'We Bring Back What's Been Lost': Upcycled Home Goods Business Finds Success

ASHBURN, VA — Nine years ago, Kimberly Harris started selling her upcycled creations out of her garage. She realized the concept had traction when she began selling out.

"I love to just build things and be creative and paint and I decided to start in my garage," Harris told Patch. "I opened up the garage every month during the warmer months, and we tend to sell out quickly, so I was on to something."

Since then, Harris turned it into a brick-and-mortar business now known as A New View. The business has operated in several locations in Old Ashburn and found its latest home at 20800 Ashburn Road.

Harris calls the new location the "final destination" for the business. It came about because Jack Lawlor Realty Co downsized its office and offered A New View the downstairs space.

A New View features home decor and gifts upcycled by Harris. The business takes in used home goods from donations, yard sales, flea markets and more and turns them into something with a new look. As the name A New View suggests, the store's appearance rotates as Harris continues to bring in new upcycled products.

The current offerings at A New View show how Harris's creative vision gives old items a new purpose.

For example, Harris took pieces from a century-old chicken coop and turned them into wooden trays, giving customers a piece of Ashburn history. Above the store's fireplace, Harris is offering artwork repurposed from a tabletop. There are even smaller items, like candles that can be reused as drinking glasses, wax melts, ornaments, coasters and more.

"I try not to throw anything away to figure out how we can change to still give life and not end up in the landfill," said Harris.

While the store is open for much of the year, Harris says the majority of sales come from its special Christmas shopping season. One highlight is the selection of Christmas trees, which are completely decorated and ready for customers to take home, plug in and display.

Harris typically closes the store the last week of October and first weekend of November to replace the inventory with upcycled Christmas items. The store usually reopens during the weekend in November and will be "nonstop" until it closes after the Christmas season.

"Everything is, I would say, about 90 percent handmade, and it's done throughout the year. Every year we pick a theme," said Harris.

Harris says the 2025 theme will involve winter sports, evoking feelings of ski resorts, boho and log cabins. However, staff keep the final look and products under wraps until the store opens for the Christmas season.

"People actually do line up for the first hour," said Lanie Sano, the marketing director for A New View.

Another experience offered during the holiday season is Christmas card photos in partnership with local photographers. Photographers can use A New View's space, staged to look like a home.

"It's great because you don't have to clean your house to have that [Christmas card] feeling, but also everybody's photos are going to be a little different every time they're in here so it doesn't look like the same backdrop," said Sano.

A New View also offers a twilight shopping event after hours during the holiday season. Harris says turning off the overhead lights for the twilight shopping offers a different experience than daytime shopping.

The work to replenish the store begins after the Christmas season — and any time of the year when inventory is sold.

"When we sell out of things, we work throughout the night, get it loaded up so it's a new experience every time someone comes in. No one will ever say we're overpicked, because throughout the whole year we're just filled and filled and making stuff."

Other events happen throughout the year, such as sip and shop events, cookie decorating classes, bingo, tastings with Ashburn Wine Shop, book signings with authors and more. Customers can follow A New View on social media to stay up to date on happenings in the store.

"We try to support other businesses or women-based businesses that don't have a storefront but want to still have the capability of being able to do what they want too," said Harris. "But I try to be a platform for them because I know how hard it was to get started, so I just want to give back."

Here are the upcoming events at A New View:

June 26: cookie decorating class with Trilogy Bakehouse
June 27: Wine tasting with Ashburn Wine Shop
July 19: Sparkle strand fairy hair pop up
July 25: Cookie decorating class with Trilogy Bakehouse
Aug. 2: Back to school sip and swap with Loudoun Thrift

Aside from selling upcycled items, Harris makes house calls from January to August to help customers design their rooms.

"The whole idea is I'm a designer, but I'm not going to go in and show paint colors," said Harris. "My goal is to show you how to use what you currently have and to make it work in maybe a different way than you currently are."

Harris likes to send pictures of items repurposed from customers' donated heirlooms, giving them closure about giving away the items. In some cases, Harris may not sell a repurposed item at all.

Sano recalls one case of a man bringing in a beloved chair passed down from his mother. The man had trouble letting the chair go after dropping it off at A New View.

"Kim took the chair, inspired, and that night reupholstered the whole chair," said Sano. "Pretty much redid the chair and the next day had it ready by noon."

When the man came by, he couldn't believe it was the same chair.

"I gave it back to him at no charge," said Harris. "It meant more to him than it would ever mean to anybody else, but I gave him something that was his mom's back to something that would work today. [There were] a lot of tears."

Harris is proud that A New View has been a multi-year finalist for the Loudoun Times-Mirror's Best of Loudoun in the furniture store category. That's a proud moment for a store with furniture designed entirely by one person with support from several staff. Sano says tariffs haven't affected the business too much, as A New View gets its home goods used. That also helps to keep costs of furniture and home goods down.

Harris enjoys the small town feel of Old Ashburn, where neighbors have supported the business through the years. She says the neighborhood has promise to build on an already strong lineup of businesses.

"More and more is growing here that I think it's eventually going to be walking up and down for businesses and eateries," said Harris.

After nearly a decade since starting A New View, Harris says "it's really hard to grasp, even for me at times, that one person created it."

"It's not like a typical shopping experience. People come here every single week to see what is different, what is new, and the comfort that they have that comes inside these doors, that's what we offer," said Harris. "We bring back what's been lost."

For more information, visit newviewtoday.com. Current hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday to Sunday.

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