Stew's: In a Cedar Falls Garage, Rescuing Antiques and Dealing in 'Shabby Chic'

Drive to Simpson's Furniture on Cedar Falls Main Street. Continue through the parking lot, behind the building, and turn right onto a gravel driveway. There you'll see a garage, outwardly unremarkable except for the cheerful wooden sign labeling the building "Stew's."

Step inside, and the fact that you're basically standing inside someone's garage is quickly forgotten.

Rescued tin ceiling tiles, recycled barnwood signs, jars of colorful buttons and ancient typewriters crowd the antique tables and benches that line the walls and the center of the room. Wide brimmed beach hats and retro Coke bottles and picnic baskets vie for space with spindles and aprons and vintage dishes. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling.

All this is the entrepreneurial dream of 21-year-old Emma Steffens.

Steffens rented the garage from Tim Griggs and opened the doors of her Cedar Falls vintage shop Nov. 8. Her friend, photographer Amy Groteluschen, has opened Sweet Little You Photography in the building's loft.

Steffens said Stew's stemmed from her childhood in Calamus, where she grew up going to auctions with her mother.

"Those were our Saturdays," she said. "That was our thing to do."

She moved to Cedar Falls with her boyfriend, Spencer Hicks, about a year ago so he could play football for the University of Northern Iowa. The couple bought a house, and she said she promptly started collecting. Soon their garage was full. Turning her hobby into a business seemed like the thing to do, and so on Craigslist she found the garage that would become Stew's.

The name comes from the nature of the store - a mix of whatever ingredients catch her eye.

"A stew is just a bunch of junk thrown together," she said. "I'm trying to mix in some of the new with the old. I'm going for a 'shabby chic' look."

Beyond the antique, retro and vintage treasures, she also has a spattering of new things, like candles made by Industrial Lace of Marshaltown. She also has "upcycled" items - things that are recycled into something better or more interesting then they were. Rubbish to Rubies of Pleasantville has cut-out tin letters for sale at the shop, and Dapper Designs of Waterloo refurbishes furniture.

The Cedar Falls garage isn't Steffen's only enterprise. She also opened another shop, "Stew's 2," connected to her mother's bar in Calamus, she consigns at Junk Asaylum in Elkridge and is a vendor at Little Prairie Girl in Holland.

When Steffens moved to Cedar Falls she enrolled at Hawkeye Community College, but is taking a hiatus while her business ventures get off the ground. She said she'd like to go back to school, perhaps to study interior design. But whatever the future holds, she's found a passion in her store.

"Hopefully, for the rest of my life I'll be an entrepreneur," she said. "I absolutely love what I'm doing."

Stew's:

Hours: Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Location: Garage behind Simpson's Furniture, 2300 Main Street

Contact: (563) 320-0489

Online: facebook.com/stewsjunk