A popular Walla Walla furniture store now open in Richland offers customers custom and consignment furniture and eclectic home décor.

Main Street Furniture opened a Tri-City branch in November at 950 Keene Road in the Queensgate Village.

Kelly and Dave Belcher opened their Walla Walla store at 128 E. Main St. in the downtown area five years ago. They made so many deliveries to the Tri-City area they decided to open a store here last year, Dave Belcher said.

“It was pretty slow at first before anyone knew we were here,” he said. “But it’s picked up tremendously, especially when the farmers market is operating in front of our store.”

Main Street Furniture sells everything from yummy-smelling candles to rustic furniture. Some of the distinctive inventory is purchased new, while a good portion is on consignment, including many art pieces from local artisans.

“We can order almost anything, but you also never know what one-of-a-kind piece you might find in the store,” Kelly Belcher said.

The Belchers are as eclectic as the items they sell in their stores.

Though Kelly worked in retail for many years, her husband is a chef by trade. Kelly grew up in North Carolina and earned a degree in human relations and business at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

“I never really intended to own my own business,” she said.  “But after college I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to play for a year before getting a grownup job. Jackson Hole is a resort town (where) I got stuck in retail and ended up managing three different stores.”

She went from working in a florist shop to a kitchen and gift store and finally a furniture store, which she found fascinating.

“I loved it. The draw was the consignment that made it so interesting and eclectic,” she said. “I managed a custom and high-end consignment store for five years.”

Her husband, Dave, comes from a culinary background. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, then worked at restaurants all over the country. He’s been a chef in Boca Raton, Louisiana, San Francisco, Chicago and finally Jackson Hole, where he met his wife.

It didn’t take long for the couple to figure out they wanted their own business.

“We knew we could not open our own business in Jackson Hole so we started researching small towns with a lot to offer,” Kelly Belcher said.  “Our kids, Ethan and Riley, were ages 3 and 5 at the time.  We wanted culture and good schools but we really like the West, compared to the East Coast.  Out of three towns we looked at, we chose Walla Walla.”

When they opened the Walla Walla store in May 2012, they sold a lot of their own furniture, plus a few lines that Kelly had sold in the past and was particularly fond of.  While she ran the furniture store, Dave worked as a chef for two years before he quit to help his wife at the store.

“Dave got to pick up the kids from school and be with them that summer,” Kelly Belcher said. “I think he got a little anxious and needed more to do. We had a lot of customers from the Tri-City area and delivered over there often.”

It was during one of those deliveries that the couple noticed a space for rent in the shopping center on Keene Road and decided a second store might be the right next move. Dave mans the Richland store most days.

“We have several companies we order from, mostly made in the USA, including a custom upholstery company from my hometown” Kelly Belcher said. “We have rug lines, lamps, mirrors, accessories, dining tables chairs, etc.”

She also orders from an importer in Salt Lake City all sorts of household items like bookcases, cabinets, nightstands and coffee tables.

“We have some shabby chic, some industrial, one-of-a-kinds and Asian antiques,” she said.  “Working with (the importer) cuts out the middle man and helps keep our prices affordable. Similar pieces from larger high-end companies can be triple the price.”

Consignment furniture and household pieces are split 50/50 with the owners and local artists split the sale of their artwork 60/40, Dave said.

Main Street Furniture is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. Online at mainstfurnitureco.com or call 509-627-4369.