Houston’s favorite plant maven is at it again — with a twist! The latest iteration of Bree Clarke’s wildly successful The Plant Project is slowing things down and stepping back in time. The Mercantile & Plant Project opening this weekend in historic Old Town Spring will delight fans who have long coveted Clarke’s signature — and woefully not for sale — antique and vintage decor found in her plant shops.
While plants will still populate the space, they take a back seat to vintage and antique goods that look and feel right at home in the 100-year-old bungalow that The Mercantile calls home. The bungalow has retained its original features, like the windows, columns, and wood floors, inviting visitors to view the space and the goods within as its own restorative environment.
Interestingly, the bungalow — along with two others — was transplanted from its original location in the historic Houston Heights neighborhood in the late ‘70s. After relocating the three bungalows, the owner, Ms. Brenda Miles (as she was known), operated an antiques store out of one, while renting the other two to other Old Town Spring businesses. It was Miles’ keen stewardship of the bungalows that allowed them to maintain their original features.
“It’s all original, and it was already green,” says Clarke. “It’s just the perfect little thing.”
During the design process, Clarke invited her Instagram followers to vote on a wallpaper for the signature selfie wall found in all of her stores as a fun way for ecstatic shoppers to pose with their finds. The winner, a beautiful flora, fauna, and landscape in blues, purples, and greens is “Vintage Chinoiserie Peacock Wallpaper” by Vreelike. Clarke also enlisted local artist and vintage clothing purveyor Lexi Landolt of Goldie’s Rodeo to assist with branding design and to paint these European-inspired doodles on the front door.
Vintage for sale
Shop art, books, lighting, linens, and other home decor — or up the ante with cut crystal and silver plate. Everything from rustic Americana to French Provincial finds a home amongst rattan and olde world fixtures in this trendy new outpost.
Like Clarke’s The Plant Project locations, The Mercantile will host community events like potting classes and other “make-and-take” activities as well as a future corner dedicated to her Antionette concept focused on bespoke perfumes and candle making — complete with vintage and antique vessels.
“I want it to be more vintage and home, and then have the plant aspect of it. I feel like there has been such a shift in the plant world over the last few years and plants are still the root of the business, brand, and my identity,” explains Clarke. “But designing, decor, and vintage has always been there. I’ve always had vintage with the plants and people have always been drawn to that.”
Indeed, the enviable vintage goods Clarke uses as her plant store fixtures, lighting, and decor have been central to her brand’s aesthetic, and jestfully frustrating for her clients who couldn’t buy them — this author included! Happily, everything in The Mercantile is for sale. There will still be an array of accoutrements for plant lovers, like whimsical pots and planters, plant foods, and leaf cleaners, but those with the proverbial “black thumb” will have more than their fair share to entice them.
“This mercantile is strictly the stuff where, if people like it, they can take it home,” says Clarke. “That’s what this one is.”
Spring roots
The Plant Project has had a huge impact in trendy urban areas like Montrose, plus two shops in The Heights (not to mention the Dallas location). So, one may wonder: why Old Town Spring? The simple answer—it’s home. The historic hamlet is minutes away from her mother and grandmother’s houses, with Clarke recently scooping up a “country cottage” of her own right in the neighborhood. As it happens, The Mercantile will be operated by the ladies of the family, right in their own backyard.
“I grew up walking through the streets of Old Town Spring and walking from my grandmother’s house to the crawfish festival; I’m just very familiar with it,” she says. “People come over here because they want that small town feel. We are all wanting to slow down a little bit. People are exhausted — mentally, physically, emotionally — and when I see people walking and strolling down the streets, everything is just laid back. There’s no rush to it. No one is just in and out of their cars quickly. People park and are just walking around, just strolling. I just wanted a place to stroll.”
Clarke’s love of vintage is hardly a whim. Her mother, who prefers to shop curated spaces in traditional stores, was never a fan of the long hours and sometimes less-than-sanitary conditions of the hunt. However, her best friend, Clarke’s “Aunt Karen” lived for it — taking Clarke along to thrift and antiques stores, vintage markets and the like from the time Clarke was 10 years old. From that point on, Clarke was hooked.
“My Aunt Karen would take me all over when I lived in Irving, Texas. She would take me to all of these places like Canton. Some of those same people from when I was 10 years old are the ones who source and get a lot of my stuff today, right in Canton, Texas.”
Sharing history
Something that sets The Mercantile apart from similar concepts is Clarke’s sheer love of the game. Items in her store come with their own story and history, something that is decidedly absent from other places. Visitors to The Mercantile can expect a lesson in antiques, vintage, stewardship, and the like. For Clarke, the vintage trend isn’t a way to make a quick buck, it’s about sharing history with her neighbors.
“Vintage, especially here in Houston, is just wild. It’s such a trend and a craze and people love it — it’s just all over the place. But I feel that people don’t really get the connection of what vintage is. For instance, when I go to estate sales I build a relationship with the people who put the sales together. I have these real conversations with them, get to know them, get to know their stories and their history with things. I just feel like vintage connects people to one another during a time period when they couldn’t really connect and when they weren’t really connected,” she says.
“Hearing the stories of how they got these pieces or learning the difference between antique and vintage, just being able to show that next generation all of this. People see the cute stuff, the trendy things, and everyone selling on Instagram or wherever, but — like anything I do — I want to get to the root of it and share that side and that story. I think that Old Town Spring is the perfect place to do that.”
The Mercantile & Plant Project will celebrate its soft opening this Saturday, September 5 and will be open on Labor Day. Keep an eye on the store’s Instagram for details about its grand opening celebration in October.
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The Mercantile & Plant Project; 134 Main Street (Spring); Thursday, 11 am-5 pm, Friday and Saturday, 10 am-6 pm, Sunday, 12-5 pm
