Shop furniture for the home and décor at White Flower Farmhouse in Southold
(Left to right) Martha Stewart with Southold residents and White Flower Farmhouse staff Gail Divney, Lisa Winters and Patrice Conklin. Credit: Michael Conklin
Someone who knows a thing or two about home décor has been spotted shopping at White Flower Farmhouse — Martha Stewart. “The first time she came in was about 2016. We talked a little bit and she told me I had a good eye,” says the owner of the home goods boutique, Lori Guyer, of Greenport. Then in August of this year, Stewart stopped in again.
Guyer says she has long admired Stewart’s “aesthetic” and particularly likes how the lifestyle guru shows fans how to give old tag-sale finds new life, a style echoed in her store.
“I always loved vintage stuff and old stuff,” Guyer says. “When eBay first came out, I would go to yard sales and buy things and sell them on eBay, and that led to me finding things for my own house.” She’d paint the furnishings white and get compliments, so all things white and farmhouse became her thing.
Guyer, who lives in “a plain white farmhouse,” notes farmhouse became her preferred style before it was popularized by HGTV star Joanna Gaines, and she loves what decorating with white can do.
“When you have a mish mosh of things and you paint everything white it looks like they go together,” Guyer says. “My business has been successful because I don’t waver. I stay true to my own sense of style — and white I love.”
Guyer opened White Flower Farmhouse in a smaller space in 2001 in Peconic, then in 2011 the shop was relocated to Southold.
In May, Guyer opened the European-style White Flower garden shop across the street at 53850 Main Rd. It is operated by Nathaniel Savage, a Southold resident who has lent his talents to the North Fork Table restaurant and Macari Vineyards. The new garden shop creates arrangements mostly with white flowers.
The White Flower name for both businesses was inspired by a field of white flowers Guyer had spotted, and things sold at both stores are sourced from the North Fork.
“At White Flower Farmhouse the pottery is made by two schoolteachers, a stay-at-home mom does our stuffed animals, our woodworkers are two fishermen…,” Guyer says.
And with White Flower Farmhouse, Guyer says she wants customers to always have an “experience” when they visit, even if it’s on a day that Martha Stewart doesn’t happen to walk in.
“There’s always vintage jazz playing, a candle burning and flowers and plants all around,” Guyer adds.
Prices range from $1 for vintage silver plate utensils to $1,000 or more for a farmhouse table.
The shop is located at 53995 Main Rd. in Southold. It's open Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; 631-765-2353, whiteflowerfarmhouse.net.
