustic tile ceilings, nasty carpet, wires everywhere and this space was divided up into three separate rooms. The back looked like a dump yard for trash. But we have both bought houses and fixed them up. Mine is still in the process of being fixed up, but they were both houses that you really had to see past the surface and find the potential. So it wasn’t that challenging for us.
E: My Mom and Dad had re-done multiple houses. I think just being in retail you are always looking to do the transformation, you always imagine the possibilities so we felt we could totally transform this place and fix it up.
The first time I noticed your store it was because of the logo on the outside. Who came up with the acorn design?
M: Really all of us.
E: It took us a long time just to come up with a name. That was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. We’d have pages and pages of names and then we’d settle on something and we’d let it sit and resonate until one of us wasn’t feeling it any more. Once we got the name, the image made a lot of sense. We already had been discussing the design element, keeping things very clean and simple, kind of black and white, not stark or precious or cold but just kind of simple.
When deciding what to buy, do the three of you make the decisions together?
M: Yeah, we’ve all traveled to gift shows, we’ve all sought out independent crafts people that do ceramics or jewelry or whatever. And we pretty much all make the decisions collectively, talk about it and then decide together. We overlap and agree 90% of the time but the times that we don’t it’s kind of interesting as it expands the point of view of the store. You don’t just have one, singular vision…it brings in another element. It’s good not to be too locked into one thing.
E: We test stuff. We say: “if you really love it, then lets give it a go”. I don’t have to like everything. In all my years in retail as a buyer and merchandiser, you don’t love everything but you know other people will and if you think it’s right for what we’re doing and you think it’s right for other people then we go for it. You can see that we have a lot of stuff in the store so it’s not worth getting caught up on every little thing.
Do you make a concerted effort to offer environmentally friendly items?
M: Even before I studied Landscape Architecture I was very concerned with environmental issues. Studying Landscape Architecture really hones that attention finely to consider every thing and its affect on the environment. No one is perfect…we all have to drive our cars and we all contribute to environmental issues but I personally feel that we had to do whatever possible to help minimize that and be aware and conscious about it and always strive to do better. When we stock the store we just try and keep those things in mind. There aren’t any hard and fast rules on what we’re allowed to have or not allowed to have but we definitely look for items that have recycled content, like the fab habitat rugs, they are made of 100% recycled plastic and last forever. We look for the handmade, locally made and up-cycled and for things that will last and aren’t disposable. Things that you are going to hold onto for a while. We also look to avoid anything that isn’t contributing to the environment or to people’s quality of life. The plants also add an environmental aspect to the store. We look for plants that don’t require a lot of water and we talk to our customers about what works best for them.
The ceramics and glass/wood items seem to make the store feel like you are walking into someone’s home. Did you make a conscious effort to have it appear like that?
E: For sure we wanted to make it feel like home.
M: The rug is from Erin’s personal collection as is the chair in the front. We try and make it kind of a fun place to hang out. When families come in sometimes one of the kids will sit in the chair and look at a book while their parents walk around shopping.
E: We have kids sized chairs in the back too so they feel really special when they come, like they have their own little set up. We love having kids, dogs and anyone who comes in here feel welcome.
What do you think sets your store apart?
M: I always say I think it’s the mix of the plants. If you look at other similar gift/home stores in L.A., what they don’t have that we do, which helps set us apart, are the plants. People are really drawn to the greenery, these living things, the air plants and others. I think it just makes it a little fresher and brighter and gives it a happier feeling in here.
E: It does make it feel a little homier. It was a conscious decision to make it feel like you want some of these things to be in your home, we wanted this indoor/outdoor lifestyle and yes, we wanted to bring plants back inside as they have been forgotten for so long and excluded. They are so much better now and there are so many more options and it does change the quality of your life, air quality, emotions. I definitely think that’s a point of difference for us.
M: There is such a renewed interest in plants and taking care of plants. People can get intimidated but it’s also really gratifying and rewarding when you see them grow. We also try and keep it kind of spare and simple and have some of the right stuff without overwhelming the customer.
Where do you see yourselves in about 5 years?
E: Maggie has a vision of franchising us! Not that exactly, but moreso maybe another location in 5 years possibly. We’ve talked & joked about it but it would be fun….give each store it’s own twist, something a little different.
M: Tailored to the neighborhood that it’s in. It’d be fun to have 3 to 5 stores over however many years it might take us to get there. Different possibilities!
Acorn
1611 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90041
323-474-6297
Open: Tues.-Sun. 11am-6pm
Visit Acorn on Facebook and Instagram
Photos: Devin Sarno
