Storybook Sensibility

Little explorers in Springfield, MO, let their imagination set sail at Jellybeans, a children’s boutique with an interior fit for a whimsical fable. After the boutique changed hands and locations, new owner Meghan Chambers reached out to local interior designer Sharon Taylor to give the shop a new look, asking her to create “a store unlike any she’d seen, with playfulness, style and sophistication.” The result is nostalgic, original and personal—a perfect example of flawless visual merchandising. Although Taylor had designed Chambers’ home nursery, it was her first retail project, which she started by tapping into flea market finds and eBay bargains. “Uncovering a tattered, unappreciated treasure and then helping it dress itself up and go to the ball is my approach,” she explains, noting, “Most people can really identify with that rags to riches fairytale.” The interior’s royal touch culls from antique maps, globes and vintage children’s books. The dressing room features a playing card rug and a cheery yellow accent wall, while a play area beckons with graphic pillows, a modern table, blocks and antique chairs, repainted seafoam green. Adventures are inspired by the shop’s walls, etched with a world map and compass, and the floor doubles as a board for an impromptu game of hopscotch. “I believe in reinventing things: reusing, recycling and finding beauty in not-so-obvious things,” says Taylor. “As the store was dressed more and more each day, I was elated by how beautifully everything turned out,” Chambers says. “The renovation went beyond our greatest expectations.” —Jennifer Cattaui