Who doesn’t like quirky somethings? Pander to your décor whims and fancies at The Little Quirkshop, a home and personal accessory store that showcases merchandise that is unusual and not commonly available through physical stores. Set up in Pune by Ashwini Kanetkar, the store sells a mélange of items - from laptop sleeves to hand-painted movie posters, unusual stationery to funky accessories.
Kanetkar, a trained interior designer, always knew that creativity was her calling. A stint as a visual merchandiser at a top home furnishing store in the UAE showed her how to translate it into her profession and wed it with her interests. “Marriage brought with it a lot of travelling! Be it the Amazonian handicraft markets in the smaller towns of Brazil, or the awesome weekend markets in Australia where people brought the wares they had made all week, I found that I was always trying to get my hands on the quirkiest finds everywhere,” she says. Kanetkar soon decided to set up an outlet that stocked unusual products that appealed to oddballs.
The store, started with an investment of Rs. 10 lakh, is a veritable cornucopia of quirky treasures - posters, clocks, lamps, coasters, mugs, photo frames, cushion covers, trays, magnets, doormats and bags. Kanetkar sources the items from stores across India and as well as upcoming artists who need a platform to showcase innovative work.
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The spirited ambience puts one in the mood for fun – the store welcomes browsing at leisure and encourages taking one’s time to pick the atypical. “I have spent these years imagining and almost obsessively planning this in my head. The time was just right to set up that little store I had always dreamed about. So…here we are,” she says. What next? Kanetkar, who already runs book-reading sessions at the store, is quick to respond: “Creative workshops on weekends!”
Visit The Little Quirkshop at Shop No.12, 61/2 Cristal Castle, Salunke Vihar, Wanawadi, Pune 411040. Call 9923810007 or email >TheLittleQuirkShop@gmail.com