Inside Reed Smythe & Company’s new storefront in West Nashville, the bright, beautiful world envisioned by Mississippi-born tastemakers Keith Smythe Meacham and the late writer and G&G columnist Julia Reed comes to life. Looking for modern mocha ware? They’ve got you covered. A nineteenth-century French sideboard or a Victorian-inspired bamboo chair? Check. Bronze drawer pulls shaped like the head of Reed’s beloved beagle, Henry? They’ve got that, too, all with space to grow into the founders’ wide ambitions.
“When Julia and I launched the company [in 2018], we were entirely e-commerce,” Meacham says. “But we did several pop-ups, we did the Antiques & Garden Show, and we realized how much people loved actually touching and feeling our things. They’re all handmade, and even though we use wonderful photographers, they’re always more beautiful in person.”
While transactions remained predominantly online, for the past few years, Meacham operated out of a tiny shop on Sylvan Park’s Charlotte Avenue. “The first location was to do fulfillment, but also to test drive the theory that people might want to come into the store,” Meacham says. It was a massive success, but the space—just twelve feet wide—couldn’t harbor the plans she had for the shop, so she set her sights on a 2,200-square-foot former organic pet spa on West Nashville’s White Bridge Road.
She tapped the designers Jane Abercrombie and Keren Bernard to help her transform it into a showplace versatile enough to tout sofas, antique mirrors, and original works by the likes of Mississippi artists Jack Spencer and William Dunlap, as well as hand-engraved stationery and candles for the perfect grab-and-go hostess gifts. The shop opened with a celebration on February 12. Already, Meacham is excited by plans to welcome guests in for more parties, talks, and book signings.
The purpose of the space mirrors that of its eclectic inventory: to make every customer feel at home, whether they’re in Nashville or not. “The interesting thing about brick and mortar in the internet age of shopping is that we are now getting so many DMs and calls and orders online from people who saw how we styled things on-site,” Meacham says. “They say they like how a particular painting looks on that colored wall, or how the furniture looks laid out together. Even though we’re a local shop, all sorts of people across the country are able to participate.”
