Dog vaulted ceilings, golden-hued wooden floors, and a beautiful array of high-end furniture and home accessories that fill the spacious shop.
“We have really interesting things from all around the world and the United States,” says store manager Debbie Bowie. “Almost universally everyone says, ‘You have such a lovely shop, I love all of the things in here.’”
Comina, which also has locations in Concord, Wellesley, and Providence, Rhode Island, is stocked with unique, often handmade items from both local and global artisans and craftspeople. In addition, the store carries a variety of items affiliated with fair trade organizations from places like South America, India, and Asia, Bowie says.
The store’s inventory includes items ranging from sumptuous French linens from Couleur Nature to Lapphund Antler Sticks—which elk and reindeer naturally shed each year in Finland—that are great, sustainable, and all-natural chew treats for dogs.
But many of Bowie’s favorite items in the store are made by American craftspeople like Massachusetts–based Paul Ocepek of Modern Moose, who creates wooden clocks in shapes like spaceships, owls, elephants, and helicopters. Bowie notes that the clocks are popular nursery items. She also points to hand-hooked wool pillows from Vermont–based Chandler 4 Corners and beautiful Wayne Village Pottery holiday ornaments from Maine.
A huge variety of elegant gifts and home accessories from Manchester-by-the-Sea–based Mariposa—such as 100 percent recycled napkin boxes, picture frames, and servingware—cover an entire section of wall and a large table display in the store. Bowie says the store’s Mariposa pieces are very popular with local shoppers. There are also Dash & Albert rugs, beautiful upholstered furniture, wooden coffee tables, intricately painted serving trays, and delicate, brightly colored “Little Shirley” bud vases.
Bowie says customers love the shop, and it’s easy to see why. It’s bright and colorful, eclectic and fun and filled with home accessories and décor that are at once beautiful, inspiring, responsibly sourced, and lovingly made. And the feeling that shoppers have toward Comina is mutual.
“We enjoy being here we have terrific customers, and lots of support from the community,” Bowie says. Strollers, pets, children, bare feet, food, and, last but not least, adults. Those are some of the things that “Comina welcomes,” according to a friendly-looking powder-blue-and-white sign that’s propped against the window display at Comina’s Pleasant Street store in Newburyport. Inside, the vibe is the same: airy and unpretentious, whimsical and warm, an open-arms kind of place.