In many ways, the Warehouse Block area of Lexington, a burgeoning business community of locally owned shops, restaurants and studios lining National Avenue and some surrounding streets, serves as a connector between Chevy Chase and downtown. In August, two more businesses gained a Warehouse Block address on Walton Avenue. C. Bird is a new home décor store, owned by Ceci Beach. Whitney Simms, owner of Paper on Stone, moved her paper goods store to Walton when her lease was up at the North Limestone location. “Luckily our aesthetics are very similar, and our products mesh incredibly well together,” Simms said.
The two business owners met seven years ago when Beach moved to Lexington and Simms, a native Lexingtonian, moved back home. They became fast friends. “She got my style immediately,” said Beach of Simms, “and she’s also just completely hilarious and so much fun to be around.”
Fun fact: Their husbands grew up together and their fathers-in-law are best friends.
At C. Bird, Beach sells a curated collection of furniture, antiques and collectibles she finds at auctions, estate sales or during her travels, or sourced from antique dealers. The store also sells a curated selection of new items, with a focus on purchasing from companies committed to sustainability in their materials and manufacturing. Among the main goals at C. Bird, Beach said, are to provide an alternative to wasteful “fast furniture” options and to encourage customers to have a more personal connection with the things they own.
“I like to sell unique, storied items that have been cherished and passed down,” Beach said. “I also try to fill the store with lines that aren’t being sold at other stores in Lexington, out of respect for the other small-business owners but also to provide a little bit more variety.”
1 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
2 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
3 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
4 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
5 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
6 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
7 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
8 of 8
C. Bird features a mix of highly curated vintage and new, sustainably sourced home goods. Photo by Lucy Thomas
Beach grew up outside of New York City and has lived from coast to coast. She went to boarding school in Massachusetts and then traveled across the country to attend the University of Oregon. Instead of going back east after college, she went south – a thousand miles south, to San Diego. She lived and worked in California for three years and then moved to New York City, where she earned a Master of Science degree in real estate development at Columbia University. When she had the opportunity to work for an interior designer, she said, “I was introduced to a whole new world of design and discovered my true passion.” Beach spent a decade in New York before moving to Lexington in 2015. That’s when she started collecting antiques and unique items.
“I’ve been thinking about having my own store for probably 20 years,” she said. “During COVID there were a lot – I mean a lot – of estate sales, and I really ratcheted up my collecting in 2020 and 2021.”
Beach, who also has an interior design business, Ceci Beach Design, utilizes the shop as both a hub and office for her business, as well as a showroom and retail space for some of the unique items she has sourced.
Whitney Simms, owner of Paper on Stone, is a native Lexingtonian and Sayre School graduate. After graduating from Ole Miss, she lived in Oregon for five years and then moved back to Lexington in 2015. In February 2016, she opened her paper goods and stationery store, Paper on Stone, on North Limestone.
“Prior to my lease ending [in December 202], Ceci had approached me about sharing retail space,” she said. There were delays, but in May 2022 they began retrofitting their new store on Walton Avenue. Built in 1954, the converted garage had served as P&C Auto Repair for decades. Trifecta, a new glass studio, is next door; the popular restaurant Epping’s on Eastside is across the street.
“The majority of my customers are in 40502, so the new location is more convenient for them [than my North Limestone location],” Simms said of her shop. “There is now free parking directly in front of the new spot, which makes it even easier to get to. Since moving to Walton, I realize just how much the street is a thoroughfare for Lexingtonians traveling in the area.”
The majority of Simms’ business is made-to-order paper goods, including handmade greeting cards, bespoke invitations, and boxed stationery and notepads. Simms also designs, laser cuts and wraps tissue boxes and waste bins, using paper made from local and international artists. She makes the boxes and bins by hand. In addition to serving many clients in Chevy Chase and all of Lexington, Paper on Stone does business all over the United States and in Canada and Europe.
For her furniture and home décor selections, Beach has a goal for each project “to have the space be a direct reflection of those who live in it,” she said. “I know that there is nothing more fulfilling than living in a space that is a direct reflection of the self – one’s values, aesthetic, history, future, all woven together. To me, that is successful decorating.”
Owning two separate businesses in one retail space is a type of collaboration not often seen in the business world, yet it works on every level for the business owners, for their unique and shared customers, for the Warehouse Block community and for the economic health of Lexington.
“I love being a small business owner in Lexington, and I feel safe in saying I truly have the best customers,” Simms said. “I am really happy to be where we are right now. The area is doing nothing but expanding with great local businesses.”
Located at 485 Walton Ave., C. Bird and Paper on Stone will host a holiday open house on Thursday, Nov. 10, from 12-7 p.m.
Photo by Lucy Thomas