Home decor store Palmira opens in Gympie CBD
Gympie’s main street continues to bounce back from the disasters of the past few years, with a new arrival from the Gold Coast the latest to open up shop in the CBD.
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New to the street and new to the region, a home decor and furniture store has opened up in Gympie’s CBD and it is bringing a fresh new look to the city inspired by its owner, a former Gold Coast interior designer.
What was initially a pop-up store, Palmira has gone beyond owner Melissa Ellems’s expectations.
“My gut instinct was 50-50 in the beginning and now it’s more like 80-20,” she said.
“I had that feeling that yes, I could make this permanent. It’s been so encouraging.”
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Without even any advertising, she’s managed to draw people in from Tin Can Bay to Maryborough, she said.
Her fresh “eclectic” taste means customers get the best of Ms Ellems’s professional experience of interior design with wares coming all the way from sustainable suppliers in Africa, Indonesia and India.
The shop is still under arrangement, but the vast amount of beige and natural nude colours, woven furniture and elegant light fixtures offers a unique and boutique design not found in generic furniture stores.
“Very global,” Ms Ellems said.
Taking on the lease of the place was certainly not without a flood plan, she said.
Ms Ellems was not perturbed by the natural disasters of the last few years, saying it was changes from Covid that brought her up to this area and proved a silver lining in the face of the pandemic.
When her dream job with an interior design company on the Gold Coast fell apart due to staff cutbacks caused by the pandemic, and the tiny square apartment she was sharing with her partner become suffocating as lockdowns rolled out, they decided it was time for a change to greener pastures.
They found a little property in Lagoon Pocket in the Mary Valley two years ago, moved up and since then have been a lot happier, she said.
It has been two weeks since she opened her doors and she is optimistic about the next few months, already starting to observe the bestsellers of the region – ostrich feather lamps, which she said she found curious, needing to order more to keep up with the demand.
Palmira is one of a number of stores bringing life and vitality back to Gympie’s CBD after an almost two year disaster prone hiatus.
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