For nearly three years, Reed Smythe & Company has proffered largely handmade, occasionally quirky, and always intriguing products through its website, reedsmythe.com.
It reaches those who seek uncommon home- and-garden wares with a Southern flavor. Now, the venture has spread its design ethos to what co-founder Keith Smythe Meacham calls a “sweet little jewel box of a shop” in Sylvan Park’s LeQuire Gallery Building. The brand’s first brick-and-mortar location includes the requisite perks: 1,400 square feet of space in the front serves as a boutique with a showroom vibe, while a loading dock in the back fulfills the ever- flowing online orders. The shop’s fantastic items created by artisans across the South (and beyond) are cleverly displayed so that customers can see how they might use them in a home, complete with a set table, flower- filled vases, and art hung on the walls.
“It’s wonderful to have a space to have our physical goods for people to look at,” says Meacham. She’s also excited about the hosting opportunities that the space presents. “We often have special events such as book signings, art openings, champagne events, and flower arranging,” Meacham says, noting that the store produces joint events with LeQuire Gallery.
As fans of Reed Smythe & Company know, Meacham initially launched the e-commerce business with her friend of 30 years, the late writer Julia Reed. Both women grew up in Greenville, Mississippi, a spot that Reed, an author of eight books, mined for her irreverent and stylish stories about Southern life and food. Both shared a similar aesthetic until Reed’s untimely death in 2020 at age 59.
“Great design was a big part of our friendship,” Meacham says. “We enjoyed thinking about houses, tables, parties, and food in a way that was all about welcoming people into a space.” Meacham—a mom of three and wife to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham—has a background in education and entrepreneurship. And when it comes to business, she sticks to the formula she and Reed agreed would be a company commitment: Most of the wares remain unique to the shop. She says 75 percent of their goods are exclusive, including antiques from collections or auctions. Then there are the intriguing items developed as collaborations between artisans and Reed Smythe & Company.
Some of the most chic items—like glazed terra cotta pomegranates made by hand in France—are not from the American South or even from America. In fact, Meacham says their most recent collaborations have been with artisans in Mexico and England. But Reed Smythe & Company made its mark with distinctively Southern wares. For example, artisans use a generations-old family recipe to craft Curator’s Choice Fine Wood Polish at a Virginia farm. Then there’s the “double broom” crafted in Berea, Kentucky by master broom-maker Cynthia Main. (Some items are so off-the-beaten-path that Reed Smythe & Company bears similarities to the cult-favorite J. Peterman catalog tagline: “Unique and Unusual Since 1987.”)
“I think people are responding to the one-of- a-kind nature of our products,” Meacham says, noting that many small businesses go to the same markets and buy from the same vendors when stocking their stores. “So, you see the same glasses, candles or brands at every single shop.”
Meacham’s sister, May Smythe, has become her collaborator and partner-in-crime at Reed Smythe & Company, helping her with every detail. Now, running the business without Reed “feels like a way to keep Julia closer,” Meacham says. Even while developing new products with new artisans, Meacham finds herself asking, “What would Julia think?” as a habit. “It allows me to keep her voice near,” she says.
(4304 Charlotte Ave., 917-370-4548, reedsmythe.com)