Lydia’s Boutique Opens In Former Hughes Gift Gallery Space
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Lydia Chiazza one day received a message from a relative. In it was a real estate listing for Hughes Gift Gallery, which was up for sale.
"Ha ha, let's open a store," the message read.
Yet Chiazza didn't consider it a laughing matter. She considered it a new opportunity.
"I sent it to my husband, and he said, 'Let's go look at it,'" Chiazza said.
That began the path to Wednesday's grand opening of Lydia's Boutique on National Road, a store that Chiazza said will continue offering the wares Mary Beth Hughes offered when she owned the store, as well as some new wares to take the store into its next generation.
Chiazza had been a stay-at-home mom for the last three years and was happy to do so, but when she saw that Hughes Gift Gallery was for sale, she and her husband, Tony Chiazza, couldn't pass up the opportunity.
"I saw it and thought, 'This just feels right,'" Chiazza said. "It feels like the right timing and it feels like I can do this."
The Chiazzas put $500,000 into renovating the space, restoring the original flooring in the front of the store and putting in new flooring in other spaces, as well as giving it a new paint job and new wallpaper. The store will feature gifts from housewares like wooden cutting boards to clothing to children's items like books. Chiazza will offer an expanded inventory of jewelry, accessories and clothing.
Hughes may have sold the building, but she'll still be around. She is leasing space to do interior design by appointment, and Chiazza said she has been a wonderful mentor, bolstering the 15 years in retail experience Chiazza owns, including her time as a store manager and buyer for Nini's Treasures.
Now, she said, it's time to create a store of her own.
"I'm overwhelmed," Chiazza said of her opening day, "but I feel great."
Lydia's Boutique will be open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed Sundays, though she may add store hours during the holidays. Chiazza said her website, lydias-boutique.com, will go live soon and offer curbside and in-store pickup as well as delivery.