Elements Of Home Comes To Northport's Main Street

NORTHPORT, NY — Elements of Home joined Northport's small business-stacked Main Street in July after Debbie Trenkner moved her business from St. James. The new addition is located at 91 Main St.

As the name suggests, Elements of Home features a vast lineup of home decor items, including clocks, mirrors, architectural pieces, pictures, signage, pillows, table accessories and serveware. The store also sells outdoor items like garden pieces, bereavement stones, wind chimes and bird houses.

"We dabble in anything that is interesting and different, what others aren’t carrying," Trenkner told Patch. "I gravitate towards different types of items."

Trenkner said she hopes anybody can walk in and find something they like, whether it's for themselves or a gift, though most of her customers have been 20 or older.

Over time, Northport has become a good destination for those looking for home decoration stores or gift shops, including a few on Main Street. While there are multiple options for customers, Trenkner doesn't view her fellow home decor merchants as competition, but quite the opposite.

"If anything, I believe that we enhance each other, because we can refer to other shops if we don’t have quite what [the customer] is looking for," said Trenkner, who'd like to work cooperatively with the other businesses. "I haven’t met the merchants yet; I haven’t really had the time. But I’ve been in their stores, and everybody seems to be lovely. I think we can all work together. I know I’ve referred to other stores, and from what I understand, they’ve done the same."

That's not to say Trenkner doesn't carry some exclusive items. She doesn't believe anyone else in town has the architectural items and garden elements her store imports from Mexico.

Elements of Home had been in St. James for seven years, and Trenkner had an antique store under a different name for three years prior.

However, Trenkner, a Huntington resident, had long been eyeing a location in Northport.

"Northport has been my go-to town for many years," she said. "I’ve been coming here since I was 17 years old. It’s always been filled with a lot of small shops which is the way I prefer to shop. With all the activity going on, there’s always something to bring people into the town. It’s an instant vacation feeling. It was just a matter of finding a location that was available."

Now that she's successfully in Northport, Trenkner said she loves it, and it feels like home. She said people have been warm and welcoming to her and her business so far, which has made the transition easy.

Now, her goal is to earn the trust of her customers and get them to keep coming back.

"I want people to know that we’re here to help them. I’ve been doing this for a long time, so if customers need suggestions in any way, this is what I do. Particularly with home decor: how to put things together, how to make sense of your space and what’s appropriate for your space. I never oversell, because I want to make it right. This is where they’re going to come to trust me and what I do."

Photos

All photos by Michael DeSantis/Patch