Treasures abound

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

	Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY Many of the reproductions at Scarlett’s Treasures, like this box, have a rustic and traditional look.

To make Scarlett’s Treasures work, it probably helps that she likes to live in the moment. After all, Brand commutes to Clarksville from Leesburg, Va. — three hours each way — five days a week.

On weekdays, she’s been getting up at 4 a.m. to hit the road by 5:30, and doesn’t make it back to Virginia before middle evening.

“You know I have to be determined to make this work,” Brand asserted. (She does often bring items over from Leesburg, though — so the trips serve two purposes.)

Scarlett’s Treasures offers decorative accoutrements and furniture in the cottage/shabby style — according to Brand, “This is my kind of décor.”

For the layman, she said the look was often characterized by antique furniture painted white, rather than restored to a wood finish. And on the shabby side, Brand has some cute, one-of-a-kind items on display, in styles spanning much of the last century.

From the turn of the century, there’s a highback bed, in bird’s-eye maple (wavy grain) or a whitewashed hall tree, with a mirror and various hooks for hanging coats or hats.

A little further along, there’s a little “Larkin” desk, (although the drop leaf had been removed), again painted white, and a 1920s folding screen depicting flamingoes along a riverbank, in soft pastels.

	Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY You’re bound to find something of interest at Scarlett’s Treasures.

“I want to do some statuary and garden things, maybe have a flea market in the summertime,” Brand noted.

Brand spent about 25 years in the corporate world, working her way up from secretary to division administrator within the Mitre Corporation. She got into collecting antiques along the way.

“Most of us who go into this have been collecting, going to yard sales for years and years,” she said. “You reach the point where you can completely change the décor in your house, if you want to.”

With the shop open for a little more than a month now, she said she’d only just started looking for shop space back in July.

“I decided I wanted to move to the East Coast, eventually,” she said. “I want to be near the beach.”

And, Loudoun County, Va. was getting to be too busy, crowded and expensive, Brand added. Still, she said her husband, Vincent, wasn’t as enthusiastic about making a move as she was, not really being a beach person.

“At first, he wasn’t all that thrilled about me opening a shop down here — but he’s been very supportive since I’ve done it,” she pointed out. “He gives me a lot of encouragement.”

On weekends, she stays in Virginia and attends customers at the Leesburg Court of Shoppes, doing basically what she’s doing in Clarksville during the week. She leaves Scarlett’s Treasures in Laurel Montane’s capable hands when she heads back to Leesburg.

Thursday’s still up in the air, but she noted Friday and Saturday hours, from 10 a.m., and Sunday hours from 11 a.m. For more information, call (302) 539-5933 or stop by the shop at 10 Atlantic Avenue, just west of Route 17 (next to the carwash).