Business & Tech
Meet the Owner: Vivant House Inc.
The "eclectic home décor store that happens to have some antiques" has been fine tuned for the Seminole Heights area.
"It was anger, essentially," Anthony Touchstone said of his motivation to open Vivant House Inc.
Touchstone started his antique dealing business at the Oldsmar Fleamarket. "The lady at the flea market," he said of a manager, "she wasn't a very nice flea market lady.” Unkind words were exchanged one day, and then and there Touchstone left the flea market in 2005 after a two year run.
Driving home that day, Touchstone noticed an elderly couple tidying up the place at 909 W Hillsborough Ave., preparing to put the old two story house up for sale. “I'd probably drove by the place a thousand times,” said Touchstone. He pulled over to talk to them, "and at the end of the conversation," Touchstone said, "I made a deal to buy the house.”
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Touchstone opened his own business there in November 2005.
As for the flea market lady, what's that old saying about revenge? ""Vivant" means living really really well," said Touchstone.
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Vivant House Inc.
909 W Hillsborough Ave.
813-232-0491
In the house: Eclectic selection of used and antique furniture, home decor, art, and lawn and garden statuary. Touchstone prefers to think of his place as an "Eclectic home décor store that happens to have some antiques."
Vivant's niche: "The trend is utilitarian, functional, and still has some style," Touchstone. "I think that the people that live here (in the Seminole Heights area) are day-to-day people who live in the real world, and they need things that will function in their lives everyday. I love functional furniture that looks cool, and does the task that it's supposed to do, and sometimes more than the task it's supposed to do."
Geography matters: "I'm not a South Tampa store," Touchstone declared. "I'm a Seminole Heights store. I cater to Seminole Heights, and I cater to the Seminole Heights budget. My store is not a museum. I want stuff that is priced where people can come in and buy it and use it in their lives."
Movie name: Touchstone got the idea for his business name from the bar that Matt Damon's and Ben Affleck's characters frequented in "Good Will Hunting," the Vivant Room. “I just thought it was a really really cool name.”
Jack of other trades: Touchstone is also an interior decorator, furniture renovator, and artist.
New artist: Touchstone started painting "about a year ago," and does impressionistic works in acryllic. Two of them are for sale in Vivant House.
Hours: Thursday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.