sMari Designs, a "Unique Boutique" in West Chester, OH

The Streets of West Chester plaza buzzes with life on any given Friday and Saturday night. Customers mill around the bistro style of Bravo’s Italian restaurant, the bright lights of Rave Motion Pictures, and the welcoming atmosphere of Barnes and Noble. As they stroll down the boulevard past clothing stores and an ice cream shop, the shoppers will find the unique and artistic ambiance of sMari Designs.  

After almost two years in the plaza, the boutique is quickly becoming a destination store of anyone looking for a creative and one-of-a-kind gift.

“This location was a perfect fit because there’s really not any gifts like ours in this plaza,” sMari’s owner and sole proprietor Marianne Dunham says. “I didn’t want to be in your typical plaza, I wanted something really quaint. So when this became available, it was perfect.”

Standing out in the 2,500 square feet of sMari’s décor is their hand-made jewelry. Initially marketed through local craft shows such as those at Lakota East and West, Dunham and her daughter, East senior Allie Dunham, fell head over heels for the craft of designing jewelry.

“I’ve been making jewelry for 21 years, and have [participated] in craft shows since day one,” Marianne says. “The cool thing about jewelry is that I can change it up whenever I want. I can completely change my style with the trends.”

                After finding their jewelry to be a huge hit amongst the craft show customers, Marianne and Allie had the thought to open their own shop.

“We’ve always wanted to open up our own gift shop, which with the bad economy was a pretty gutsy move,” Marianne says. “But my husband works in commercial real estate, so he helped us find this perfect place, and we’ve been doing phenomenally. Much better than we expected to do in the first year or so.”

Now acting as the virtual co-owner and manager of sMari Designs, Allie was a large contributing factor to the opening of the store.

“What gave us the encouragement to start the store was the popularity of our [booth at the craft shows],” Allie says. “We were one of the biggest, most popular jewelry vendors at the craft show, so we knew we could survive as a store.”

 Marianne, a stay-at-home mother of 21 years, was looking for something to pass the time at home when she stumbled upon what is now her life’s work.

“I got bored at home but still wanted to be a stay at home mom,” Marianne says. “My sister worked for a little gift shop in up-state New York and a little corner of it was a section of beads, so one day she showed me how to make a pair of earrings, and I have been hooked every since. I thought it was so cool, and so fun. So I thought I would try this [new craft]. I made a [few pieces of jewelry] and everything grew from there. Basically, I knew Allie would be leaving for school soon, and I’d be an empty-nester… so I decided I needed a new baby. sMari became my new baby.”

The Dunham’s passion was also sparked by a small store in Perrysburg, Ohio. A similarly quaint boutique named Lily’s further inspired Marianne and Allie to start their own unique gift shop with a similar flair.

“When we were starting up our store, we asked ourselves, would we see this at Lily’s?” Allie says. “[My mom] knew she wanted a store, but didn’t know what else it would be besides jewelry, but when she went into Lily’s, she [discovered what her store would be.] Lily’s had jewelry, home décor, and garden, just like we do now but with a different taste. Finding this store was just meant to be.”

Although opening sMari seemed to be the Dunham’s destiny, it has radically changed their family’s lifestyle. The most difficult adjustment for Marianne is no longer being a stay at home mom. After 21 years at home, she now has to adjust to unfinished up-keep around the house, her children making their own meals on a regular basis, as well as making sure to occasionally take some time off for herself and family.

While swallowing these personal adjustments, sMari Design’s only retail location has flourished. The family-owned store initially had a focus on jewelry, but has grown to incorporate much more than their hand-made pieces. According to Marianne, what sets sMari apart from other gift shops is a stock unique to their boutique.

“We look for unique things. Everything is handmade and handpicked,” Marianne says. “We also like local artists so I try to support them as much as I can. We try not to carry any of the same lines as other places because we don’t want anything that you could get elsewhere.”

This philosophy makes Kim Roat, one of 5 other employees at sMari, happy to be working with Marianne and the clientele of the store.

“I’m happy to sell the merchandise that we have here,” Roat says. “You don’t really have to sell it because Marianne does such a good job keeping new stock coming in. it’s a pleasure just to show what we have. And when I’m not busy, I get to be creative and sit down and make jewelry and be with all the pleasant people here.”

To keep sMari’s stock diversified, Marianne and Allie head for the Atlanta Market twice a year for six days. It is like a massive shopping spree: three buildings, each with 20 floors full of vendors and products from which to choose. Most of the products stocked in sMari designs come from this market, which fills their store for most of the year. Picking and choosing unique, quality items within a good price range is the name of the game when walking through the showrooms of vendors.

“We usually zero in on a lot of hostess gifts,” Marianne says. “A lot of people want quick little gifts that aren’t too expensive. [For that reason,] a lot of our prices are under $25. [Our customers] don’t want to spend much, they just want a nice little trinket or a unique gift for a good friend. If your prices are too high, you won’t survive.”

This business lesson is well received by Marianne’s daughter. Allie plans to go to school for business and being the manager for sMari has given her excellent hands-on experience on how to run a business in its entirety. Whether Allie is marketing, paying the rent, updating their customer loyalty program, or training the other five employees, she is undoubtedly preparing herself for college.

“This was my first job, but I just jumped right in,” Allie says. “I graduated in January so I have a lot more responsibilities now. There’s a lot more to focus on, but I’m getting great experience. I’ve become more responsible. I can talk to people better and have much better communication skills because I have to know how to talk to the customers and how to handle different situations, and our customers really like when you remember them if they come back again.”

Customers such as Melinda Robank find the store to be fun, pretty and peaceful, but exciting at the same time. Robank enjoys sMari’s extensive stock and selection, which allows her to find unique gifts for many people in one visit to the store.

As Allie pursues a business degree, she will take the assets of knowing how to run and manage a business with her. According to Allie, opening the shop made her decide her interests and career path.

“[Opening sMari] made me decide what I want to do with my life,” Allie says. “I was playing around with law and medicine, but when we came into this, I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to do what I’m doing now in the future.”

Allie’s goal, despite her mother’s opposition, is to make sMari a chain of retail stores. She strives to make what was once a craft show hit into a well known name around the country.

However the name seems to attract enough attention all by itself.

“Well my name is Marianne, and my nickname is Mari,” Marianne says. “It started in high school when this guy started putting an ‘s’ on the beginning of girls’ names. I was sMari, there was sMegan, sLisa, and it was all a big joke, but everybody just called me sMari. So when I started the business and was brainstorming names, my husband said, ‘you’re sMari, so just name it sMari.’”

Balancing the buzz of the Streets of West Chester with an artistic, welcoming, and quaint aura, sMari Designs is has been labeled by its owners as “uniquely creative.” A phrase to live by in the Dunham household.